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Dashboard FeaturesMetrics Glossary

Metrics Glossary

This guide explains how all metrics in your Betterlytics dashboard are calculated and defined. Understanding these definitions helps you interpret your data accurately and make informed decisions.

Core Visitor Metrics

Unique Visitors

Definition: The number of distinct individuals who visited your website during the selected time period.

How it’s calculated:

  • Each visitor is identified by their unique digital fingerprint (based on device, browser, and network)
  • Daily reset: Visitor fingerprints change daily, so the same person counts as different visitors on different days
  • Counted based on their first visit during the time period
  • Bot traffic is automatically filtered out

Why daily reset? This ensures accurate day-to-day visitor counts while protecting privacy. It means if someone visits on Monday and Tuesday, they count as 1 visitor on Monday and 1 visitor on Tuesday.

Interpreting unique visitors: Focus on trends and patterns rather than absolute numbers. A steady increase in daily unique visitors indicates growing audience reach.

Sessions

Definition: A series of user interactions during a single visit to your website.

How it’s calculated:

  • A new session starts when someone first visits your site
  • Session timeout: After 30 minutes of inactivity, the next page view starts a new session
  • One visitor can have multiple sessions (e.g., morning visit + afternoon visit = 2 sessions)

Example: If Sarah visits your homepage at 9 AM, reads 3 blog posts, then comes back at 2 PM to check your pricing, that’s 2 sessions from 1 visitor.

Engagement Metrics

Bounce Rate

Definition: The percentage of sessions where visitors viewed only one page before leaving.

How it’s calculated:

(Sessions with only 1 page view / Total sessions) Ă— 100

Average Time on Page

Definition: The average amount of time visitors spend viewing a specific page.

How it’s calculated:

  • Measures time between loading one page and navigating to the next
  • Only counted when visitors navigate to another page
  • Exit pages (last page in session) don’t have measurable time and are not included in the average time on page calculation to avoid skewing the results.

Limitations:

  • Doesn’t measure actual reading time
  • Single-page visits show 0 average time and are not included in the average time on page calculation.
  • Based on navigation behavior, not engagement depth

Page Analytics

Page Views

Definition: The total number of times a page has been viewed.

What counts as a page view:

  • Each page load
  • Back button navigation
  • Multiple visits to the same page

Entry Rate

Definition: The percentage of sessions that started on this page.

How it’s calculated:

(Sessions starting on this page / Total sessions) Ă— 100

Exit Rate

Definition: The percentage of sessions that ended on this page.

How it’s calculated:

(Sessions ending on this page / Total sessions) Ă— 100

Traffic Source Metrics

Referrer Sources

Definition: How visitors found your website.

Source Types:

  • Direct: Typed your URL, used bookmarks, or came from unknown sources
  • Search: Found you through search engines (Google, Bing, etc.)
  • Social: Clicked links from social media platforms
  • Email: Arrived from email campaigns
  • Referral: Clicked links from other websites

Custom Event Metrics

Custom Events

Definition: Specific user interactions you track beyond page views (button clicks, form submissions, downloads, etc.).

Event Metrics:

  • Event Count: Total number of times the event occurred
  • Unique Users: Number of different visitors who triggered the event
  • Average per User: How many times each user performed the action on average

Device and Browser Analytics

Device Types

Definition: What devices visitors use to access your website.

Device Categories:

  • Mobile: Smartphones (screen width < 576px)
  • Tablet: Tablet devices (576-991px)
  • Laptop: Laptop computers (992-1439px)
  • Desktop: Desktop computers (1440px+)

Browser and Operating System

Definition: What browsers and operating systems your visitors use (the minor version of the browser is not included in the browser and operating system metrics for privacy reasons).

Data Quality and Accuracy

Bot Filtering

Definition: Automatic removal of non-human traffic from your analytics.

What gets filtered:

  • Search engine crawlers
  • Automated scrapers
  • Spam bots
  • Monitoring services

Data Retention

Definition: How long your analytics data is stored and available for analysis.

Typical retention: 365 days (can be configured based on your plan)

Understanding Your Data

Best Practices for Metric Interpretation:

  1. Look at trends: Compare week-over-week or month-over-month changes rather than single-day numbers
  2. Consider context: Bounce rates and session duration vary greatly by industry and page purpose
  3. Segment your audience: Use filters to understand different user groups (mobile vs desktop, different traffic sources)
  4. Set benchmarks: Track your own historical performance rather than comparing to generic industry averages
  5. Focus on business goals: Track custom events that align with your actual business objectives
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Important Notes:

  • Unique visitors reset daily: The same person visiting on different days counts as different visitors
  • Time measurements have limitations: Exit pages and single-page sessions don’t show time spent
  • Perfect accuracy isn’t possible: Some automated traffic may pass through filters, and privacy tools can affect tracking
  • Privacy-first approach: No personally identifiable information is collected or stored

Common Questions

Why don’t my numbers match other analytics tools?

Different tools define metrics differently. For example, some tools count sessions differently or use different bot filtering. Focus on trends within Betterlytics rather than comparing absolute numbers across platforms.

What’s a “good” bounce rate?

It depends on your page type:

  • Landing pages: 70-90% can be normal
  • Blog posts: 70-85% is typical
  • Service pages: 10-30% suggests good engagement
  • Contact pages: 70-90% is expected (people get info and leave)

How can I improve my metrics?

  • Reduce bounce rate: Improve page speed, match content to visitor intent, add clear navigation
  • Increase pages per session: Add related content suggestions, improve internal linking
  • Boost engagement: Create compelling calls-to-action, add interactive elements

Have questions about interpreting your specific metrics? Join our Discord community  for help!

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