Metrics and Dimensions
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Definitions of common Google Analytics (GA) Metrics and Dimensions.
Metric - A metric is a quantitative measurement, such as an average, ratio, percentage, and so on. It's always a number as opposed to text. One way to think about metrics is that you can apply mathematical operations to them.
Dimension - A dimension is an attribute of your data. It describes your data and it's usually text as opposed to numbers.
Event
Type | Name | Definition |
Dimension | Event name | The name of an event. In VA.gov tracking, the Event Name can act as a high-level grouping for events. For example, all Appointment specific events fall under the |
Dimension | DataLayer Event Name | The ‘event’ variable used in dataLayer push events. |
Metric | Event Count | The number of times users triggered an event. |
Metric | Event count per active user | The average number of events triggered per user over the selected time period. Event count per active user = event count / active users |
Metric | Events per session | The average number of events triggered per session over the selected time period. Events per session = event count / total sessions |
Page
Type | Name | Definition |
Dimension | Page location | The complete URL of the webpage that someone visited on your website. For example, if someone visits https://www.va.gov/search/?query=help&t=false, then the complete URL will populate the dimension. |
Dimension | Page path and screen class | The page path from a website URL and screen class from a mobile application. The page path is the value after the domain. |
Dimension | Page path + query string | The page path and query strings in a URL. These are the parts of the URL that come after the domain. |
Dimension | Page title | The page title that you set on your website. |
Dimension | Landing page | The page path and query string associated with the first page view in a session. |
Dimension | Page referrer | The referring URL, which is the user's previous URL and can be your website's domain or other domains. |
Dimension | Hostname | The subdomain and domain names of a URL that people visited on your website. For example, the hostname of 'https://www.va.gov/health/' is 'www.va.com'. |
Metric | Views | The number of mobile app screens or web pages your users saw. Repeated views of a single screen or page are counted. |
Metric | Entrances | The number of times that the first event recorded in a session occurred on a page or screen. |
Metric | Exits | The number of times that the last event recorded for a session occurred on a page or screen. |
Session
Type | Name | Definition |
Metric | Sessions | The number of sessions that began on your website or application. A session is a period of time during which a user interacts with your website or app. A session initiates when a user either: Opens your app in the foreground Views a page or screen and no session is currently active (e.g. their previous session has timed out) By default, a session ends (times out) after 30 minutes of user inactivity. There is no limit to how long a session can last. |
Metric | Engaged sessions | The number of sessions that lasted 10 seconds or longer, or had 1 or more conversion events or 2 or more page or screen views. Engaged sessions is the inverse of low engagement sessions. |
Metric | Engagement rate | The percentage of sessions that were engaged sessions. Engagement rate = engaged sessions / total sessions Engagement rate is the inverse of bounce rate. |
Metric | Bounce rate | The percentage of sessions that were not engaged sessions. Bounce rate = not engaged sessions / total sessions Bounce rate is the inverse of engagement rate. |
Metric | Sessions per active user | The average number of engaged sessions per active user. Sessions per active user = (screen_view events + page_view events) / active users |
Metric | Views per session | The number of app screens or web pages your users viewed per session. Repeated views of a single page or screen are counted. Views per session = (screen_view events + page_view events) / total sessions |
User
Type | Name | Definition |
Metrics | Total users | The number of unique user IDs that triggered any events. The metric allows you to measure the number of unique users who logged an event. |
Metrics | Active users | The number of distinct users who visited your website or application. An active user is any user who has an engaged session or when Analytics collects: the Note: The Active users metric appears as "Users" in Reports. |
Metrics | New users | The number of new unique user IDs that logged the |
Metrics | Returning users | The number of users who have initiated at least one previous session, regardless of whether or not the previous sessions were engaged sessions. |
Metrics | User engagement | The length of time that your app screen was in the foreground or your web page was in focus. |
Metrics | Average engagement time | The average time that your website was in focus in a user's browser or an app was in the foreground of a user's device. Average engagement time = total user engagement durations / active users |
Metrics | Average engagement time per session | The average engagement time per session. Average engagement time per session = total user engagement durations / sessions |
Links
Type | Name | Definition |
Dimension | Link text | The text of a click link. |
Dimension | Link URL | The destination URL for a clicked link. |
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