When you reconcile a report, match the definition first, then the dates. Filters and date range are in Filters, compare, share & export.
Metrics & definitions
| Metric | Where | How it is counted |
|---|---|---|
| Pageviews | Overview, data report | Pageview events, including route changes in a single-page app |
| Visitors | Overview, data report | Deduplicated on the current identity. Web analytics defaults to the visitor id |
| Sessions | Overview, data report | Visits cut by the session rules. Default is 30 minutes idle and 24 hours maximum. Midnight and ad-parameter changes do not split a session unless you turn that on |
| Online | Realtime | Distinct visitors with an event in the last 5 minutes |
| Engaged rate | Data report | Engaged sessions divided by sessions. Engaged means duration of at least 10 seconds, or at least 2 pageviews. A hit on an enabled event goal marked as a key event also counts |
| Bounce rate | Overview, data report | Bounced sessions divided by sessions. A bounce is one pageview and no custom event (an event whose name does not start with a double underscore) |
| Average duration | Overview, data report | Sum of session durations divided by sessions. Duration is the last event minus the start, in seconds |
| Pages per session | Data report | Pageviews divided by sessions |
| New visitors | Audience, data report | Distinct people whose session is marked first seen. The new-visitor share is new visitors divided by visitors |
| Goal conversion rate | Goals | Distinct visitors who completed that goal, divided by distinct visitors in the range |
| Report conversion rate | Data report | Conversion count divided by sessions, not distinct people |
| Revenue | Goals, data report | Sum of the revenue property on goals that have revenue enabled, in the project currency |
| Error rate | Errors | Script-error count divided by pageviews |
The goal rate is people divided by people. The report rate is a count divided by sessions. Do not compare them directly.
On the data report, counts in the total row are summed. Rates add numerator and denominator separately, then divide. The visitor total sums daily visitors, so one person across days counts more than once. The visitor card on Overview is counted the same way. At 93 days or less, the data report also shows visitors deduplicated across the whole range.
Three ways to deduplicate
Web analytics pages default to the visitor id. The header cannot change that. The stats API also accepts two other identities, switched in behavior analytics. See Counting modes.
| Identity | Value used | When it differs from visitor |
|---|---|---|
| Visitor | Visitor id | The web analytics default |
| Device | Device id when present, otherwise the visitor id | Several visits on one device become one |
| User | User id when present, otherwise device, otherwise visitor | After login and merge, several devices become one person |
If device ids and user ids are still empty, the three identities count the same. Being counted as a visitor does not create a row on the people list. See Visitors, users & identity.
Limits
Strict privacy changes the salt every day, so the same person cannot be matched across days. New versus returning, visitor profiles, and retention are unavailable. Session rule edits apply only to data collected afterward. If no goal is marked as a key event, engaged rate is in practice only “10 seconds or 2 pages”.
FAQ
Why is the visitor total larger than the number of people? The Overview card and the data-report total both add each day’s visitors, so someone who came on three days counts three times. For people deduplicated across the range, use the range-wide figure under the data report (shown at 93 days or less).