Web analytics glossary
Straight definitions of the terms you'll see in any analytics dashboard, Orbit's included.
Attribution ModelAn attribution model is a rule or set of rules used to assign credit for a conversion to the various marketing touchpoints a customer interacted with on their path to that conversion, such as first-click, last-click, linear, or data-driven models.Bounce RateBounce rate is the percentage of sessions in which a visitor views only a single page and leaves without triggering any further interaction, calculated as single-page sessions divided by total sessions.Campaign TrackingCampaign tracking is the practice of measuring the performance of individual marketing campaigns — such as a specific email send, social promotion, or paid ad set — typically by tagging links with identifying parameters like UTM tags so resulting traffic and conversions can be attributed back to that exact campaign.CCPA ComplianceCCPA compliance means handling the personal information of California residents according to the California Consumer Privacy Act, which grants consumers rights including knowing what data is collected about them, requesting its deletion, and opting out of its sale or sharing to third parties.Churn RateChurn rate is the percentage of customers or users who stop using a product, cancel a subscription, or become inactive during a specific time period, calculated as the number lost divided by the number present at the start of that period.Click-Through RateClick-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who clicked a specific link, ad, or call to action out of the total number of people who viewed or were served it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.Client-Side TrackingClient-side tracking is the collection of analytics data through a script — typically JavaScript — that executes in a visitor's browser, capturing events like pageviews and clicks and sending them to an analytics server.Cohort AnalysisCohort analysis is a method of grouping users by a shared characteristic or starting point in time — most commonly their acquisition date — and then tracking that group's behavior, such as retention or spending, over subsequent periods.Conversion RateConversion rate is the percentage of visitors (or sessions) that complete a defined goal action — such as a purchase, signup, or form submission — calculated as conversions divided by total visitors or sessions.Cookieless TrackingCookieless tracking is a method of measuring website traffic and visitor behavior without storing a persistent identifier in a browser cookie, typically relying instead on techniques like session-based hashing of non-identifying signals to approximate unique visitors and sessions.Core Web VitalsCore Web Vitals are a set of three specific metrics defined by Google to measure real-world page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP, loading performance), Interaction to Next Paint (INP, responsiveness), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS, visual stability).Engagement RateEngagement rate is the percentage of sessions that meet a defined threshold of meaningful interaction — commonly lasting longer than a set duration, including two or more pageviews, or triggering a specific conversion event — out of total sessions.Event TrackingEvent tracking is the recording of specific user interactions on a website or app — such as clicks, form submissions, video plays, or file downloads — as discrete, named events, typically capturing additional context like which element was interacted with.Exit RateExit rate is the percentage of all sessions that include a specific page in which that page was the last one viewed, calculated as exits from that page divided by total pageviews of that page.First-Party DataFirst-party data is information collected directly by a business from its own customers, users, or website visitors, through channels it owns — such as its website, app, or email list — rather than purchased or shared by an outside company.FunnelA funnel is a defined sequence of steps a visitor is expected to take toward a goal, tracked so analytics can show the number and percentage of visitors who progress from each step to the next, and where drop-off occurs.GDPR ComplianceGDPR compliance refers to handling personal data in accordance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which requires a lawful basis for processing — such as consent — transparency about what data is collected, data minimization, and giving individuals rights over their own data, including access and deletion.HeatmapA heatmap is a visual representation of visitor interaction data — typically clicks, cursor movement, or scroll depth — overlaid on a webpage using color gradients, commonly warm colors for high activity and cool colors for low, to show where engagement is concentrated.KPIA key performance indicator (KPI) is a specific, quantifiable metric selected to measure progress toward a defined business objective, chosen deliberately from the broader set of available data because it most directly reflects success or failure for that goal.PageviewA pageview is a single instance of a page loading — or, for single-page applications, rendering a new view — in a visitor's browser, counted each time it happens regardless of whether it's the same page loaded repeatedly.Real-Time AnalyticsReal-time analytics is the reporting of website activity — such as current active visitors, live pageviews, and trending pages — with minimal delay between an event occurring and it appearing in the dashboard, typically within seconds.ReferrerA referrer is the URL of the webpage a visitor was on immediately before navigating to the current site, typically passed by the browser via the HTTP Referer header.Retention RateRetention rate is the percentage of users who return to use a product or website again within a defined period after their initial visit, calculated as the number of users still active in a given window divided by the number who started in the original cohort.Server-Side TrackingServer-side tracking is the practice of collecting and sending analytics or event data from a website's backend server, rather than from a script running in the visitor's browser, often relaying it directly to an analytics provider or through a server-side tag manager.SessionA session is a group of user interactions with a website that occur within a defined time frame, typically ending after a period of inactivity (commonly 30 minutes) or at midnight, depending on the analytics platform's rules.Session ReplaySession replay is a technique that records a visitor's on-page behavior — including mouse movement, clicks, scrolling, and page navigation — and reconstructs it as a video-like playback, allowing someone to watch a specific visit unfold as it happened.Third-Party CookiesA third-party cookie is a cookie set by a domain other than the website the visitor is currently viewing, typically placed by an embedded resource like an ad network, allowing that outside domain to recognize the same visitor across multiple unrelated websites.Traffic SourceTraffic source is the channel or origin category — such as organic search, direct, referral, social, or paid — that a website visit is classified under, based on signals like the referring URL and any campaign tracking parameters present.Unique VisitorA unique visitor is a count of the distinct individuals who access a website within a specified reporting period, with each person counted only once regardless of how many sessions or pageviews they generate in that window.UTM ParametersUTM parameters are standardized query-string tags — utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, and optionally utm_term and utm_content — appended to a URL to identify the specific traffic source, marketing channel, and campaign that drove a click.