Analytics & Reporting Glossary

Analytics is the practice of collecting and analyzing data to understand what is working and what to do next. This glossary explains more than 90 analytics and reporting terms from A to Z in plain language, each tagged Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced, from GA4 key events and sessions to attribution, BigQuery and statistics.

Updated 20 Oct 2026 Covers GA4, BigQuery and statistics Free to use, no sign-up

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Analytics and reporting terms from A to Z

ATerms starting with A

Acquisition Report: A report that shows how users arrived at a website or app, broken down by channel, source and medium.
Analytics Dashboard: A visual summary screen that shows an organization’s most important metrics at a glance, often pulling from several data sources.
Annotation: A note added to a report at a specific date, used to flag events such as a campaign launch or site change that may explain a shift in the data.
Attribution Window: The period during which a conversion can still be credited to an earlier touchpoint. Most analytics and ad platforms let you configure it.
Audience Report: A report that summarizes who is visiting a site or app, based on demographics, interests and technology data.
Average Session Duration: The average time users spend on a site or app in one visit. GA4’s closest equivalent is average engagement time, which counts only time the site was in the foreground.

BTerms starting with B

Benchmarking: Comparing a business’s metrics with industry averages or past periods, to give context for whether results are strong or weak.
BigQuery: Google’s cloud data warehouse, commonly used to export and analyze raw GA4 data at a scale beyond the standard reporting interface.
Bot Filtering: Automatically excluding known bot and spider traffic from reports, so metrics reflect genuine human visitors.
Bounce Rate: In GA4, the percentage of sessions that were not engaged, which is simply 100% minus the engagement rate. It replaced the older Universal Analytics definition of a single-page visit.
Business Intelligence (BI): The practice and tools used to collect, analyze and present business data to support decisions. Marketing analytics is one part of it.

CTerms starting with C

Channel Grouping: Sorting traffic sources into standard buckets, such as Organic Search, Paid Social or Direct, for cleaner reporting.
Cohort Report: A report that groups users by a shared starting point, such as first visit date, to track how their behavior changes over later periods.
Confidence Interval: A statistical range showing how certain you can be that a reported metric reflects the true value rather than random variation.
Consent Mode: A Google feature that adjusts how analytics and ad tags behave based on a visitor’s cookie consent choices, and can model some missing data when consent is declined.
Conversion Event: See Key Event. GA4 renamed conversions to key events in 2024.
Cross-Domain Tracking: Setting up analytics to recognize one user’s journey across several domains, so their session is not wrongly split in two.
CSV Export: Downloading report data as a plain spreadsheet file, often used to combine analytics data with other sources or to share it offline.
Custom Dimension: A user-defined data category added to an analytics platform to track information it does not capture by default, such as membership tier.
Custom Report: A report built by a user to show specific metrics and dimensions that match their own goals, rather than a platform’s standard templates.

DTerms starting with D

Dashboard: See Analytics Dashboard.
Data Blending: Combining data from several sources into one report or chart, such as merging ad spend with website conversion data.
Data Governance: The policies and processes that keep data accurate, consistent and used in line with privacy requirements.
Data Layer: A structured JavaScript object on a webpage that organizes information for tag management systems to read and pass to analytics tools.
Data Retention: How long a platform keeps detailed event-level data before deleting it. In GA4 you can choose a limited period, and longer analysis needs an export to BigQuery.
Data Sampling: Analyzing a representative subset of data instead of the whole dataset, which some platforms apply automatically in large reports to speed up processing.
Debug View: A real-time GA4 feature that shows events and parameters as they fire, used to confirm tracking is set up correctly before you trust the data.
Dimension: An attribute of data, such as country or device type, used to break down and organize metrics in a report.
Direct Traffic: Visits attributed to people typing a URL, using a bookmark, or arriving through a source that could not be identified.

ETerms starting with E

Engaged Session: In GA4, a session that lasted longer than 10 seconds, included a key event, or had at least two page or screen views.
Engagement Rate: In GA4, the percentage of sessions that were engaged sessions, calculated as engaged sessions divided by total sessions.
Enhanced Measurement: A GA4 setting that automatically tracks common interactions, such as scrolls, outbound clicks, site search and file downloads, without extra code.
Event Parameter: Extra information attached to a tracked event, such as which button was clicked or which video was played.
Event Tracking: Recording specific user interactions, such as clicks, video plays or form submissions, as trackable data points.
Exit Rate: The percentage of all sessions on a page that ended there. It differs from bounce rate, which looks only at visits that were not engaged.
Exploration Report: A flexible GA4 report type that lets users build custom charts such as funnels, path analyses and cohort breakdowns.

FTerms starting with F

Filter (Analytics Filter): A rule applied to data that includes or excludes specific traffic, such as removing internal company visits from reports.
Funnel Visualization: A report that shows how users progress, and where they drop off, through a defined sequence of steps toward a conversion.

GTerms starting with G

GA4 (Google Analytics 4): Google’s current analytics platform, built on an event-based data model rather than the session-based model of its predecessor, Universal Analytics.
Google Signals: A GA4 feature that uses data from signed-in Google accounts to enable cross-device reporting and remarketing, when it is turned on.
Google Tag Manager (Analytics Context): A tool that manages and deploys tracking tags, including analytics and conversion tracking, without editing site code for each change.

HTerms starting with H

Heatmap: A visual report that shows where users click, move or scroll on a page, using color intensity to show activity.
Historical Data: Previously collected analytics data used to spot trends, set benchmarks or compare with current performance.
Hit: A legacy term from Universal Analytics for a single piece of data sent to an analytics server, such as a pageview or event. GA4 uses events instead.

ITerms starting with I

Insight (Automated Insight): A machine-generated observation from an analytics platform, such as flagging an unusual spike or drop in a metric.
Interactive Dashboard: A dashboard that lets users filter, drill down or change date ranges directly in the report, rather than viewing a static image.

JTerms starting with J

Journey Analytics: Analyzing the whole sequence of touchpoints a user has across channels and sessions, rather than looking at each visit alone.

KTerms starting with K

Key Event: GA4’s current name for a conversion: an event marked as important enough to track and report as a core business outcome, such as a purchase or form submission.
KPI (Key Performance Indicator): A specific, measurable metric chosen to show whether a broader goal or strategy is succeeding, and reported on regularly.

LTerms starting with L

Landing Page Report: A report that shows which pages users first arrived on, and how each performed for engagement and conversions.
Latency (Data Latency): The delay between an action happening and it appearing in reports. It varies by platform and report type.
Lifetime Value Report: A report that estimates the total value a user or customer is expected to generate over their whole relationship with a business.
Looker Studio: Google’s free data visualization tool, used to build custom, shareable dashboards from GA4, ad platforms and other sources.

MTerms starting with M

Machine Learning Insights: Predictions and pattern detection, such as predicted churn or purchase likelihood, generated automatically by an analytics platform’s models.
Measurement ID: The unique identifier, starting with “G-”, assigned to a GA4 data stream. It connects a website or app to its analytics data.
Measurement Plan: A documented framework that defines which events, key events and dimensions a business needs to track before implementation begins.
Metric (Analytics Metric): A quantitative measurement, such as sessions or revenue, used alongside dimensions to build a report.

NTerms starting with N

Net New Users: The number of users who interact with a property for the very first time within a chosen date range.
Normalization (Data Normalization): Adjusting data so it can be compared fairly across different scales or sources, such as converting metrics to a common time period.

OTerms starting with O

Outlier: A data point that differs sharply from the rest of a dataset. It can distort averages if it is not identified and accounted for.
Overview Report: A summary report that gives a snapshot of a property’s key metrics, usually the first screen shown when you open an analytics platform.

PTerms starting with P

Page View: A single instance of a page loading, or reloading, in a browser. It is one of the most basic units of web analytics.
Pivot Table: A flexible table that lets users rearrange and summarize data by different dimensions without rebuilding the underlying report.
Predictive Metric: A GA4 metric, such as purchase probability or churn probability, generated by machine learning from historical behavior. It needs enough data to be available.
Property (GA4 Property): A container in Google Analytics that represents a website or app and the data collected from it.
P-Value: A statistical measure that shows how likely an observed result is to have happened by random chance alone.

QTerms starting with Q

Quarterly Business Review (QBR): A recurring meeting and reporting cycle where marketing or analytics performance is reviewed against goals every three months.

RTerms starting with R

Real-Time Report: A report that shows user activity as it happens, usually with a delay of only seconds. It is useful for watching live events or launches.
Referral Traffic: Visits that arrive from a link on another website, as distinct from search engines, social media or paid ads.
Regression Analysis: A statistical method for understanding the relationship between variables, such as how ad spend relates to revenue over time.
Retention Report: A report that shows what percentage of users come back to a site or app on later days or weeks after their first visit.
Rolling Average: An average that updates continuously over a moving window of time, such as the trailing 7 days, to smooth out daily swings.

STerms starting with S

Sankey Diagram: A flow chart, available in GA4 explorations, that shows how users move between pages, events or channels during their journey.
Scorecard: A simplified report that highlights a handful of top-level metrics against their targets, for quick review.
Segment (Analytics Segment): A defined subset of users or sessions, such as mobile users from paid social, isolated in a report for closer analysis.
Server-Side Tracking: Sending analytics and tracking data through your own server instead of directly from the browser, which can improve data accuracy and reduce reliance on client-side scripts.
Session: A group of user interactions with a website or app that take place within a given time frame. In GA4 a session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity by default.
Source / Medium: A dimension pairing where traffic came from (the source, such as Google) with how it arrived (the medium, such as organic or cpc).
Statistical Significance: A measure of confidence that a test result reflects a real effect rather than random chance, which is essential for trusting reported differences.

TTerms starting with T

Tracking Code: The snippet of JavaScript installed on a website that collects data and sends it to an analytics platform.
Trend Line: A line added to a chart to show the general direction a metric is moving over time, smoothing out day-to-day noise.

UTerms starting with U

Unique Visitors: The number of distinct people who visited a site in a period, counted once however many sessions they had. GA4 reports this as users.
Universal Analytics (UA): Google’s previous, session-based analytics platform. It stopped processing new data in 2023 and has been replaced by GA4.
User Explorer: A GA4 report that lets analysts view the activity and event history of an individual, anonymized user.
Users (Active Users): In GA4, the number of distinct people who had an engaged session on your site or app. It is the main user count shown in standard reports.
UTM Parameters: Tags added to a URL that let analytics platforms identify exactly which campaign, source or medium drove a visit.

VTerms starting with V

Variance: A statistical measure of how spread out a set of data points is around the average, used to judge how reliable a metric is.
Visualization (Data Visualization): Presenting data as charts, graphs or maps, so patterns and trends are easier to see than in raw numbers.

WTerms starting with W

Weighted Average: An average that accounts for the relative importance or size of each data point, rather than treating every value equally.
Web Analytics: The practice of collecting, measuring and analyzing website data to understand and improve user behavior and business outcomes.

XTerms starting with X

X-Axis: The horizontal axis of a chart, most often used to show time or categories in analytics reports.

YTerms starting with Y

Year-over-Year (YoY) Comparison: Comparing a metric with the same period a year earlier, a standard way to account for seasonality in reports.

ZTerms starting with Z

Z-Score: A statistical measure of how many standard deviations a data point is from the mean, useful for spotting meaningful outliers.

What is analytics, and how do you use this glossary?

Web and marketing analytics is the practice of collecting, measuring and analyzing data about how people find and use your website or app, so you can see what is working and decide what to do next. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the most widely used tool, and reports are often built in Looker Studio.

Start with the Beginner terms, such as session, page view, dimension, metric, source and medium. Move to Intermediate terms as you set up tracking and reports, and use the Advanced terms for data modeling, BigQuery and statistics.

Search by term or filter by level above. Related terms link to each other, so you can follow an idea from one concept to the next.

Core GA4 formulas

Engagement rateEngaged sessions ÷ sessions
Bounce rate100% − engagement rate
Key event rateSessions with a key event ÷ sessions
Exit rateExits from a page ÷ its views
YoY change(This year − last year) ÷ last year

How is GA4 different from Universal Analytics?

GA4 counts and organizes data differently, so older reports and habits do not carry over one to one.

Universal Analytics stopped processing new data in 2023, so GA4 is now the standard.
Idea	Universal Analytics	GA4
Data model	Sessions and hits	Events, each with parameters
Goals	Goals, limited to 20 per view	Key events, previously called conversions
Bounce rate	Single-page sessions	Sessions that were not engaged
Engagement	Average session duration	Engagement rate and average engagement time
Reporting	Fixed reports and views	Standard reports plus flexible explorations
Raw data export	Paid, for 360 users only	Free export to BigQuery

Analytics and reporting questions, answered

Quick answers to the most searched analytics basics.

What is web analytics?

Web analytics is the practice of collecting, measuring and analyzing website data to understand how people find and use a site. It helps you see which channels bring visitors, what they do, and which actions lead to leads or sales.

What is GA4?

GA4 is Google Analytics 4, Google’s current analytics platform. It records every interaction as an event, works across websites and apps, and replaced Universal Analytics. It offers standard reports, flexible explorations and a free export to BigQuery.

What is a key event in GA4?

A key event is GA4’s name for a conversion: an event you mark as important to your business, such as a purchase, a form submission or a phone-call click. Google renamed conversions to key events in 2024. Mark only meaningful actions, so reports stay useful.

What is the difference between sessions, users and page views?

A page view is one page load. A session is a group of interactions in one visit, and ends after 30 minutes of inactivity by default. A user is a distinct person, who may have many sessions. One user can generate several sessions and many page views.

What are engagement rate and bounce rate in GA4?

Engagement rate is the share of sessions that were engaged, meaning they lasted over 10 seconds, had a key event or had at least two page views. Bounce rate in GA4 is simply the opposite, 100% minus engagement rate.

What are UTM parameters?

UTM parameters are tags added to a link that tell analytics which campaign, source and medium sent a visitor. Use them on links in emails, social posts and ads so traffic is correctly credited. Use consistent, lower-case names to keep reports clean.

Why do my GA4 numbers differ from my ad platform?

Platforms count differently. They use different attribution models and windows, count conversions when ads are viewed or clicked, and lose some data to consent choices and blockers. Treat each as a view of the truth, and compare trends rather than expecting matching totals.

What is data sampling, and should I worry about it?

Sampling means a report is built from a subset of data to save time, which can make numbers slightly less exact. Standard GA4 reports are usually unsampled, but large explorations can be sampled. Narrow the date range or export to BigQuery if you need exact figures.

What is Looker Studio?

Looker Studio is Google’s free tool for building interactive dashboards and reports. It connects to GA4, Google Ads, Search Console, spreadsheets and many other sources, so a team can see all its key numbers in one shareable place.

Is this analytics and reporting glossary free?

Yes. It is completely free to read, with no sign-up. You can search it, filter it by level and jump to any letter.

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