For my clients who will begin receiving a weekly Google Analytics report, I thought I oughta tell ya how to read it! The first page, or "Dashboard," gives you an overview of what's going on with traffic on your site and really gives a great deal of information. Using the screenshot below I'll explain what those numbers mean to you.
The Graph: Shows the number of visitors per day for the date range listed. Above, you see a steady incline -- this is a good thing!.
Visits: The total number of visitors on the site, both new and returning. This number may vary dramatically for your particular type of business.
Pageviews: The total number of pages viewed on the site. For example, you first go to the “home page,” then you click on “about us,” then you click “contact us.” This is 3 pageviews from 1 visit.
Pages/Visit: The average number of pages all your visitors have viewed per visit. This number is good to know to see if people are actually using your site or if you’re losing their interest too quickly.
Bounce Rate: A “bounce” means the visitor went to your home page and left. Usually indicates they didn’t find what they were looking for either not at all or not quickly enough. A good bounce rate ranges between 20% – 50%. You can’t keep everyone, but if you can keep the interest of more than half your visitors, you’re doin' OK.
Avg. Time on Site: Shows the average time spent on the site. A higher time on site means you have their interest and, maybe, their business.
New Visits: The percentage of total visits that are brand new. The impact of this number depends on what you need from your website. In the example above we see 65% of visitors are new; this is a good mix because we're pulling in more visitors all the time increasing our branding, yet we have a decent amount returning indicating brand loyalty.
With that quick look at the dashboard you have a pretty good idea of what's happening on your site and some areas to look at if the numbers give you some concern, like a particularly high bounce rate.
There is a lot more information in your report like browsers used, connection speeds (DSL, cable, etc), and user locations (countries), but understanding the dashboard tells you in a second the important info.
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