Hi,
Depending on business objective :
A general source of data that can be used to define various
types of segments or counts and represents a fundamental dimension of
visitor behavior or site dynamics. Some examples are event and referrer.
They can be interpreted the same as counts above, but typically they
must be further qualified or segmented to be of actual interest. Therefore
these define a more general class of metrics and represent a dimension of
data that can be associated with each individual visitor.
Metrics are measured across the dimensions.
A metric can apply to three different universes:
• Aggregate — Total site traffic for a defined period of time.
• Segmented — A subset of the site traffic for a defined period of time,
filtered in some way to gain greater analytical insight: e.g., by campaign
(e-mail, banner, PPC, affiliate), by visitor type (new vs. returning, repeat
buyers, high value), by referrer.
• Individual — Activity of a single Web visitor for a defined period of time.
Specific Referrer Types:
Internal Referrer, External Referrer, Search Referrer, Visit Referrer, Original Referrer
TERM: Internal Referrer
Type: Dimension
Universe: Aggregate, Segmented
Definition/Calculation:
The internal referrer is a page URL that is internal to the website or a web-property
within the website as defined by the user.
Comments:
Typically the internal referrer shares the same URL domain as the page URL that was
requested. Often relative URLs are a strong indicator of local or internal content.
However there are many situations where this is either not true or not sufficient. The
website may have many different domains or use domains to track special
promotions or link off line activity. It may use external transaction engines to
manage shopping carts or finances that should be treated as internal to the website.
A hosted website may share the same domain as other websites and the file path
must be used to distinguish internal from external content. Likewise a large site may
have many properties that the user wants to track as separate entities or roll up into
one overall website entity.
Most analytic tools will attempt to take all these factors into consideration and allow
the user to enter precisely the domains and URL paths that should be considered
internal to the web property. Determining what is internal to a web property or
website is a key element of being able to track activity onto and off the site.
TERM: External Referrer
Type: Dimension
Universe: Aggregate, Segmented
Definition/Calculation:
The external referrer is a page URL where the traffic is external or outside of the
website or a web-property defined by the user.
Comments:
Typically external referrers are counted and aggregated by the domain in the URL.
The major domain indicates the external website that referred the request for the
page. For large complex portals, the subdomain typically identifies the property
making the referral. For hosted sites such as merchant stores or blogs, the path
within the referrer URL may be needed to identify the specific website that has
included a link to your site.
TERM: Search Referrer
Type: Dimension
Universe: Aggregate, Segmented
Definition/Calculation:
The search referrer is an internal or external referrer for which the URL has been
generated by a search function.
Comments:
The URLs generated by different search engines have characteristic patterns that
identify the engine generating the search results. Often the keyword phrase that
generated the request is included. The domain identifies the specific portal that
displayed the search results. For internal site search engines the portal is the website
itself and the referrer is internal. In all other cases, the search referrer is a type of
external referrer.
With the search referrer we can understand where the visitor came from and the
specific search query that include a link to your website. You can also understand
which search engines have crawled and searched your website and from the landing
page, what content was processed.
It should be noted that not all search portals are the same as search engines. Also
note that not all search engine results include keyword phrases. Those search
referrers that include the keyword are counted as search referrals and counted and
aggregated at the keyword and keyword phrase level. The aggregate counts from
search portals and search engines if identified will be different.
TERM: Visit Referrer
Type: Dimension
Universe: Aggregate, Segmented
Definition/Calculation:
The visit referrer is the first referrer in a session, whether internal, external or null.
Regards
Devinder
