Glossary

The meaning of the metrics, dimensions and terms you find in Publytics. Each term is listed with the name you see in the dashboard; when it has a different name in the API, that name follows in brackets.

Some metrics have a different name depending on the report. For example the same number is called Sessions in Audience and Entrances in Content, because there it counts the sessions that started on each page.

Visits and visitors

Pageviews (views) The number of times a page was viewed. In the Events reports the same column is called Hits: the number of times an event happened.

Sessions (entrances) A visit: the pages a visitor views in a row. A session ends after 30 minutes without activity: if the visitor comes back later, a new session starts. Its source, UTM parameters and entry page are the ones of its first page. In the Audience and Acquisition reports a session is counted once, with the source it came from.

Users (unique_entrances) The visitors of the site. Publytics does not use cookies, so it counts users per day: see Daily unique counts below.

Daily unique counts Users, Unique Pageviews, Unique Entrances and Unique Exits are counted day by day. Over one day they count each visitor once; over a longer period they are the sum of the daily values, so a visitor who comes back on three different days is counted three times. They are not the number of distinct people in the period.

Active Users In Real time, the visitors who viewed at least one page in the last minutes (5 minutes, unless the panel says otherwise).

Pages

Entrances (entrances) In the Content and Entry pages reports, the sessions that started on the page: it was the first page the visitor saw.

Unique Entrances (unique_entrances) The visitors who started a session on the page, counted per day.

Exits (exits) The sessions that ended on the page: it was the last page the visitor saw.

Unique Exits (unique_exits) The visitors who ended a session on the page, counted per day.

Involved Sessions (sessions) All the sessions that viewed the page, wherever they started. In the Events reports it is called Session Hits: the sessions in which the event happened.

Unique Pageviews (viewers) The visitors who viewed the page, counted per day. In the Events reports it is called Unique Hits.

Entry Page (entry_pathname) The first page of a session.

Exit Page (exit_pathname) The last page of a session. As a secondary dimension, it needs the Exits data enhancement.

Pathname (pathname) The part of the address after the domain: for example.com/blog/article it is /blog/article.

Pagepath Level 1–5 (pagepath_level1…pagepath_level5) The first levels of the pathname, to group pages by section: for /blog/2026/article, level 1 is /blog/ and level 2 is /blog/2026/.

Engagement

Bounce Rate The share of sessions that bounced. A session bounces when the visitor views a single page and does nothing else: no custom event and, on sites with the Engagement Time data enhancement, less than 15 seconds of engagement time. So a visitor who reads one article for a minute and leaves is not a bounce. There are two versions:

• Bounce Rate (bounce_rate_sessions), in Content: among all the sessions that viewed the page.
• Bounce Rate (Entrances) (bounce_rate), in Content and Entry pages: among the sessions that started on the page. In Audience and Acquisition it is simply called Bounce Rate, and counts all the sessions.

Avg. Session Duration The average duration of a session, from its first to its last hit. Like the bounce rate, it has two versions in Content: Avg. Session Duration (avg_time_sessions) over all the sessions that viewed the page, and Avg. Session Duration (Entrances) (avg_time) over the sessions that started on it.

Avg. Time on Page (avg_time_on_page) The average time between opening the page and opening the next page of the same session. The last page of a session is left out, because there is no next page to measure it with: for the time actually spent reading, see Engagement Time.

Engagement Time (avg_engagement_time) The time the visitor actually spent on the page: it is counted only while the page is visible and its window is in focus, so a page left open in a background tab does not count. Avg. Engagement Time is its average per pageview. Needs the Engagement Time data enhancement.

Quality Pageviews (quality_views) The pageviews with at least 15 seconds of engagement time: the visitor actually read the page. % Quality Pageviews (quality_views_perc) is their share of all the pageviews. Needs the Engagement Time data enhancement.

Scroll Depth (scroll_depth) How far down the page the visitor scrolled: the deepest point they reached, as a share of the page height (100% means they reached the end). The reports show its average over the pageviews. Needs the Engagement Time data enhancement.

Pageviews per Sessions, Sessions per Users Ratios between the metrics above, e.g. how many pages a session views on average.

Traffic sources

Referrer (referrer) The domain of the page the visitor came from, as sent by the browser: e.g. google.com or lm.facebook.com. Some browsers and apps do not send it.

Referrer + Source (referrer_source) Where the visitor came from, with a readable name: the utm_source of the link when there is one, otherwise the name of the referrer (Google, Facebook, chatgpt.com...). Google Discover is the traffic from the Google app on Android: mostly its Discover feed, but also the searches made in the app. Empty (or (not set)) means no source was found: direct visits, bookmarks, apps that hide the referrer.

UTM parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term) The tags added to a link to describe a campaign, e.g. ?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email. Publytics reads them from the address of the page the visitor lands on.

Source / Medium (source_medium) utm_source and utm_medium together, e.g. newsletter / email.

AI traffic The visits that come from AI assistants: Google AI Overview, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek and Mistral. See AI traffic.

Attribution model In Real time, which source a page view is credited to. Event-based (the default) uses the source of each page view; Session-based credits every page of the session to the source the session started from. You choose it in your preferences.

Visitors and devices

Country, Region, City (country_code, region, city) Where the visitor is, from their IP address, which is never stored. Region and City need the City data enhancement.

Device (screen_size) Desktop, Mobile or Tablet.

Browser, Operating System (browser, operating_system) E.g. Chrome or Safari, Windows or iOS. Their versions need the OS/Browser Versions data enhancement.

Hostname (hostname) The domain of the page, useful when a site has more domains or subdomains.

Reports and data

Dimension What a row of a table is about: a page, a country, a source. The primary dimension decides the rows; secondary dimensions split each row further (e.g. pages by country).

Metric What is counted for each row: pageviews, sessions, bounce rate...

Filters Conditions that narrow a report. Filters on dimensions choose which visits are counted (e.g. only from Italy); filters on metrics choose which rows are shown (e.g. only the pages with more than 1,000 pageviews).

Comparison period A second period shown next to the main one, to see how the numbers changed. See Date picker.

Granularity How a chart groups time: by month, week, day, hour or minute. See Chart Granularity.

Custom event (name) An action you track besides pageviews, such as a newsletter sign-up or a click. See How to track custom events.

Custom dimension Information about the page you send with the tracking script, such as the author or the category of an article. See Custom dimensions.

Custom metric A metric you define on top of the standard ones. See Custom metrics.

Custom report A table you build and save with the dimensions, metrics and filters you choose. See Reports.

Data enhancements Optional, more detailed data for Business and Enterprise plans: OS/Browser Versions, City, Engagement Time, Exits, Hour and Minute. See Data Enhancements.

Sites and accounts

Site A website you track, identified by its tracking ID (e.g. EXMPL1), which you find in the Tracking Options page.

Custom view A version of a site's reports that always applies some filters, e.g. only the traffic from Italy. See Custom views.

Network A group of sites whose reports are added together, also known as a multi-site, consolidated or roll-up view. See What is a Publytics network.

Sections The parts of the dashboard a member of your team can see: Real time, Content, Acquisition, Events and Reports. See Roles.

Overage When a site goes beyond the pageviews included in its plan. See Overage.