Data Studio & SEO glossary: 49 terms
What each metric measures, which field it is in the API, and where it appears in a real Data Studio report. Field-by-field documentation is in the Google Search Console reference, Google Analytics 4 reference and Google Ads reference.
49 terms, one definition each, grouped by data source.
Google Analytics 4
21 terms
- Active usersmetricActive users are the distinct users who had an engaged session on a website or app during the selected period in Google Analytics 4, or whose visit fired the first_visit or engagement_time event.
- Average engagement timemetricAverage engagement time is the mean time a website was in the foreground of a visitor's browser, per active user, during the selected period in Google Analytics 4.
- Average session durationmetricAverage session duration is the mean length of a session in Google Analytics 4: the total duration of all sessions divided by the number of sessions, in seconds.
- Bounce ratemetricBounce rate in Google Analytics 4 is the percentage of sessions that were not engaged: sessions that lasted under 10 seconds, had no key event and had fewer than two page views.
- Data streamconceptA data stream is the flow of data from one website or app into a Google Analytics 4 property.
- Default channel groupdimensionThe default channel group is the set of rules Google Analytics 4 uses to sort traffic into channels such as Organic Search, Paid Search, Direct, Referral, Organic Social, Email and Cross-network, based on the source, medium and campaign of each session.
- Device categorydimensionDevice category is the dimension that groups visitors by the kind of device they used: desktop, mobile, tablet, or smart TV.
- Engaged sessionsmetricEngaged sessions are the sessions in Google Analytics 4 that lasted longer than 10 seconds, produced a key event, or included at least two page or screen views.
- Engagement ratemetricEngagement rate is the percentage of sessions that were engaged sessions in Google Analytics 4: sessions that lasted longer than 10 seconds, produced a key event, or included at least two page or screen views.
- EntrancesmetricEntrances are the number of times a page was the first page viewed in a session, as counted by Google Analytics 4.
- Event countmetricEvent count is the number of times an event was triggered in Google Analytics 4 during the selected period.
- Event valuemetricEvent value is the numeric value attached to an event in Google Analytics 4 through the value parameter, summed across all the times the event fired.
- GA4 (Google Analytics 4)platformGA4 is the current generation of Google Analytics, built on an event model: every interaction, a page view, a click, a purchase, is an event with parameters.
- Key eventsmetricKey events are the events in Google Analytics 4 that you mark as the ones that matter to the business: a purchase, a lead form, a sign-up, a call.
- Landing pagedimensionA landing page is the first page a visitor sees in a session, the page that won the visit.
- New vs returning usersdimensionNew vs returning users is the Google Analytics 4 dimension that splits visitors by whether their first visit fell inside the selected period (new) or before it (returning).
- Page pathdimensionPage path is the part of a page's URL after the domain and before any query string: /blog/seo-report for https://example.com/blog/seo-report?utm=x.
- Referral trafficdimensionReferral traffic is the visits a website receives through links on other websites, as opposed to visits from search engines, paid ads, social networks or a typed URL.
- SessionsmetricA session is a group of interactions one user has with a website within a period of time; in Google Analytics 4 it starts with a session_start event and ends after 30 minutes of inactivity.
- Site searchfeatureSite search is the search box inside a website, and in Google Analytics 4 it is measured through the view_search_results event, which records the term the visitor typed as the search_term parameter.
- Source / mediumdimensionSource / medium is the pair of dimensions that describes where a session came from: the source is the site or platform (google, facebook, newsletter) and the medium is the type of traffic (organic, cpc, referral, email).
Google Search Console
12 terms
- Average positionmetricAverage position, also called keyword position, is the mean ranking of a site for a query or page across all the impressions it received in a period, as reported by Google Search Console.
- Brand vs generic keywordsconceptBrand keywords are searches that include a company’s own name; generic keywords are everything else.
- CTR (click-through rate)metricCTR is clicks divided by impressions, expressed as a percentage: the share of times a listing was shown that ended in a click.
- ImpressionsmetricAn impression is counted each time a link to a site appears in a search results page a user views, whether or not it is clicked.
- Keyword clusteringconceptKeyword clustering is grouping search queries by the topic they belong to, so that a subject can be tracked and reported as one line instead of as a hundred individual queries.
- Keyword rankingmetricKeyword ranking is the position a page occupies in the search results for a specific query; position 1 is the top organic result.
- Keyword ranking reportconceptA keyword ranking report is a document or dashboard that shows which search queries a site appears for, at what position, and how those positions change over time.
- Long-tail keywordsconceptLong-tail keywords are longer, more specific search queries, usually four words or more, that each have low search volume but together make up most of a site's search traffic.
- Page indexingconceptPage indexing is the step in which Google stores a page in its search index after crawling it, which is what makes the page eligible to appear in search results.
- Search intentdimensionSearch intent is the purpose behind a search query: informational (wants to learn), navigational (wants a specific site), commercial (comparing before buying) or transactional (ready to buy).
- Search typedimensionSearch type is the Google Search Console dimension that says which kind of Google search produced an impression or click: web, image, video, news, or Discover and Google News as separate traffic types.
- Unique keywordsmetricUnique keywords are the distinct search queries for which a site received at least one impression in a period, each counted once regardless of how many times it appeared.
Google Ads
8 terms
- Average CPCmetricAverage CPC (cost per click) is the total cost of clicks divided by the number of clicks: the average price paid for one visit from an ad.
- Campaign namedimensionCampaign name is the label given to an advertising campaign, used as a dimension to group spend, clicks and conversions in Google Ads and, through the utm_campaign tag, to attribute sessions to that campaign in Google Analytics 4.
- Conversion ratemetricConversion rate is the percentage of interactions that led to a conversion; in Google Ads it is conversions divided by clicks (interactions), and in Google Analytics 4 the equivalent is the key event rate, sessions with a key event divided by all sessions.
- Cost per conversionmetricCost per conversion is the total advertising spend divided by the number of conversions it produced: what one result cost.
- Match typedimensionMatch type is the setting on a Google Ads keyword that controls how closely a search has to match it for the ad to enter the auction: broad match allows related searches, phrase match requires the meaning of the phrase, and exact match requires the same meaning as the keyword.
- Outranking sharemetricOutranking share is a Google Ads Auction Insights metric: the percentage of auctions in which your ad ranked higher than a specific competitor's ad, or in which your ad showed and theirs did not.
- PPC dashboardconceptA PPC dashboard is a live report of paid-campaign performance, spend, clicks, conversions, CPA and ROAS, pulled automatically from ad platforms like Google Ads, so the numbers are current every time the report is opened.
- ROAS (return on ad spend)metricROAS is revenue attributed to advertising divided by the cost of that advertising.
Search Console + GA4
3 terms
- SEO dashboardconceptAn SEO dashboard is a live report that gathers a site’s organic search metrics, impressions, clicks, average position, CTR and keyword rankings, in one view, refreshed automatically from sources like Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4.
- SEO performanceconceptSEO performance is how well a website earns visibility and visits from organic search, measured as a chain rather than a single number: impressions, clicks, click-through rate and average position in Search Console, and the sessions and conversions those clicks produce in Google Analytics 4.
- SEO reportconceptAn SEO report is a periodic summary of a site’s organic search performance: how visible it was, which queries and pages earned that visibility, and how both changed against the previous period.
Data Studio
2 terms
- Automated reportingconceptAutomated reporting is the practice of connecting a report directly to its data sources so it fills and refreshes itself, replacing the manual cycle of exporting data, pasting it into slides and rebuilding charts each period.
- White label reportingconceptWhite label reporting is delivering analytics reports under your own brand, your logo, colors and name, while the underlying tool or template comes from a third party.
Google
2 terms
- Google Data StudioplatformGoogle Data Studio is Google’s free tool for turning data into interactive, shareable reports and dashboards.
- Looker StudioplatformLooker Studio was the name of Google’s free reporting and dashboard tool between October 2022 and April 2026, when Google renamed it back to Data Studio.