Metrics glossary
This guide defines every metric in the Performance dashboard and specifies how each is calculated. Metrics share names across tabs, but each tab counts them through its own lens, so read a metric's definition on the tab you're using.
How metrics are counted
The 5 concepts that shape every number in the dashboard.
Visit
A visit is 1 shopping session: a shopper arrives on your site and everything they do until they leave.
Inactivity of 30 minutes ends the visit, and returning after that starts a new one. A shopper who leaves and returns within 30 minutes on the same device continues the same visit.
Example: A shopper browses for 10 minutes, steps away for an hour, then returns and browses again. That's 2 visits, not 1.
Every tab counts visits, but each tab counts only its own visits:
- The Site search tab counts visits that included a search.
- The Category tab counts visits that touched a category page.
- The Products tab counts visits that viewed a product page.
Tabs are lenses on the same traffic, not slices of it. One visit that both searched and browsed a category appears on both tabs. That's why Search visits plus Category visits don't equal total visits.
Browse session
A browse session is a sub-unit inside a visit, anchored to 1 search or 1 category. It begins when a shopper submits a query or opens a category page, and it covers everything they do with those results until they start a new search, move to a different category, or leave. One visit can hold many browse sessions.
Bounce metrics are measured per browse session, not per visit, so each search or category gets its own verdict. A visit that eventually converts can still contain a failed search.
Example: A shopper searches "dresses," views a product, and adds it to the cart, then searches "jumpsuit" and does neither. That's 2 browse sessions in 1 visit, and only the second counts as a bounce.
Actions versus visits
Some metrics count actions and some count visits:
- Per-action metrics (such as add-to-carts, product page views) add 1 for every occurrence. Viewing the same product page twice adds 2 product page views.
- Visit-based metrics add at most one per visit, such as visits and each tab's "visits that did X."
A rate that divides an action count by a visit count, such as add-to-cart rate, can exceed 100% when shoppers act more than once per visit. That's a measure of intensity, not an error.
Example: A shopper who adds 3 products to the cart in 1 visit produces an add-to-cart rate above 100%.
Attribution
On the Site search and Category tabs and their drill-down tables, metrics split into 2 groups that behave differently:
- Counted during the browse session: product page views and add-to-carts. They record what a shopper did while searching a query or browsing a category, as it happens.
- Credited by the attribution model: conversions and revenue. The dashboard credits an order back to the browse session that earned it, even when the order is placed later.
The dashboard credits each ordered product to the last browse session in which the shopper added it to the cart. If they never added it, credit goes to the last browse session in which they viewed it. Credit is assigned per product, so one basket can split across search, a category, and unattributed sources.
Example: A shopper searches "dresses" and views a dress, then searches "red dress," adds the same dress to the cart, and buys it. The order is credited to "red dress" — the last search where the shopper added the product to the cart — not to "dresses," where they only viewed it.
Orders with no search or category behind them, such as direct links, ads, and email campaigns, carry no credit and appear only on the Overall and Products tabs.
Order dates
An order counts on the day the shopper places it. Once a day passes, its numbers are locked and won't change later, so daily figures always add up to the period total.
Example: A shopper adds a dress to the cart on Monday but checks out on Wednesday. The order counts on Wednesday, the day it’s placed. Whether you check Wednesday's revenue the next day or a month later, the number is the same.
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