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Google Site Speed Performance Metrics



Learn how to build your own custom site speed report with Google Analytics data integrated into our Insight Graph, Single Metric Widgets and Chart/List Widget.

These instructions highlight the Google Analytics Site Speed metrics, however, you can also follow them to create graphs and reports using any of the following Google Analytics metric groups:
  • Traffic: Average Time on Site, Bounce Rate, Pages/Session, Page Views, Users, New Users, New Users % and Sessions
  • Goals: Goal Completions, Goal Conversion Rate and Goal Value
  • ECommerce: Transactions, Revenue, Revenue Per User and Ecommerce Conversion Rate
  • Events: Average Value, Event Value, Events per Session with Event, Sessions with Event, Total Events or Unique Events
  • Multi-Channel Funnels: Assisted Conversions, Assisted Value, Last Interaction Conversions, Last Interaction Value and Assisted / Last Interaction Conversions
  • Site Speed: list below
  • Site Search: coming soon

custom Site Speed report
 

Site Speed Dashboard

             
 

This dashboard page was built with Google Analytics Site Speed metrics in our:

             
site speed report

Instructions for how to create a similar report are in the following sections of this document.

Site Speed Insight Graph

 
Insight Graph Settings: Site Speed

You'll find the Insight Graph in the Reports > Graphs section.

Enter a Metric Name (this is the label that will display in the graph legend) and select a color for the graph line or area by clicking the color swatch that's to the left of the name. Then select:
  • Data Source: Google Analytics
  • Type: Site Speed
  • Metric: Choose from a full list of Site Speed metrics in seconds, milliseconds and Google samples. These metrics can be filtered by Segment, Traffic Source, Device, and Browser. Frequency can be set to Day, Week or Month and a Custom Filter option exists for people with experience using Google's Metric Filter and Dimension Filter clauses.
Repeat for each metric that you want displayed in the graph.  Complete step-by-step instructions for creation of Insight Graphs using the full variety of Google Analytics data and display options can be viewed in this documentation.
            
Site Speed Insight Graph settings


Site Speed Insight Graph example

After you've completed the creation of your graph, you can save it as a template for other campaigns using Report Presets.
            
example of site speed insight graph


Add to Dashboard or PDF Report

Add the Insight Graph to a white label marketing dashboard or PDF report by clicking the gear icon in the upper right corner of the graph screen and selecting the desired option.

add to dashboard


Site Speed Single Metric Widgets

            
 
Create a Page of Site Speed Widgets

You'll find Single Metric Widgets in the Reports > Graphs > Widgets section.

To create the widgets displayed in the example report, click the Add Metric button and enter a Metric Name (this is the label that will display at the top of the widget) and select a trend graph color by clicking the color swatch that's to the left of the name. Then select:
  • Data Source: Google Analytics
  • Type: Site Speed
  • Metric: Choose from a full list of Site Speed metrics in seconds, milliseconds and Google samples. These metrics can be filtered by Segment, Traffic Source, Device, and Browser. Frequency can be set to Day, Week or Month and a Custom Filter option exists for people with experience using Google's Metric Filter and Dimension Filter clauses.
In the Display Settings section:
  • Enable display of the Trend Chart
  • Set the Box Width.
    • If you're planning to add this page of widgets to a marketing dashboard then you have approximately 1040 pixel width to work within (however, you can alter the CSS to make it wider), so in this example I set the box width of six widgets to 170 pixels. 
    • If this widget page will be added to a PDF report, then you have approximately 720 pixels to work with and can fit three 240 pixel wide or four 180 pixel wide widgets per row.
  • Select a theme
  • Click the Save button
Repeat for each metric that you want displayed. Single Metric Widgets have a variety of display options, so please view this documentation for complete details.

single metric widget settings for site speed

Single Metric Widget Page Options
In addition to adding a variety of widgets, you can also add a Separator which can be used to add a Title to a section of widgets, and to separate different types of widgets (e.g., metrics that are measured in sec. vs. ms.). After completing the page of widgets, you can save it as a Report Preset to be applied later to other campaigns.

single metric widget screen

Add to Marketing Dashboard
When your page of widgets is ready, you can click the gear icon in the upper right and select the Add to Marketing Dashboard (or Add to PDF Reports) option and follow the onscreen instructions to select the dashboard and page. This is how the above Single Metric Widgets page displays in a marketing dashboard.

Site Speed Single Metric Widgets


Site Speed List Widgets

            
 
Google Analytics Chart / List Widget
This widget is located in Reports > Graphs > Widgets in the Google Analytics section.

To create the report displayed at the top of this documentation, we added 4 of these widgets to a marketing dashboard. 
  • In Report Options > Widget Settings we disabled the display of the chart
  • In Analytics Settings we selected:
    • Key Metric: Average Page Load Time (sec)
    • Dimension: Country
    • Then clicked the gear icon and selected Add to Marketing Dashboard
This was repeated 3 more times, each time selecting a different Dimension (Browser, Page and City, State). 

This widget has an option to display a pie or bar chart depending upon the metrics selected, as well as color coding in the table and additional columns - please refer to this documentation to explore all the options.


Google Analytics Chart List widget


Four List Widgets in Marketing Dashboard

4 site speed chart list widgets


Marketing Dashboard Settings

             
 
Layout and Sizing
After adding the Insight Graph, Single Metric Widgets and 4 Google Analytics Chart List widgets to the dashboard, to achieve the block of 4 widgets as displayed in the report above, the List widgets were reduced to 50% width by clicking the 4 bar size icon until it displayed 2 bars. 

size dashboard elements

You can add custom titles and drag and drop elements into place to achieve the layout you want for your dashboard.  For more complete instructions for customization of your white label dashboards, please refer to this documentation.

marketing dashboard settings



Add to PDF Report


Conveniently add a report or graph with its current settings to a PDF report by hovering over the gold gear icon and selecting Add to PDF Reports

add report to PDF


Select the PDF Report that you want the report or graph added to
             
select white label report

Drag the new report or graph into the position you want it to display in the PDF and confirm that the Date settings do not conflict with the automated scheduling settings.

Add to Marketing Dashboard


Conveniently add a report or graph with its current settings to a marketing dashboard:

1. Hover over the gold gear icon and select Add to Marketing Dashboard
2. Select the Dashboard (campaign name)
3. Select the Dashboard Page that you want the report added to


add report to PDF


4. Click the "Go to Dashboard" link to further customize the report (e.g., drag it to a specific position on the page, change date settings, etc.)
             



Refer to the Report Options section for details regarding the display settings, filters and sort options available for this report.

The report date (or date range) is governed by the selected Dashboard date option: Date Selection or Fixed Periods, learn more...

  • Daily reports default to the last day of the selected period
  • Weekly and monthly reports default to 1 month of data
To change the number of weeks or months displayed in a specific report, click the gear icon for any marketing dashboard report element and expand the Date option section, enter the number and click the Save Button.
 
marketing dashboard report date options




Google Search & Ad Metrics Glossary


The below-listed metrics are only for the Google Analytics Universal Profile connection.
Wondering what some of the Google metrics in our reports and graphs mean? 

Ad Clicks Displays the number of times viewers of a banner click on an ad to view the full offer.
All Users Total of new users and returning users for a given period of time.
Assisted Conversions Google's measure of any interaction, other than the final click, that led to a consumer converting on a website.
Assisted Value The total value of the conversions assisted by the channel.
Attribution The process of assigning credit for sales and conversions to touchpoints in conversion paths.
Attribution allows marketers to quantify each channel's contribution to sales and conversions. For example, many people may purchase on your site after searching for your brand on Google.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Avg. Time on Site Displays the average length of time a visitor spent on a particular page or set of pages.
Avg. Value A calculation of Event Value / Total Events.
Bounce Rate Displays the percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the page they entered through without going deeper inside your site).
Completions The total number of users who have completed all elements defined for a particular goal.
Conversion A completed activity, online or offline, that is important to the success of your business. Examples include a completed sign-up for your email newsletter (a Goal conversion) and a purchase (a transaction, sometimes called an Ecommerce conversion).
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Conversion Rate The number of conversions is divided by the number of total ad clicks that can be tracked to a conversion during the same time period.
Cost The total cost of Google AdWords campaigns, in currency units defined by the Google account user.
Channel Grouping A roll-up of traffic sources in the Acquisition reports that groups several marketing activities together. Channel groupings allow you to view and compare aggregated metrics by channel name, as well as an individual traffic source, medium, or campaign name.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
CPC (Cost Per Click) Cost-per-click is the average cost an advertiser paid for each click on search ad(s).
CTR (Click Through Ratio) Displays the Click-through-ratio for an ad.  This is equal to the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions the ad received.
Dimension A descriptive attribute or characteristic of an object that can be given different values.
For example, a geographic location could have dimensions called Latitude, Longitude, or City Name. Values for the City Name dimension could be New York, London, etc.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Event A type of hit used to track user interactions with content. Examples of user interactions commonly tracked with Events include downloads, mobile ad clicks, gadgets, Flash elements, AJAX embedded elements, and video plays.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Event Value A calculation of Total Event * Value.
Exit Rate How often do users end their session or leave the site after viewing a particular page
Goal A configuration setting that allows you to track the valuable actions, or conversions, that happens on a site or mobile app.
Goals allow you to measure how well your site or app fulfills your target objectives.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Hits An interaction that results in data being sent to Analytics. Common hit types include page tracking hits, event tracking hits, and e-commerce hits.
Each time the tracking code is triggered by a user’s behavior (for example, the user loads a page on a website or a screen in a mobile app), Analytics records that activity. Each interaction is packaged into a hit and sent to Google’s servers.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Impressions (Ads) The measurement of how many times an ad is shown.
Impressions (Search Console) An impression is the display of a website link in search results or an advertisement. This metric accounts for the total number of impressions recorded by Google for a website or ad campaign.
Last Interaction Conversions The ratio of assisted/last interaction conversions. This is a number that indicates whether this channel primarily results in last interaction conversions or is predominantly assisted conversions. Numbers of 1.5 and higher indicate that this channel is predominantly accounting for assisted conversions, while numbers closer to 0 indicate the channel’s contribution to conversions is predominantly as the last interaction.
Last Interaction Value The total value of the conversions completed by the listed channels.
Metric Individual elements of a dimension that can be measured as a sum or a ratio.
For example, the dimension City can be associated with a metric like Population, which would have a sum value of all the residents of the specific city.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
New Users New Users is based on Google's ga:newUsers metric and represents the number of sessions marked as a user's first sessions.
New Users % New Users % is based on Google's ga:percentNewSessions metric that represents the percentage of sessions by users who had never visited the site before. It does not represent the number of new users between one period and the previous. In this Google Developer document, it is described as the calculation of ga:newSessions / ga:sessions
New Visits Displays the number of new visits by people who have never been to the site before.
Organic Traffic Number of users who find your website ‘organically’ through search results, as opposed to via a paid ad, clicking a link on another site, or from a bookmark they already have saved.
Paid Traffic Number of visitors to your site who came there via Google Ads, paid search keywords and other online ad campaigns.
Pageviews An instance of a page being loaded (or reloaded) in a browser.
Pageviews is a metric defined as the total number of pages viewed.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Permission The right to perform administrative and configuration tasks, to create and share assets, and to read and interact with report data.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Property A sub-component of an Analytics account that determines which data is organized and stored together.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Revenue Specifies the total revenue or grand total associated with the transaction (e.g. 11.99). This value may include shipping, tax costs, or other adjustments to total revenue that you want to include as part of your revenue calculations.
Roll-Up Reporting A feature of Roll-Up Properties, which aggregate data from multiple source properties into a single property.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Sampling The practice of selecting a subset of data from your traffic and reporting on the trends detected in that sample set.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Segment A subset of sessions or users that share common attributes.
Segments allow you to isolate and analyze groups of sessions or users for better analysis.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Session The period of time a user is active on your site or app.
By default, if a user is inactive for 30 minutes or more, any future activity is attributed to a new session.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Sessions with Event The number of sessions during which an Event was recorded.
Source / Medium Source: the origin of your traffic, such as a search engine (for example, google) or a domain (example.com).
Medium: the general category of the source, for example, organic search (organic), cost-per-click paid search (cpc), web referral (referral).
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Tags Referring to Google Tag Manager, a Tag is a snippet of JavaScript that sends information to a third party, such as Google. The Analytics tracking code is an example of a tag.
Refer to this Google Support document for more information.
Total Events A total of Events (executions of a specific action) that occurred on a website during a specified period of time.
Unique Events The number of unique events that occurred on a website during a specific period of time.
Unique Page Views The number of times a page was viewed during a specific time period.
Views The number to views a website or specific web page received during a report period.
Visits By Medium Displays the number of visits by medium through which your site was reached. For example, every referral to a website also has a medium. Possible mediums include: "organic” (unpaid search), "cpc” (cost per click, i.e. paid search), "referral” (referral), "email” (the name of a custom medium you have created), "none” (direct traffic has a medium of "none”).
Visits By Source Displays the number of visits by source that brought visitors to your website. For example, every referral to a web site has an origin, or source. Possible sources include: "google” (the name of a search engine), "facebook.com” (the name of a referring site), "spring_newsletter” (the name of one of your newsletters), and "direct” (users that typed your URL directly into their browser, or who had bookmarked your site).

We will update this periodically, but in the meantime if there are metrics you're curious about that aren't listed in this glossary, please refer to this Google support document.


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