Web Analytics Data Dictionary

About Web Traffic Dashboards

• Developed in Tableau
• Populated with Google Analytics (GA4) data
• Data is T-2 latency
• Use custom definitions, such as Session Channel

Data Dictionary

Device (Device Type, Device Category) – the type of device the user used to access the website.

Download – direct download of a file from a link on our webpage. File formats: pdf, xlsx, docx, pptx, mp3, wav, mp4, zip, doc, xls, ppt, exe. This metric does not include downloads from links on other websites, non-webpage links (email, Teams chat, etc.), or indirect downloads using go-links.

Hostname - subdomain of the page URL. “www” prefix is removed from all hostnames other than www.osu.edu.

Location – where the website was accessed from. In certain cases, the location of a private visitor may default to the U.S. (shown as Kansas) or one of the large data centers (for example, Ashland, Va.) In many reports, the location is rolled up to four categories: Columbus, Ohio, United States outside of Ohio, and International.

Channel (Session Channel) - acquisition channel for the session. This value is calculated from session source, medium, and page referrer. Channel is an attribute of a session.

• Organic Search: visitors who come to our sites via non-ad links in search engine (Google, Bing, etc.) results.
• Direct: visitors who come to our sites via a saved link or by entering the URL directly.
• Internal: visitors who come to our sites from the Wexner Medical Center website or from vendor services, such as links shared in Ohio State SharePoint or Zoom.
• Email: visitors who come to our sites via tagged links in email. Untagged links in email are classified as Referrals. Learn more about tagging email campaigns here.
• Organic Social: visitors who come to our sites via non-ad links on social sites and apps. Full list of qualifying networks: Facebook, X/Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit, Pinterest, Tumblr, WeChat, Twitch, Facebook Messenger, Discord, WhatsApp.
• AI Referrals: visitors who are organically referred to our sites by the Generative Artificial Intelligence services, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and others.
• Referral: visitors who come to our sites via non-ad links on other sites or apps (e.g., blogs, news sites).
• Paid Search: visitors who come to our sites via paid advertising on search-engine sites like Google, Bing, etc. Currently, all Google Ads traffic, including from YouTube ads, is classified as Paid Search.
• Paid Social: Paid Social is the channel by which users arrive at our site via ads on social sites like Facebook and TikTok.
• Display: visitors who come to our sites via banner display ads on other web sites.
• Paid Other: visitors who come to our sites via ads, but not through an ad identified as Search, Social, or Display.
• (Other): visitors who come to our sites from the sources do not fit into any of the above categories.

Pageview – website page loaded by a user. Pageview count is a count of all pageview events. If the same page is accessed twice during a session, it is counted twice.

Pages per Session – number of pageview events in a session.

Page URL - Page URL without custom parameters (UTMs, anchors, custom parameters).

Session – a visit to the website. Session data consists of a series of events (page views, user engagement, downloads) generated by the user during the visit. If the user was inactive for 30 minutes, their activity starts a new session. Only sessions with pageviews are included in reporting.

Session count – count of unique sessions that have a pageview event. Count of sessions on a page URL is called unique pageviews.

Session Duration – sum of time for all events during the session. In most cases, user_engagement events accumulate most time.

Engaged Session – a session that lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a key event, or has at least 2 pageviews.

Percent Engaged Sessions – count of unique engaged sessions divided by total session count.

Session Medium – medium that originated the session. The value comes from manual “utm_medium” parameter or is autopopulated by Google. For example, if the session comes from an organic Facebook post, the value of medium is “organic”. This parameter is applied to all events in the session.

Session Source – source that originated the session. The value comes from manual “utm_source” parameter or is autopopulated by Google. For example, if the session comes from an organic Facebook post, the value of medium is “facebook”. This parameter is applied to all events in the session.

Session Campaign – campaign that originated the session. The value comes from manual “utm_campaign” parameter or is blank. This parameter is applied to all events in the session.

Unique pageviews – unique pages accessed within a session; in other words, if a page is accessed multiple times during a session, it will be counted as one unique pageview.

Time on Page – time the user spent on page during a pageview.

Users – unique user that accesses the website. Note that in many cases, Google is unable to combine user traffic between different devices or browsers. Visits by users who choose strict privacy settings may be counted as one unique user per event. (Currently, user counts are not available in Tableau reports.)

User count – count of unique users at the level of report summarization. For example, daily reports show daily users, i.e., counting one user the same number of times as the days the user accessed the site. (Currently, user counts are not available in Tableau reports.)

Web Analytics Hub

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Get Help

Contact OMC-AnalyticsPerformance@osu.edu to get help with data questions or request a new dashboard.