Web analytics standards are few and far between, which is why I’m glad to blogivate about the Web Analytics Association’s recently released standard definitions for 26 web analytics metrics.  I’m curious to see how the world will respond to these basic definitions.   Standard vocabulary and definitions educate new practitioners, enable consistency in discussions, and lead to shared understandings that foster and promote innovation.  IMHO, the web analytics industry can only benefit from standards.  I certainly think they help to:

• Clarify misunderstanding and prevent confusion.  As the Internet continues to “go mainstream” and more money is invested in the “online channel,” the capital markets will continue to scrutinize and demand consistency in measurement.  The WAA standards set a new baseline for discussing internet measurement. 
• Align other companies and bodies and people expressing standards and using non-standard vocabulary.  If the WAA definitions reach a tipping point through broad industry adoption, other standards-setting bodies and industry organization will adopt and follow suit.  However
• Create a shared vocabulary.  It is not uncommon to hear references to objects in web analytics that are archaic (pages served), industry-specific (page impressions), or conceptually obsolete for certain goals (the number of “hits” as an indicator of site success).  The “names of things” are different across competing technologies.  I hope this document furthers discussion and leads to a common, shared global web analytics vocabulary.

So what are these new standards, you ask?  Here is the standard vocabulary (thanks to my friend Avinash Kaushik whose digitization of the document I have cut and pasted here :

• Building Block Terms: Page, Page Views, Visits, Unique Visitors, New Visitor, Repeat Visitor, Repeat Visitor & Returning Visitor
• Visit Characterization: Entry Page, Landing Page, Exit Page, Visit Duration, Referrer, Internal Referrer, External Referrer, Search Referrer, Visit Referrer, Original Referrer, Click-through, Click-through Rate/Ratio, Page Views per Visit
• Content Characterization: Page Exit Ratio, Single-Page Visits, Single Page View Visits (Bounces), Bounce Rate
• Conversion Metrics: Event, Conversion

Brief definitions for all these web metrics are listed below.  Make sure you download and read the full document.  There’s a lot more to it than listed below:

• Page: A page is an analyst definable unit of content.
• Page Views: The number of times a page (an analyst-definable unit of content) was viewed.
• Visits/Sessions: A visit is an interaction, by an individual, with a website consisting of one or more requests for an analyst-definable unit of content (i.e. “page view”). If an individual has not taken another action (typically additional page views) on the site within a specified time period, the visit session will terminate.
• Unique Visitors: The number of inferred individual people (filtered for spiders and robots), within a designated reporting timeframe, with activity consisting of one or more visits to a site. Each individual is counted only once in the unique visitor measure for the reporting period.
• New Visitor: The number of Unique Visitors with activity including a first-ever Visit to a site during a reporting period.
• Repeat Visitor: The number of Unique Visitors with activity consisting of two or more Visits to a site during a reporting period.
• Return Visitor: The number of Unique Visitors with activity consisting of a Visit to a site during a reporting period and where the Unique Visitor also Visited the site prior to the reporting period.
• Entry Page: The first page of a visit.
• Landing Page: A page intended to identify the beginning of the user experience resulting from a defined marketing effort.
• Exit Page: The last page on a site accessed during a visit, signifying the end of a visit/session.
• Visit Duration: The length of time in a session. Calculation is typically the timestamp of the last activity in the session minus the timestamp of the first activity of the session.
• Referrer: The referrer is the page URL that originally generated the request for the current page view or object.
• Internal Referrer: The internal referrer is a page URL that is internal to the website or a web-property within the website as defined by the user.
• External Referrer: The external referrer is a page URL where the traffic is external or outside of the website or a web-property defined by the user.
• Search Referrer: The search referrer is an internal or external referrer for which the URL has been generated by a search function.
• Visit Referrer: The visit referrer is the first referrer in a session, whether internal, external or null. 
• Original Referrer: The original referrer is the first referrer in a visitor’s first session, whether internal, external or null.
• Click-through: Number of times a link was clicked by a visitor.
• Click-through Rate/Ratio: The number of click-throughs for a specific link divided by the number of times that link was viewed.
• Page Views per Visit: The number of page views in a reporting period divided by number of visits in the same reporting period.
• Page Exit Ratio: Number of exits from a page divided by total number of page views of that page.
• Single-Page Visits: Visits that consist of one page regardless of the number of times the page was viewed.
• Single Page View Visits (Bounces): Visits that consist of one page-view.
• Bounce Rate: Single page view visits divided by entry pages.
• Event: Any logged or recorded action that has a specific date and time assigned to it by either the browser or server.
• Conversion: A visitor completing a target action.

In order for broad-based adoption and continued relevancy of these standards, I encourage the Web Analytics Association to: 

• Create broad consensus and agreement.  I was surprised the Web Analytics Association didn’t release these standards for comment to the larger membership and the public before releasing these standard definitions.  While I support the standards, I fear the perception of “dropping” standards on practitioners and vendors without providing a period for public commentary may slow adoption as people grumble about the nuances of the language.  After all, not all vendor’s tools or reporting comply exactly to the subtleties in these standards.
• Necessitate adoption by vendors and practitioners.  The old American expression says you say “po-tay-toe” I say “po-tah-toe;” I say “to-may-toe” you say “to-mah-toe.”   For broad adoption and usage of these standards, vendors need to integrate this vocabulary into graphical interfaces, reporting, documentation, training programs, and marketing messaging.  Consultants and practitioners need to “talk the talk.”  The Web Analytics Association should think about creating a “standards certification” program to verify adherence by certain companies and consultants.
• Identify compliance by vendors.  Current vendor vocabulary doesn’t conform to the standards, and there is currently no persuasive argument for vendors to adopt the definitions and modify their offerings.  The WAA needs to let the public know which vendors comply and which don’t and to what degree!
• Go beyond definitions to focus on interoperability.  Systems integration requires more than just definitions.  I’m looking forward to when these standards are described in XML.

Excellent job, Web Analytics Association!  If you haven’t joined, you should!