Google Analytics (legacy) dashboard - Overview

This page shows a general review of the performance of key metrics for the vic.gov.au website, or specific pages or site sections that you’ve selected using the top filters.

Overview section

Sessions data

  • Total sessions: The total visits to the page(s) or site section(s) that consist of one or more “events”, such as page views, link clicks, page scrolls, video views, and form completions.

  • VPS sessions: The sessions conducted by VPS staff if they’re using a Cenitex VPN or working from a VPS office.

  • Sessions per day: The total sessions divided by the number of days (the date range can be selected in the top banner of the dashboard).

  • Bounce rate: The percentage of sessions that last less than 10 seconds, do not include a conversion, and/or only include viewing a single page. Unlike other metrics, the lower the bounce rate is, the better.

  • Sessions with search: Sessions of visitors who performed an internal search while on the page(s) or site section(s).

Sessions data.

Visitor data

  • New vs returning visitors: The comparison between visitors who have never visited the page(s) before (new) and visitors who have visited the page at least once before (returning).

  • Devices: The type of device visitors are using when they visited the page(s) – desktop, mobile or tablet.

  • Social network referrals: The social networks that are a source of the traffic coming to the page(s).

  • Feedback – Was this page helpful?: Percentage of feedback received from visitors answering a form asking whether the page they visited was useful or not. You can find this on the bottom of nearly all vic.gov.au pages:

This feedback form is included on nearly all vic.gov.au pages.

You might see other types of feedback forms on vic.gov.au pages, such as the ‘Have you found what you were looking for today’ example (see below screenshot). These are extensions from Hotjar, so this data is not recorded on GA.

If you need data from other feedback sources, please email our team: analytics.team@dpc.vic.gov.au.

“Top 5” data – pages, referral sources, internal search terms and Google search terms

  • Top 5 pages: The top 5 pages that have the highest number of unique pageviews (repeat views by the same user during the same session are not counted).

  • Top 5 referral sources: The top 5 sites that have referred visitors through a link, based on unique pageviews.

  • Top 5 search terms – internal: The top 5 terms visitors used when performing an internal search, based on total unique searches.

  • Top 5 search terms – Google: The top 5 keywords visitors used on Google to land on vic.gov.au, based on URL clicks. Note: This data is for the entire vic.gov.au website and can’t be filtered down to specific site sections or pages.

Grants, publications, news and downloads data

  • Top 5 grants: Top 5 grant pages, based on unique pageviews.

  • Top 5 publications: Top 5 publication pages, based on unique pageviews.

  • Top 5 news items: Top 5 news pages, based on unique pageviews.

  • Top 5 downloads: Top 5 downloaded files (format varies), based on unique events.

Timeline comparisons section

  • Sessions – weekly comparison: The comparison of week-to-week sessions. Since it is weekly, make sure your date range is set to a minimum of 2 weeks for this data to be useful.

  • Sessions – daily comparison: The comparison of day-to-day sessions.