# Guilford GA4 Pre-Launch Baseline

**Property:** `359308554` · **Window:** last 90 days (`90daysAgo`–`yesterday`) · **Pulled:** 2026-06-22
via the live `@google-analytics/data` integration (`scripts/ga4-guilford-baseline.mjs`). These are the
**pre-launch benchmarks** the post-launch measurement plan proves lift against. Internal.

## Headline totals (90d)
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Sessions | 120,036 |
| Total users | 78,234 |
| New users | 72,013 |
| Pageviews | 219,389 |
| Engagement rate | 45.0% |
| Avg session duration | ~2:34 (154s) |
| Conversions (current key events) | 7,044 |

## Traffic mix (sessions by default channel group)
| Channel | Sessions | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Organic Search | 62,216 | 51.8% |
| **Direct** | 37,507 | **31.2%** |
| Display | 6,113 | 5.1% |
| Referral | 4,856 | 4.0% |
| Organic Social | 3,721 | 3.1% |
| Paid Other | 3,080 | 2.6% |
| Unassigned | 2,977 | 2.5% |
| (remaining: AI Assistant, Paid Search/Social, etc.) | <70 | — |

## New vs returning (sessions / users)
| Type | Sessions | Users |
|---|---|---|
| New | 73,403 | 74,152 |
| **Returning** | 37,483 (**31.2%**) | 10,932 |
| (not set) | 8,447 | 4,510 |

**The "~60% direct/repeat" kickoff intuition — confirmed directionally.** The literal Direct channel is
31.2% and returning sessions are 31.2%; these overlap, so they don't simply add. But the *behavior* the
intuition points at — people who already know Guilford — clearly drives roughly half-plus of traffic:
Direct (31%) + a large branded-organic slice (top pages below are `/current-students`, `/faculty-and-staff`,
`/account/login`, `/admitted-students`, `/apply/status`) + returning visitors. **Takeaway for the framework:
do not narrow the site; current students, faculty/staff, and applicants checking status are heavy, recurring
users and must stay first-class in IA and measurement.**

## Device split (sessions)
| Device | Sessions | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop | 76,683 | 63.9% |
| **Mobile** | 42,393 | **35.3%** |
| Tablet | 1,351 | 1.1% |
| Smart TV | 6 | — |

## Top pages (pageviews / sessions)
1. `/` — 44,537 / 37,370
2. `/current-students` — 15,946 / 12,506
3. `/faculty-and-staff` — 8,193 / 6,542
4. `/admissions/apply` — 7,840 / 7,378
5. `/directory` — 7,627 / 2,184
6. `/program-finder` — 6,179 / 4,854
7. `/admitted-students` — 4,468 / 3,939
8. `/account/login` — 4,027 / 2,700
9. `/apply/` — 2,752 / 1,434
10. `/work-here` — 2,741 / 2,610
… `/commencement`, `/apply/status`, `/apply/frm`, `/admissions/financial-aid/tuition-and-fees`,
`/visit/campus-map`, `/visit`, `/admissions`, `/academics`.

## Top source / medium
google/organic (55,229) · (direct)/(none) (37,507) · **encoura/display (6,113)** · bing/organic (4,139) ·
**encoura/paidsocial (3,080)** · portal.mist.com/referral (1,834) · facebook.com/referral (1,250) ·
yahoo/organic · m./l./lm.facebook referral · duckduckgo/organic · linkedin.com/referral ·
guilfordquakers.com/referral. **Encoura is the active enrollment-marketing vendor** (display + paid social).

## Conversions by event (current key events)
| Event | Conversions | Event count |
|---|---|---|
| guilford_college_application | 2,842 | 13,581 |
| guilford_application_button | 1,889 | 1,889 |
| guilford_app_click_to_apply_site | 1,068 | 1,904 |
| click_to_email | 483 | 659 |
| request_information_click | 481 | 534 |
| application_page_visit | 183 | 208 |
| click_to_call | 98 | 118 |

Non-conversion events present (not marked key): `form_start` (15,767), `form_submit` (12,708),
`request_info` (478), `view_search_results` (1,349), `file_download` (660), `video_*` (handful),
plus the GA4 automatics (`click`, `scroll`, `page_view`, `first_visit`, `user_engagement`).

## Gaps the framework must close (read directly off the baseline)
1. **No giving/donation conversion tracking at all** — yet donors are priority-2 audience and the kickoff
   wants a prominent Give CTA. Giving lives off-domain (`giving.guilford.edu` / GiveCampus) → needs
   cross-domain + a `donation_start` / `donation_complete` key-event spec. **Biggest measurement gap.**
2. **Vendor/ad-hoc event names** (`guilford_college_application`, `guilford_application_button`,
   `guilford_app_click_to_apply_site`) — overlapping, inconsistent, hard to reason about. The new taxonomy
   should standardize to `apply_start` / `apply_submit` etc. and reconcile/retire the legacy names so the
   baseline still reconciles forward.
3. **No visit-scheduling conversion** — `/visit` and `/visit/campus-map` get traffic but no `visit_scheduled`
   key event. RFI is partially tracked (`request_information_click` / `request_info`) but not standardized.
4. **Forms tracked generically** — `form_start` (15.8k) / `form_submit` (12.7k) fire but aren't segmented by
   purpose (apply vs RFI vs contact vs newsletter), so they're not usable as funnel steps yet.
5. **Off-domain systems unmeasured/unjoined** — apply portal (`/apply/*`, `portal.mist.com`),
   catalog, events, giving. The T6 portable frame is the vehicle to inject a consistent GA/dataLayer there;
   needs referral exclusions + cross-domain config (audit existing GA4 first — enhance, don't rebuild).