How a Session measure in Google Analytics? & how it count Time for each session

[lucidsoftechpvtltd]

I have tried a lot but unable to understand basic behind, Hey can anybody help me to.  Differentiate among- Session, Users & Page views? In count of session what is the role of time & how it will be count? Please give an answer with simple example

[akashsharma]

Page view is number of people visited the page.Sessions is visiting a page for certain period.There is certain time period called session for sessions.If the maximum time period is reached and we don't any action on the page then the session will be completed.I again start counting another session when a simple action is carried out on page.

[lucygomez]

Сoncepts commonly used in web analytics: Sessions, Users, and Pageviews.

1. Pageviews: This is the simplest concept among the three. A pageview is counted each time a page on your website is viewed by a user. If a user navigates to a different page and then returns, that is counted as another pageview. Reloading the same page also counts as a pageview.

Example: User A visits your site. They land on the homepage (1 pageview), navigate to a product page (2 pageviews), go back to the homepage (3 pageviews), and then refresh the homepage (4 pageviews).

2. Users: Users are individual visitors to your site, identified by unique identifiers (like cookies) stored in their browser. Each unique user is counted only once during the time period you're looking at, regardless of how many times they visit or how many pages they view.

Example: User A visits your site for the first time. They're counted as a new user. If they come back later from the same device and browser, they are recognized and not counted as a new user again.

3. Sessions: A session is a group of interactions that a user has with your website within a given time period. By default, in tools like Google Analytics, a session expires after 30 minutes of inactivity, or at midnight. So, if a user opens your website and visits several pages, these all count towards a single session, as long as they occur within that timeframe. If the same user comes back after a while or on a different day, that counts as a new session.

Example: User A visits your website at 11:00 AM and navigates through several pages. They leave their computer for lunch and do nothing on your website until 12:01 PM. Their earlier activity counts as one session (it ended due to 30 minutes of inactivity), and any activity after 12:01 PM counts towards a new session. If they had returning before 11:30 AM, then all the activities would be a part of the same session.

Remember that one user can have multiple sessions, and one session can have multiple pageviews. Therefore, if you were to rank these metrics in terms of quantity, you would often see: Pageviews > Sessions > Users.

Every platform might have a slightly different definition and rules for counting these parameters, but these definitions are a good starting point.


Here is how Google Analytics measures these three metrics:

1. Pageviews: Google Analytics records a pageview each time the tracking code is executed. This usually corresponds to the user loading a page in their browser. This would also count instances where pages are reloaded or revisited.

2. Users: Google Analytics uses cookies to identify unique users. When someone visits your website for the first time, a cookie is stored in their browser, and that cookie ID is used to identify the user in subsequent sessions. If a user disables cookies or clears them from their browser, they will be recognized as a new user the next time they visit your website.

3. Sessions: Google Analytics starts a new session either when a user lands on your site for the first time or when a user has been inactive on your site for at least 30 minutes. If a user returns to your site within 30 minutes of their last activity, Google Analytics will consider this part of the same session. Additionally, even if a user is continuously active on your site, when the clock strikes midnight, a new session will be started.

In Google Analytics, you have the ability to tweak these settings. For instance, you can modify the timeout length of a session to be shorter or longer than 30 minutes. You can control these settings in the admin panel under "Tracking Info" > "Session Settings" in the property column.

Pageviews vs. Unique Pageviews:
In addition to pageviews, Google Analytics also provides information on "Unique Pageviews". When a user visits a page multiple times during a single session, it results in multiple pageviews but only one unique pageview for that page.

For example, if I visit the "Contact" page 3 times in one session it is 3 Pageviews, but 1 Unique Pageview.

Users vs. New Users:
Excluding users returning to your website after deleting cookies or using a different device or browser, Google Analytics will record them as distinct users. If a user visits the website for the first time, Google assigns a unique ID for that user and records the visit as a "New User" and also as "User". Should the same user revisit the website, the activity will be tracked under the same unique ID, and will add to the "Users", but they will not count again under "New Users".

Sessions & Bounce Rate:
"Bounce Rate" and "Exit Percentage" are two critical metrics related to sessions.

Bounce Rate refers to the percentage of sessions where the user loads the webpage and leaves without performing any other action (like clicking a link, filling a form etc). A high bounce rate might indicate that users aren't finding what they're looking for or the page isn't user-friendly.

Exit Percentage relates to the number of exits (users leaving the site) from a page, compared to total views of that page. If a page's exit rate is high, it might indicate that users are leaving your website after reaching that page, which could mean there is something about that page that is not meeting the users' needs or expectations.