{"id":7,"date":"2020-02-18T08:29:08","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T08:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/difblog\/?p=7"},"modified":"2020-04-30T09:39:10","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T09:39:10","slug":"average-session-duration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/","title":{"rendered":"Average session duration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Useful for: <\/strong>Providing an indication of how \u2018sticky\u2019 a website is, and whether any CRO work has yielded improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be careful of: <\/strong>How this metric is reported in Google Analytics \u2013 it\u2019s not the most accurate!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our preferred tool: <\/strong>Google Analytics (albeit with some tweaking).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the face of it, the average session duration metric from Google Analytics sounds great. After all, as SEO\u2019s we all know that the better and \u2018stickier\u2019 a website is the easier it is to rank. However, not all is as it seems!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re just going to throw this out there, but Google doesn\u2019t measure the time a user spends on the last page of their visit to your site.<\/em> This is because (by default at least) Google Analytics only fires off a tracking pixel on a unique page load, and not when a user exits away from a site. The website Jimmy Data has a really good explanation of this, told through a real life analogy, so be sure to visit their website<\/a> if you want more information on how Google calculates this metric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main takeaway here is that average session duration is only calculated from a sample of your total users, and the higher your bounce rates are, the more inaccurate this metric will be for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All is not lost however, and there are third party tools which can more accurately measure average session durations. Our recommendations are Hotjar<\/a> and Mixpanel<\/a>, both of which are very good conversion rate optimisation (CRO) analytics suites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another option to improve Google Analytics\u2019 average session duration is to adapt your tracking code to fire off a non-interaction event every few seconds, thus capturing those visitors who either bounced or spent a long time visiting the final page on their visit to your site. Littledata have written a script for this that will fire off a non-interaction event every 10 seconds<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you decide not to adapt the default Google Analytics settings, the key takeaway here is that yes \u2013 average session duration is a good indicator of how sticky a website is, but it should not be considered a reliable KPI for reporting purposes. If you are going to include this metric in your reporting, we\u2019d strongly recommend including a disclaimer so that stakeholders are aware of its shortcomings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Useful for: Providing an indication of how \u2018sticky\u2019 a website is, and whether any CRO work has yielded improvements. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6,7,8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAverage session duration - Blog posts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Average session duration - Blog posts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Useful for: Providing an indication of how \u2018sticky\u2019 a website is, and whether any CRO work has yielded improvements. […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog posts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-18T08:29:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-30T09:39:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Layer-1211.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"255\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"195\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"difdash_admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"difdash_admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/\",\"name\":\"Average session duration - Blog posts\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-18T08:29:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-30T09:39:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67c299c0040b96e7e05d1266bfa166c3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Average session duration\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Blog posts\",\"description\":\"Difdash musings\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67c299c0040b96e7e05d1266bfa166c3\",\"name\":\"difdash_admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf5e8de51b97d2561206678400bd1f4c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf5e8de51b97d2561206678400bd1f4c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"difdash_admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/author\/difdash_admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Average session duration - Blog posts","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Average session duration - Blog posts","og_description":"Useful for: Providing an indication of how \u2018sticky\u2019 a website is, and whether any CRO work has yielded improvements. […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/","og_site_name":"Blog posts","article_published_time":"2020-02-18T08:29:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-04-30T09:39:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":255,"height":195,"url":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Layer-1211.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"difdash_admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"difdash_admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/","url":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/","name":"Average session duration - Blog posts","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-02-18T08:29:08+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-30T09:39:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67c299c0040b96e7e05d1266bfa166c3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/18\/average-session-duration\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Average session duration"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/","name":"Blog posts","description":"Difdash musings","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/67c299c0040b96e7e05d1266bfa166c3","name":"difdash_admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf5e8de51b97d2561206678400bd1f4c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cf5e8de51b97d2561206678400bd1f4c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"difdash_admin"},"url":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/author\/difdash_admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions\/28"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.difdash.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}