Average session duration, bounce rate…? Several questions come up when you open Google Analytics for the first time. We’ve all been there, but if you still don’t know what these figures mean, we’ll explain them below.
Bounce rate:
A bounced visit is one where the user lands on a page of our website and leaves without interacting with it.
There’s nothing like an example: say you’re browsing Google and remember you wanted to look up the ideal average session duration, and you find this article. You visit the site, read it and leave (by typing another URL in the browser or closing the tab). Your visit is a bounce with a session duration of 00:00:00.
Does this mean you didn’t like the article? No. You may have read it all and loved it, but since you didn’t take any other action (sharing it on social media, looking for another article, etc.), the time isn’t counted.
Average session duration:
Average session duration is calculated as the average time users spent browsing the site, as long as they interacted with it.
Google Analytics can’t measure average session duration if there are no interactions.
What kind of interactions are these?
- Clicking another page on the same site
- Clicking a link on the page
- Sharing on social media
- Clicking any “contact” or “request information” button
By doing any of these actions, Analytics will count our time on the website and improve the average session duration of our site. A Google Analytics session doesn’t end until 30 minutes of inactivity have passed since the last interaction.
Let’s look at a few examples to understand it better:
You’re looking for information about Instagram advertising and find our article. You start reading it (it’s 11:30 p.m.).
Case 1: You read the article for 15 minutes and close the tab without interacting with the page.
Average session duration: 00:00:00
Bounce: 1
Case 2: You read the article for 15 minutes and decide to look for other SEO articles. You click the SEO tab but remember you were chatting on Twitter and switch tabs. After 31 minutes the conversation ends, you go back to the page and close the tab because you have to leave.
Session duration: 00:15:00 minutes
Case 3: You read the article for 15 minutes and decide to look for other SEO articles. You click the SEO tab but remember you were chatting on Twitter and switch tabs. After 31 minutes the conversation ends, you go back to the page and decide to read an article on KPIs for website traffic . You open it, read it for 5 minutes and share it on Twitter.
Session 1 duration: 00:15:00 minutes
Session 2 duration: 00:05:00 minutes
(The first session expired after 30 minutes of inactivity on the page, and a new session started when you returned)
Case 4: You read the article for 15 minutes and decide to look for other SEO articles. You click the SEO tab but remember you were chatting on Twitter and switch tabs. After 29 minutes the conversation ends, you go back to the page and decide to read an article on how to improve your online store’s local SEO . You open it, read it for 5 minutes and share it on Twitter.
Session duration: 00:49:00 minutes
(The session doesn’t expire because 30 minutes haven’t passed, so Analytics keeps adding up)
With the concept clear, another question arises: what is the optimal average session duration for my website?
Well, it depends. It depends on whether we’re talking about a blog, a landing page with a sign-up form or an eCommerce site, for example.
Is a 70% bounce rate with an average session duration of 01:00 minute good or bad?
If it’s a help page, these are good figures, since the user solved their question or problem quickly.
If it’s an online sneaker store, these figures leave a lot of room for improvement, since in 1 minute the customer couldn’t have bought a pair of sneakers or looked at another model.
So what can I do to improve average session duration if I have an eCommerce site?
Many factors come into play when it comes to bounce rate and time on page, but some are common to all eCommerce sites:
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Improve the user experience
Users shouldn’t struggle to navigate our site: for example, no annoying banners or pop-ups every 2 minutes.
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Attractive prices
Say we’re a sneaker eCommerce store. The site is usable, trustworthy and has related products. But I have to pay €10 shipping to buy the same pair of sneakers available on another site. Even if the sneakers cost the same, it will be much harder to retain the customer.
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Related products
A related products slider on the page can help a customer who isn’t fully convinced by those sneakers see other models, increasing time on site and a potential sale.
To conclude, we’ve seen that a high bounce rate and a low average session duration aren’t always bad, depending on the website.
The optimal average session duration, after all, is an Analytics metric that can guide us on how the site is doing, but it isn’t entirely reliable.
Do you know other factors that help improve average session duration? If so, what are they?
