Visit Duration is
defined by the length of time in a session. Calculation is typically the
timestamp of the last activity in the session minus the time stamp of the first
activity of the session. (WVU. 2016)
“As time on site doesn't account for the time spent
reading (or ignoring) the last page in the session it can't be said to be an
accurate reflection of how visitors actually use the site. So leaving your
browser open on a page doesn't cause the average time on site to increase
unless you click on another page. In this case each web analytics tool will
have its own rules about when to terminate a session and start a new one. In most
cases this is based on a gap of 30 minutes or more in the sequence of
activities. So if you left your browser open on a page and went to lunch then
returned in an hour to click on a link it would be counted as a new session or
visit to the site. Time on site is a
good indicative and relative measure. For instance, if you compare the
difference in time on site for each campaign that you run, then you can see how
each campaign compares in regards to the time on site that results.”
(Panalysis. n.d.)
If a visitor would go to the website and browse for
an item and couldn’t find it right away they would use the search option and if
the website did not have what they looking for they would likely leave the
website. One reason for extended times
on websites can be a browser being left open and there isn’t a way to see
activity just time. One way to
understand how time works on a site is to understand how the metric is
calculated.
A business can measure the average session length by
a visitor for example let’s say that 4,000 visitors spent a total of 29 hours
on a site in one month the average session length is about 26.1 seconds per
visitor. This may seem like the average
visitor doesn’t stay on the site that long but it all depends on the nature of
your site and your industry.
Businesses can also use the average session length to
evaluate the success of changes it makes to a particular process. For example,
say that a business streamlines the checkout process and if sales remain steady
or increase while the average session length decreases that would be a good
indication that the transactions are taking place more quickly.
Another good note to keep in mind is that a relatively
long average session length could indicate that visitors are engaging with the
businesses content and want to stay on it, or it could mean they are struggling
to understand the navigation scheme to find meaningful content but generally
speaking if a visitor has a long average session length time then it means that
a business is successfully engaging with the visitor. (Haden, J. n.d.)
Reference:
Haden, J.
(n.d.). Web Metrics: Average Session Length vs Repeat Visitor ... Retrieved
October 24, 2016, from http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/web-metrics-average-session-length-vs-repeat-visitor-ratio.html
Panalysis. (n.d.). How to Interpret Time on Site -
Web Analytics Experts. Retrieved October 21, 2016, from http://www.panalysis.com/resources/articles/understanding-time-on-site
WVU:Reed College of Media. (2016).
Lesson 1: Intro to Web Analytics and the Basics of Web Analytics
Retrieved October 24, 2016 from https://ecampus.wvu.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_69901_1&content_id=_3398289_1&framesetWrapped=true
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