Session is a group of user interactions with your website that take place within a given time frame. For example, a single session can contain multiple page views, events, social interactions, and ecommerce transactions.
The number of sessions is one of the most important fundamental metrics of every website. Together with the number of users (unique visitors), it is the basis for most calculated metrics.
Different analytics platforms can have different rules for defining a session. Here’s how Google Analytics is counting sessions.
Session in Google Analytics
A single user can open multiple sessions. Those sessions can occur on the same day, or over several days, weeks, or months. As soon as one session ends, there is then an opportunity to start a new session. There are two methods by which a session ends:
- Time-based expiration:
- After 30 minutes of inactivity
- At midnight
- Campaign change:
- If a user arrives via one campaign, leaves, and then comes back via a different campaign.
Read more at Google Analytics docs.
Last modified: April 27, 2020
Want to see more articels like What is Session? Check out all definitions in the Analytics Dictionary.