Sessions
Definition
A single visit to your website, from arrival to departure. One user can have multiple sessions across different visits.
What is a Session?
A session is a single visit to your website. It starts when someone arrives and ends when they leave or are inactive for a period (typically 30 minutes).
How Sessions Work
Session Start
User arrives on your site.
Session Activities
User browses pages, clicks buttons, fills forms.
Session End
User leaves, or 30+ minutes of inactivity.
New Session
Same user returns later = new session.
Sessions vs Users vs Hits
- Users: Individual people (tracked by cookies)
- Sessions: Visits per user (one user, multiple sessions)
- Hits/Page Views: Pages viewed per session
Example relationship: 1 user → 3 sessions over a week → 15 page views total
What Affects Session Count?
New Sessions Start When:
- Someone visits after 30+ minutes of inactivity
- Midnight (new day in your analytics timezone)
- User comes from a different campaign source
- User clears cookies and returns
Inflated Sessions:
- Bot traffic
- Referrer spam
- Session timeout being too short
Using Session Data
Traffic Trends
More sessions = more visits. Track patterns over time.
Quality Indicators
- Pages per session
- Average session duration
- Bounce rate per session
Source Analysis
Which channels drive the most sessions?
Conversion Context
Session-based conversion rates.
In Google Analytics 4
GA4 focuses more on "engaged sessions" – sessions lasting more than 10 seconds, having a conversion, or viewing 2+ pages. This filters out low-quality visits.
Average Session Duration
Total time of all sessions ÷ number of sessions.
Higher is generally better, but depends on your site type. A quick-reference site might have short sessions that are successful.