Google Analytics Users vs Sessions
In this article we’re looking at Google Analytics Users and Google Analytics Sessions. Specifically to understand HOW MANY people even know your website exists!
This is the first in a series of four short articles dedicated to improving your website effectiveness and website ROI. By improving your Google Analytics understanding.
When analysing Google Analytics Sessions vs Users here’s a quick overview of what they actually mean. First purely from a technical point of view, but most importantly (be sure to read to the bottom), why they are important and what you could do to change/improve their relevance to your marketing plans and future business success.
Google Analytics Users Definition
To begin with, in terms of Google Analytics reporting, consider Users and Visitors the same. (For the purpose of a technical definition we’ll default to describing a User for most of this article. But later we may interchange the terms as they relate to marketing and growing your business).
From purely a technical perspective, Google Analytics creates/recognizes a User from a combination of a unique random number and a timestamp from when they first engage with your site. (Unless two years have passed. See New vs Returning below).
The first time a device (desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc) or a browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc) visits your website, Google Analytics’ tracking code creates a random unique ID for them; the client ID.
This new unique ID is counted as a unique user by Google Analytics. And every time a new ID is created, Google Analytics counts it as a new user.
However, if the user deletes their browser cookies, the ID gets deleted or reset. And if the user switches devices or browsers on a return visit to your site, Google Analytics also creates another new unique client ID, and the ‘returning’ user is counted as a new user (as the client ID only exists on the device/browser where it was initially created).
Put simply, Google Analytics ‘Users’ and ‘Active Users’ metrics show how many people are engaging with your site or app.
New vs Returning Users
When a visitor views your website, Google’s tracking snippet looks for an existing tracking cookie on the device. If there is an existing tracking cookie, the visitor will be tagged as a ‘Returning User’.
If Google Analytics can’t find it, it tags the person as a New User/Visitor. Likewise, if they change devices, they will also be counted as a New User/Visitor.
This tracking cookie can live for up to two years on a device. Meaning if someone has visited your website within the past two years and returns from the same device, they are marked as a Returning Visitor in your Google Analytics.
However, if it has been more than two years since they visited your site when they return they are counted as a New Visitor again.
Google Analytics does not report on unique users anymore. The User metric includes both new and returning visitors and every website needs a healthy combination of both new and returning visitors.
Google Analytics Sessions Definition
Before we move onto why any of these Google Analytics terms are important, let’s look at one more metric related to How Many People Know Your Website Exists.
A Google Analytics Session is defined as the number of interactions a user engages in on your website within a given time frame (Google Analytics Session duration).
Google Analytics defaults that time frame to 30 minutes from the time of the last interaction; whatever a user does on your website before an including the 30 minutes of inactivity – browsing pages, answering a poll, downloading resources or purchasing products counts as one session.
After 30 minutes of inactivity, Google Analytics considers the session closed.
A single user can engage in multiple Google Analytics sessions in one day. There are two ways for sessions to end; after 30 minutes of inactivity, or at midnight.
The Google Analytics ‘Sessions’ metrics is the new unified way to report what used to be ‘Visits’ and ‘Active Users’ for Google Analytics users.
Google Analytics’ new session reporting is better than just counting “visits” because you can accurately gauge whether individuals are truly interacting with your website. Since a Google Analytics session doesn’t go beyond 30 minutes, “passive” visitors don’t distort data.
For example, if someone keeps your website open in a separate tab and continues browsing elsewhere, it won’t be counted past the 30-minute session marker. This makes reporting much more accurate.
It is worth noting that you can change the 30-minute default setting. Google Analytics’ constraints are that a session cannot be shorter than 1 minute, or longer than 4 hours.
How to find User and Session stats in Google Analytics
Finding your User/New User and Session stats is easy. Log into your Google Analytics account on your desktop and simply navigate to Audience>Overview. These three important stats will be right there at the top of the dashboard.
Why are Users and Sessions important!
Enough of the technical mumbo jumbo, why are these terms important?
In simple terms, the number of Users and/or Sessions is a basic reflection of how many people even know your website or business actually exists. If you’ve invested thousands of dollars and/or hours in building a website, the first thing you’d probably like to know is that people are actually seeing it.
If not, why bother building a website! (Maybe consider using some different marketing initiatives).
The ratio of New Visitors to Returning Visitors can help show the effectiveness of your marketing techniques. Looking at behavioral data for these two groups provides valuable insight into your website content, structure, and design, and it can show you new opportunities to provide value to your audience.
Depending on what studies you find and/or believe, some people argue that websites tend to have more New Visitors and fewer Returning Visitors. But this may not be the case for you and will depend on the type of website you have.
However, what is interesting to understand is that Returning Visitors are more likely to exhibit higher engagement. After all, the very fact they’ve returned to your site is an indication they’re interested in what you have to say/offer.
From a Google Analytics reporting perspectives, this means users ‘bounce’ less [BLOG POST #3], view more pages per session and have higher session durations. They also tend to have higher conversion rates and much higher sales. This makes us very interested in Returning Visitors.
The benefits of User and Session data to improve website effectiveness and ROI
Now you know what these stats mean and why they are important, it’s time to use them to your benefit.
But first things first… Remember the KISS principle. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!
One of our prime goals is to simplify Google Analytics reporting so it’s useful to a small business person. With this in mind, we encourage you not to over-analyze or over-think Google Analytics data. Rather, just think about your Google Analytics reports as a trending tool rather than a precise measuring tool.
Stay focused on your vision, your mission, and strategic goals and recognize trending data is very useful. For example, you can learn a lot comparing one month to the next, one quarter to the next, etc.
OK, now you know how we feel about data overload, let’s get back to our focus; improving your website effectiveness and website ROI.
In our opinion, the first thing to do is simply to make the internet a better place. Answer the questions people are asking as they relate to your goods and services.
We don’t mean that flippantly, either. We simply mean make sure that each page on your website knows the job it is supposed to be doing. Don’t try to overload a page with too many jobs and/or objectives. This has the potential to confuse the search engines, and reduce your chances of being discovered in the search results.
(Remember the purpose of the search engines is not to love your business. It is to answer people’s questions).
If each page you create serves a particular purpose as it relates to the potential User visiting that page, then steadily you’ll be found. Because the search engines will see that you’re answering questions (and making the internet a better place).
Yes, there are a lot of techniques that can help with this process, especially in competitive arenas and keyword research. But right now, simply understanding this principle is the first stepping stone to getting more people to visit your website.
If you want a deeper dive into attracting more visitors to your site, including some tips on how to play nice with the search engines, here are two very useful articles:
42 Timeless Ideas for Attracting More Visitors to Your Website from Fizzle Co-Founder, Corbett Barr. (Fizzle is an all-in-one business building solution for people like you who want to create a profitable, sustainable, meaningful business).
Increase Website Traffic: 12 Tactics You Can Start Doing Today from the Taboola blog. (Taboola is a private advertising company headquartered in New York City. It provides advertisements such as the “Around the Web” and “Recommended For You” boxes at the bottom of many online news articles. The company was founded in 2007. By 2015, it had raised more than $157 million in funding).
So now you have a basic understanding of how many people even know your website exists, it’s time to consider What Are Your Visitors Interested In? (Part 2 of this 4-part series)