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Counting page views differs from counting sessions because a user could visit multiple pages within one session. And it’s also different from counting users because the same user could view many pages. In fact, if the same user opens two different pages or even refreshes the same page, two page views will be counted.
User Sessions
On its support page, A user session refers to the period of time during which a user interacts with a website, application, or online platform without any prolonged inactivity. It starts when a user accesses the website or application and ends when there is a significant period of inactivity, such as when the user closes the application or remains idle for a predetermined amount of time.
Google defines a session as “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”. A session lasts until there are 30 minutes of inactivity.
Here’s how a session works: when a user enters a website, a session activates. If within 30 minutes the user doesn’t do anything, the session expires, otherwise every time the user interacts with some website element, session tracking adds 30 minutes to the expiration time of the current session.The system will consider all the user interactions that occur within this time frame as a single session. On the other hand, if a user starts interacting with the website, stays inactive for more than 30 minutes, and then performs a new action, the system will count as two sessions. It’s also important to notice that this metric doesn’t measure the number of actions taken on the site, such as the number of page views; all the actions taken before the session expires are counted as just one session.
Unlike Google Analytics user sessions, user sessions are only counted if at least one ad is shown.
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