Session (web analytics)
Unit of measurement
In web analytics, a session, or visit is a unit of measurement of a user's actions taken within a period of time or with regard to completion of a task. Sessions are also used in operational analytics and provision of user-specific recommendations. There are two primary methods used to define a session: time-oriented approaches based on continuity in user activity and navigation-based approaches based on continuity in a chain of requested pages.
Definition
The definition of "session" varies, particularly when applied to search engines. Generally, a session is understood to consist of "a sequence of requests made by a single end-user during a visit to a particular site". In the context of search engines, "sessions" and "query sessions" have at least two definitions. A session or query session may be all queries made by a user in a particular time period or it may also be a series of queries or navigations with a consistent underlying user need.
Uses
Sessions per user can be used as a measurement of website usage. Other metrics used within research and applied web analytics include session length, and user actions per session. Session length is seen as a more accurate alternative to measuring page views.
The public source identifies “Session (web analytics)” as unit of measurement. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Session, analytics and Unit.
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This entry incorporates text from “Session (web analytics)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.