If I showed you the statistics for two pages and the first had an Average Time on Page of 1:30 and the second had an Average Time on Page of 4:45, you would probably think that visitors were more engaged with Page B, right? But, what if I told you that the actual Time on Page for Page A was 8:30. Is that possible? If it was possible, you might start to lose confidence in that metric…
But that’s exactly what could happen based on the current way that Time on Page and Time on Site are calculated in most analytics packages. The reason is because the metrics are based on page jumps. For example, if you visit Page A for 2:00 and then visit Page B, Google Analytics can determine how long you spent on Page A by calculating the difference between the timestamps for each page. For this example, Page A would have a Time on Page of 2:00. However, calculating Time on Page via page jumps is inherently flawed since if you exit from Page B, Google Analytics has no way to determine how long you stayed on that page. Your time on page is 0:00, whether you spent 10 seconds or 10 minutes on the page. Needless to say, this isn’t a good thing if you are trying to accurately measure site performance.
I’ve helped many companies with web analytics and I find there’s a lot of confusion with time-based metrics like Time on Page and Time on Site. Unfortunately, inaccurate reporting can lead to a skewed analysis of site performance. Then to make matters worse, some marketers are making decisions based on inaccurate reporting and analysis. I can’t tell you how many times over the past few years I have explained how Time on Page and Time on Site are calculated, only to see a completely deflated look from the marketer I’m explaining it to. Context is critical in web analytics.
So, to help get everyone on the same page, I decided to run an experiment. My goal was to isolate visits to specific pages and directories, so I could drill into the reporting to identify how Time on Page and Time on Site were being reported. The results will demonstrate why you need to take both Time on Page and Time on Site with a grain of salt.
If you are excited to see the results, then you’ll have to visit my post on Search Engine Journal to learn more. The post went live this morning. :)
Tick Tock: The Limitations of Time on Page and Time on Site in Google Analytics.
GG
