What starts and ends one
A session starts with a visitor's first pageview, or with their first pageview after a quiet period. It ends when they stop. A browser cannot say "I have left", so the tool infers it: if nothing arrives for a set time, the session is over, and a new request after that opens a new one.
The usual rule is 30 minutes of inactivity. trckable applies it on the server, so a visitor who reads for ten minutes and clicks again is still in the same session, and one who comes back an hour later starts another.
Why the rule matters
Almost every number in a report is counted per session.
- The source of a visit comes from the referrer and tags at the start of the session and holds for its whole length.
- Entry and exit pages are the first and last pages of a session.
- Bounce rate is the share of sessions with a single pageview and no interaction.
- Session time is the span between its first and last activity. One-page sessions have a time of zero or nothing, since there is no second event to measure against.
- Conversion rate, if you divide by sessions, counts each visit once.
Where tools differ
The inactivity limit is the most common difference, but not the only one.
- Some tools also end a session at midnight, or when the source changes, so a person who arrives from a newsletter and then from a search starts a second session in one and not in another.
- Some count a session by a fixed timer, regardless of activity.
- In cookieless mode there is no stored id to carry a session across days, so a session ends at the day's boundary. trckable's sessions end at midnight UTC in that mode.
Because of these rules, the same traffic yields different session counts in different tools. This is normal. When you move tools, compare the new one with itself from the day you start.
Sessions and people
A session is a visit, not a person. One unique visitor can have many sessions in a week. The ratio of sessions to visitors tells you how often people return: a blog with 1.1 sessions per visitor is mostly one-time readers, while a tool people use daily will run much higher.
Reading the numbers
Sessions are the right base for traffic questions, such as how many times people came, and from where. For questions about people, such as how many signed up, a visitor count is steadier. Pick the base that matches the question, and use the same one every time.
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