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Where Visitors Spend Their Time
The main use of web analytics is to better understand how visitors use your
web site. This includes how they got there, but also where they went in the
site, which pages are attracting attention, where they left from, and, when
possible, where they went to. Summary includes a number of reports in the Visits
and Paths sections of the Menu that provide
insight into your visitors’ behavior.
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Figure 1. You can find out which pages are holding
visitors eyes with the Average View Time Report. |
Knowing where visitors spend their time on your site can help you improve the
effectiveness of content or advertising or can indicate problems in the layout
or size of pages. Figure 1 shows the Average View Time
report, which lists which files, on average, have the longest viewing
time. If you have download-able files, then these will probably rank near the
top (the ‘view time’ includes the transfer time, which is long in
the case of downloads). The Total View Time
report gives a slightly different perspective on visitor viewing: It
tells, approximately, the total amount of time that each page was in front of
viewer eyeballs. If you are only interested in maximizing the exposure of
advertising, for example, this might be a better report to use. If you want to
maximize exposure in individual visits, then the Average View Time report is
applicable.
When you know what pages visitors are spending the most time on, whether
total view time or average view time, you can use the Referred From report to find out which referrers are
sending visitors to those specific pages.
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Figure 2. The Duration of Visit report shows
how long visitors stay on your site. |
Figure 2 shows the Duration of Visit report.
Using the bar chart for the histogram, you can easily see the range of the
duration of the majority of your visits. The distribution of values is usually
close to a bell curve, with a bump at the low end from robots and other one-page
visits.
If you are looking to maximize your visit time, the Referring Domains by Steps report shows you which domains
are sending visitors who take the most steps in your site. This does not exactly
correspond to long view duration, but the more steps a visitor takes, the more
likely she will spend a longer time on your site. In the Referring Domains by
Steps report, you can click the domain name to see a list of selected pages
within that domain. Referring domains were covered in detail in Lesson 2 - Where Are My Visitors Coming From?
Long View Durations
A long view duration can be a sign of good design when it indicates that your
site benefits the user. This is generally only the case when the page is long,
in-depth and covers the material the user is looking for. For example,
documentation pages, essays and discussions, and other information that a user
has decided to take time to review. However, there are reasons you should
inspect long-viewed pages because they may indicate design problems in your
site:
- A long load time (including referenced graphics, scripts, stylesheets, etc.)
- Slow to load because of back-end bottle neck (for dynamic or database-driven
pages)
- Confusing content or layout
Short View Durations
Visitors may spend a short amount of time on a page, indicating a problem:
- Useless: does not cover the material they expect it to
- Confusing: rather than try to figure it out they leave
- Boring: after a few paragraphs they are on to something better
On the other hand, a short view time could also indicate that a visitor found
the page to be exactly what he is looking for, that it is terse and
well-directed. Because it solves the problem immediately he is off to the next
page or project.
In any case you will need to analyze the content of each long- or
short-viewed page to determine whether you think it is a benefit or detriment to
the site.
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Where Visitors Spend Their Time
Long View Durations