Website Metrics For Business Owners: Average Time on Site

Welcome back! This week, we’ll be discussing the average time on site metric.

If you are a new reader, please see Website Metrics For Business Owners: Sessions to be introduced to the weekly metrics blog series.

Average time on site represents the time a user remains on your website. This metric can be a bit misrepresented. The reason for this is that analytics show when a visitor requested a page and when the visitor requests the next page. This interval can be interpreted as the viewing time of a page. However, since the website visitor is not directly observed, it is unknown whether the visitor is actually reading the page, or if they have opened another site in another window or been distracted from your site in another way.

In general, it is appropriate to use this metric as a guideline to further optimize your site. Because of the issues we discussed above, it’s not advisable to focus too heavily on this metric alone; rather, you should use this information in conjunction with your overall SEO strategy. For example, how does the time on site relate to the number of pages viewed? What about the exit page? A good SEO strategy looks at the overall picture and draws conclusions based on a complete set of data. Contact i3 and let’s discuss how we can help you make the most of your online marketing!