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How Visits and Sessions Work

In GoodMetrics, a visit (or session) represents a single browsing experience on your site. Here’s how we handle visits and activity:

When a session ends​

  • A session automatically ends after 30 minutes of inactivity.
  • This prevents long pauses from splitting one browsing experience into multiple visits.

Note: Visit duration is measured from the first interaction to the visitor’s last interaction — not when the session times out. For example, if someone arrives at 12:00pm and their last interaction is at 12:05pm, the visit duration will be 5 minutes, even though the session technically closes at 12:35pm.

Realtime activity​

  • The realtime report only shows visitors who have interacted with your site (via pageviews, clicks, or scrolls) in the last 60 seconds.
  • This keeps the report focused on meaningful engagement.

When data appears in reports​

  • Visitor data from a session will only appear in your main dashboard reports — such as Audience, Acquisition, Pages, and Events — after that session has ended.
  • For example, if a visitor’s last interaction happens at 12:05pm, their session data will be processed and included in your reports around 12:35pm.

This ensures that metrics like visit duration, bounce rate, and conversion rate are accurate and based on a complete session.