How visits and sessions work

In GoodMetrics, a visit (or session) represents a single browsing experience on your site. Here’s how sessions, realtime activity, and reporting work together.

When a session ends

• A session automatically ends after 30 minutes of inactivity.
• This prevents short breaks from being counted as separate visits.

For example, if someone spends five minutes browsing your site and then leaves, their session will remain open for another 30 minutes before timing out.

However, visit duration will still show 5 minutes, because it measures only the time the visitor was actively engaged — not the full session window.

Realtime activity

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

When data appears in reports

• Data from a visitor’s session appears in your main dashboard reports — such as Audience, Acquisition, Pages, and Events — only 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.

In short, Realtime shows active visitors, while your main reports reflect completed sessions.