Average Time on Page is calculated as the total time on page, divided by the total number of pageviews minus the number of exits.
Why is average time on page important?
Setting up the average time spent on page can help you assess how well your business is doing. The following arguments highlight the significance of monitoring how long each of your individual webpages maintains users’ interests:
Revealing the strengths of your online marketing tools
Gain insight into the areas of your website that are performing well with your target markets by using the average time on page equation. You can enter various calculations to assess each website’s performance separately. If the percentages are high, you might draw the conclusion that your customers are intrigued by the page designs and the copy you’ve written.
You can use the information you gain from your online marketing campaign successes to put similar strategies into practice in the future. To determine which method is most effective, you can experiment with various multimedia elements and structures and track the amount of time spent on each page. For instance, one page features long-form copy and still images, while the other displays slow-motion videos and interactive buttons. You can tell from the higher metric of the last page that your customers are more receptive to elements with stronger visual appeal. Complete the equation to reveal marketing investments that are worthwhile.
Allowing you to redesign your website
The calculation’s ability to highlight areas for improvement is another benefit. If the percentages are low, consider enhancing the aesthetic appeal to draw the audience in. You could hypothesize why users choose to leave the website after viewing just one page if the calculations are frequently zero. Keep track of each session time to improve the content for your upcoming online campaign. You can use various testing techniques to determine whether the average metric rises and revitalize content to support your marketing goals.
Communicating the success to your team
The statistics of the average time on page serve as tangible proof of the success of your website. You can include the calculations in performance reports and show the results to team members and business executives. Your coworkers can use the tools to better understand how web content affects audience attention spans.
Referencing the documents could be useful for determining your progress. You can determine whether your redesign had a positive impact by comparing the measurement from your original online website to the content you published after the redesign. For instance, if the average time spent on page rose from two to five minutes, you can conclude that the message’s clarity was improved by the addition of white space and minimal copy.
What is average time on page?
Average time on page is a metric that assesses how much time a user spends on a single page before leaving. The bounce rate, or the point at which visitors switch from one page to another, is not taken into account. Additionally, the exit page, which visitors view before leaving the website, is not included. No matter how long they spend looking at the exit page, the measurement is zero.
For instance, you might browse a page of jeans and another of shirts when you visit an online clothing store. Your average time on page includes both the beginning and the end of browsing the jeans. The average time spent on page would be zero if you just looked at the jeans and left the store. The tool tracks your time viewing the shirts from the moment you enter the store until the moment you move on to another area if you left the jeans and looked at them.
The formula to determine average time on page is as follows:
Total time on page equals (number of exits – total page views) / total time on page.
What’s the difference between session duration and average time on page?
Average time on page and session duration are both analytical metrics, but they require different equations to be used. The main difference is the time they calculate. The amount of time a user spends on a website during a session is measured. It examines direct engagement, such as clicking on active links and images or posting comments on forums. The session duration stops tracking when the session ends, which occurs when a user leaves a website or is inactive for more than 30 minutes. The website as a whole is not taken into account when calculating the average time on page.
How to calculate average time on page
To enter the metrics into the formula for average time on page, follow these steps:
Tips for improving average time on page
To increase the typical amount of time customers spend browsing your company’s website, think about implementing the following strategies:
Examples of calculating average time on page
Here are some examples of average time on page calculations you can apply to your own website metrics:
Example 1
An example equation for the typical time spent on a page for an online retailer is as follows:
A beauty brand’s employees want to know whether their target demographics are visiting their website, which showcases new products. Initial data reveals that users have spent 500 minutes browsing the products on the website, with a total of 120 page views and 80 page exits. They enter the figures in the equation as follows:
500 / (120 – 80) = 500 / 40 = 12 5 minutes.
Although there are many people spending a lot of time on the page, the employees notice that there aren’t many sales of the newest items there. They come to the conclusion that while the design of the page engages viewers and encourages them to read testimonials and add items to their virtual wishlists, there is still room for improvement.
Example 2
To determine the typical time spent on a page for various digital components, use the following sample:
A sports team has a webpage with the upcoming game schedule, another with the game highlights, and a third with the roster. The goal of the marketers is to determine the typical time spent on each page of the website. They form the following equations:
Schedule page:
Highlights page:
Roster page:
Example 3
An example average time spent on page calculation for a university monitoring student recruitment metrics is provided below:
Page A was devoted by administrators to lists of degree options, Page B was devoted to admission criteria, and Page C was devoted to the school application. Their objective is to determine the typical amount of time spent on each page during the break between the fall and spring semesters. Prospective students spent the first week browsing for 3,000 minutes on Page A, 2,500 minutes on Page B, and then 1,000 minutes on Page C before leaving. The following week, students spent the first 6,000 minutes perusing Page C, followed by 4,500 minutes perusing Page B, and then 2,000 minutes perusing Page A.
Page A:
Page B:
Page C:
Google Analytics: I learned Something.. Average Session Duration vs. Average Time on Page
FAQ
How do you find average time on page?
The average session length in Google Analytics is calculated by dividing the total number of sessions during a given time period by the total number of sessions during that same period. In contrast, the “time on page” metric counts the number of seconds a user spends on a specific page during a session.
What is the formula for average time?
Divide the total time by the product of the subtraction after subtracting all exits from all page views to obtain your average time.
What does average time on page mean?
The average amount of time that each website user spends on a single page is measured by the web analytics metric known as “Average Time on Page.” This metric only measures the average amount of time users spend on non-exit pages and ignores bounces and exit pages.
