Wrong post stats(?): average session duration INSTEAD time on page

Hi Daniel,

I checked the history of our change and also checked the code in detail. It was interesting. let me explain what happened so far in this thing.

AVG TIME ON SITE was showing Session Duration but in 1.2.4 We fixed it to to show Avg. Time on Site.

Then in 1.3.6 version We changed it altogether and started showing AVG SESSION DURATION because Google analytics discarded AVG TIME and started displaying AVG SESSION DURATION in their dashboard and users wanted to see AVG SESSION DURATION. So, we removed AVG Time.

But Interesting thing is, When we launched 2.0 version we did the same mistake because in our new dashboard design, our designer mistakenly added AVG TIME and developer followed the same mistake. He coded AVG SESSION.

So. thanks a lot to you for raising this issue.

What do you recommend now ? I think it should be AVG SESSION DURATION not AVG TIME. We should change the text only.

no need to buy Pro version. It is same in Free as well plus our Pro works on the top of Free version. Pro just adds more features.

Looking forward,

Hello Pearl,

thanks for your reply, im happy to help in sorting this issue ??

In my opinion it should be definitely the time on the page. Why? When you go into a post to see specific stats, you want to have the specific time which users spend on an article. For users of a wordpress backend with your plugin there is no other way to find that out (correct me if im wrong).

At least this is what my customers are want to know, when they optimize content. Session Durations are interesting, but they dont give the same clean insight about the read time. They are always connected to the whole session, incl. bounce rate for example, which heavily distorts an analysis of the time a user spends on a single page.

This article explains the distportion pretty good, incl. mathematical proof:
https://help.analyticsedge.com/googleanalytics/misunderstood-metrics-time-on-page-session-duration/

Best Regards
Daniel

PS: I like your open and kind answer, i will definitly recommend my customer to buy the pro version ??

@danielson79

Alright, we will change it to Avg time on page for posts/pages stats. What do you recommend for Dashboard stats ? I think for Dashboard, AVG Session will be fine ?

Hello again,

first of all: wow, its really cool that you will change it! Thanks for taking my notes so serious. My customer will be very happy about that. You will do that within the next update(?) / when does the next update will be released?

I agree with you for dashboard stats, the AVG Session will be fine. However, a number about the pure reading time on page is interesting as well for all articles. But i dont want to ask for more now, im happy allready when you change it in posts stats only.

Thanks again very much for this superior plugin & good luck for your future releases! I will buy the pro version as soon as im back in office / desktop.

Cheers
Daniel

Thanks to you @danielson79! You helped us to correct an issue and make our solution better.

I completely understand your point. I, personally focus a lot on content marketing and Analytify to track outcome, this makes perfect sense to me.

We are working to bring this change in the update that is probably releasing today. Dev Team is working and I will still have to test, but in 8-10hr we will probably have the update rolled out.

Thank you again.

@danielson79

We have fixed Average Time on Page value and also introduced Average Session Duration as a info bar under the general stats panel. Have a look!

Thanks for your contribution.

@danielson79 We have also gave you credit and linked this ticket in the changelog. Thank you again.