When it comes to analyzing your website's visitor behaviour and personalizing their experience, the two most common metrics used are the number of users visiting the website and the number of sessions they have browsed. But what exactly is the difference between them? In this article, we'll explain the differences between these two metrics and how NotifyVisitors can help you track both of them.

Significance Of User And Session On Your Website

The terms user and session play an important role in determining the state of an e-commerce business. These terms are the key metrics of your website that tell us what is going on your website, which users visited it and what actions they have taken on your website. 

User and session data helps website owners to understand how users interact with their site. This data can be used to improve the user experience by making changes to the design or content of the site. It can also be used to track user behaviour over time, which can be helpful in identifying trends or patterns.

Meaning Of The Terms User And Session

A user is defined as a unique visitor who is browsing your website. A session is a  group of user interactions with your website that take place within a given time frame. A user could be navigating your website, looking for certain products, or clicking on other sections. He/She might be browsing multiple pages of your website. Thus the action performed by the users for a specific period of time on your website is called a session.

Difference Between User And Session In NotifyVisitors

A user is a unique visitor who visits the website and has a distinct client ID which is identified on the basis of browser cookies or their unique NVUID cookie. If a user visits your website again while using the same browser and device and without clearing the cookies,  NotifyVisitors will identify the person as the same user.

NotifyVisitors can also identify the users in cross-devices, this would require a unique identity of that user to be passed by the brand. Click here to know more.

A session is the browsing period of a specific user. A session typically starts when a user visits your website and ends when any of the following situations take place:

• Inactivity: If a visitor is inactive on your website for more than 30 minutes, NotifyVisitors will end the session.
• Midnight: All sessions are automatically terminated by NotifyVisitors at midnight to gather the metrics for the whole day. So, if a person starts browsing at 11:59:59 pm and sees another page at 12 am, NotifyVisitors will create a new session.
• User’s Campaign Source: When a visitor arrives at your website from a different campaign source, NotifyVisitors instantly ends the session.

A session typically lasts for the duration of the user's visit and expires when the user leaves the site. A user is an individual who has an account on a website. A user can have multiple sessions, but only one account. Whereas, a session cannot have multiple users.

User information is information that is specific to you and is stored in a database. This includes your name, email address, and password. Session information is temporary and is only stored while you are on the website. This includes the items in your shopping cart and the pages you have visited.

Significant Factors In Session Vs Users

• NotifyVisitors counts a user who visits your website multiple times from the same browser and device as a single user.
• The same user will be counted as a new user if he returns to your site after deleting their browser cookies.
• If a user changes devices or browsers and returns to the website, he will be considered a new user. 

How To Find Your Users In NotifyVisitors Dashboard

• Navigate to the Segments in the NotifyVisitors Dashboard.

• Click on the 'Users List' under the Segments List. The User Details page appears as shown below.

Here you can view the total no of users who are reachable by different platforms. Also, you can look at the new users who reached your site during a specific period.

Analysing the user list and session metric will help you know how your site performs. This will help you find out how many visitors are browsing your site and you can watch out which sessions are resulting in goal conversions.