What is pages per session?
Pages per session shows how many pages a user views on your website during a single visit. It helps you understand user engagement and how deeply visitors explore your content.
Key points
- Measures how many pages a visitor views in one session on your website.
- A higher number often indicates better user engagement and interest in your content.
- Influenced by content quality, site navigation, internal linking, and site speed.
- Helps marketers understand how deeply users explore their website and find relevant information.
"Pages per session" is a helpful number in website analytics that tells you how many different pages a visitor looks at during one visit to your website. Think of a session as a single trip a person makes to your site. When someone comes to your website, they might look at just one page, or they might click around and view many pages before they leave. Pages per session simply averages out this number for all your visitors.
If your website has a high "pages per session" number, it generally means visitors are finding your content engaging and relevant, causing them to explore more. A lower number might suggest that visitors are not finding what they need quickly, or perhaps your site's navigation isn't encouraging them to delve deeper. This metric gives you a good idea of how interactive and sticky your website is for its users.
Why it matters
Understanding pages per session is important for several reasons:
- User engagement: A higher number often means your visitors are more engaged with your content and finding it valuable. They are spending more time on your site and interacting with more of your offerings.
- Content effectiveness: This metric can show if your content is interesting enough to make users click to related articles, products, or services. If your blog post leads readers to other relevant posts, your pages per session will likely increase.
- Website navigation: Good, intuitive navigation makes it easy for users to find more relevant content, which naturally increases the number of pages they view. If users struggle to find what they're looking for, they might leave quickly.
- Overall user experience: A smooth and enjoyable experience encourages exploration. If your site loads quickly and is easy to use on any device, visitors are more likely to browse multiple pages.
How to improve it
Here are practical ways marketing teams can work to increase their pages per session:
Enhance content and internal linking
- Internal linking: Add links within your content to other relevant pages on your site. For example, in a blog post about email marketing, link to another post about writing subject lines.
- Related content sections: Include "related articles," "recommended products," or "you might also like" features on your pages. These suggestions encourage further exploration.
- High-quality content: Make sure your content is valuable, informative, and engaging. When visitors find your initial content useful, they are more likely to seek out more.
Optimize website structure and calls to action
- Clear calls to action (CTAs): Guide users to the next logical step. After reading a service page, a CTA like "Learn more about our pricing" or "View case studies" can prompt further page views.
- Improved website navigation: Make your menus clear, logical, and easy to use. Users should be able to quickly find categories and subcategories that interest them.
- Site search functionality: If your site has a lot of content, a well-functioning search bar can help users find what they need quickly, leading them to more pages.
Technical and user experience improvements
- Site speed: A fast-loading website prevents users from getting frustrated and leaving before they've had a chance to explore. Slow sites often lead to higher bounce rates and fewer pages per session.
- Mobile experience: Ensure your website is fully responsive and easy to navigate on mobile devices. A poor mobile experience can significantly reduce engagement.
Best practices
To get the most out of monitoring pages per session, consider these best practices:
- Regular monitoring: Keep an eye on your pages per session trends over time. Look for sudden drops or increases and try to understand the reasons behind them.
- Segmenting data: Don't just look at the overall average. Analyze pages per session for different traffic sources (e.g., organic search, social media, paid ads), different user groups (e.g., new vs. returning visitors), or specific landing pages. This can reveal valuable insights.
- A/B testing: Experiment with different content layouts, CTA placements, or navigation elements to see what encourages more page views.
- User feedback: Sometimes the best insights come directly from your users. Conduct surveys or user tests to understand their experience and identify areas for improvement.
Understanding pages per session is a simple yet powerful way to gauge how well your website is engaging its audience. By focusing on improving internal linking, providing valuable content, and optimizing navigation, marketing teams can encourage visitors to explore more, leading to a richer user experience and better overall site performance.
Real-world examples
Blog post series engagement
A marketing blog publishes a series of articles on "SEO for beginners." They notice that visitors who land on the first article often view 3-4 other articles in the series, leading to a high pages per session for these visitors. This shows the series is engaging and well-linked.
E-commerce product discovery
An online clothing store adds a "customers also viewed" section to all product pages. After this change, they see an increase in pages per session, as shoppers click through different related items before making a purchase, indicating improved product discovery.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Only looking at the overall average without segmenting by traffic source, device, or user type, which can hide important trends.
- Assuming a low pages per session is always bad, without considering the website's primary goal (e.g., a simple landing page designed for a single, quick conversion might naturally have fewer pages per session).
- Ignoring website speed or mobile experience, which are critical factors that can significantly impact how many pages users are willing to view before leaving.