Visit duration

Visit duration is how long a visitor spent actively using the website during a visit: their engaged time on each page, added up across the pages of the visit. The Overview's Duration chart averages it across the visits in the period, the Pages report shows the average for a view of each page, and on the Journeys screen it is the Duration column.

The clock only runs while the page is on screen and the visitor is using it: scrolling, clicking, typing or moving the pointer. If they switch to another tab, it stops. If they leave the page untouched, it stops 10 seconds after they last did something, and starts again when they come back. So a tab left open in the background, or on screen while the visitor is away, does not make a visit look longer than it was.

It is measured by the Silktide Script on the visitor's device and sent as the visit goes, so a visit whose last update never arrived, over a dropped connection for example, can come up short.