# What is Session / Session Duration?

What is Session / Session Duration? A session is the period during which a visitor is active on the site. It ends after 30 minutes of inactivity.

## How it works in practice

High session duration isn't always good — if a customer spent 8 minutes trying to find checkout, that's a UX problem. A more accurate metric: pages per session combined with CR.

## Related metrics

- Bounce Rate — a short session plus high bounce signals a mismatch
- Pages Per Session — a complementary metric
- CR — a long session doesn't always mean a high CR
- Heatmap — reveals what happens during the session

## Common misconception

'A long session means an interesting store.' A long session with low CR means a confused customer. The correct measurement: session duration only in the context of CR.

## How to fix it

Short sessions? (1) does the homepage clearly explain what you sell within 5 seconds? (2) improve internal linking to product pages, (3) add related products, (4) site search — how many people search and don't find what they need?

## Real-world example

An electronics store: average session was 1:20. Adding prominent site search plus similar products raised sessions to 3:45, pages per session from 1.8 to 3.2, and CR by 22%.

## Where to start

Session duration is useful as a benchmark. A sudden drop signals a technical problem. A steady rise signals content improvement.

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Category: Analytics · From the [Jimmy OS KPI Glossary](https://jimmy-os.com/glossary/kpi.md) · Source page: https://jimmy-os.com/glossary/kpi/session-session-duration