Understanding the Gap: Examining Why Your Analytics Show More Users Than Sessions- Lyxel&Flamingo

Session Vs Users: Why My Analytics Showing Higher Users than Session?

Google Analytics is a must-have for any website owner. It collects data from your website and displays it using various KPIs and performance metrics such as sessions, page views, bounce rate, users, and so on.

It is now common knowledge that a user can have multiple sessions. As a result, in the Google Analytics report, the number of users must be equal to or less than the number of sessions.

However, the GA reports may occasionally show a higher number of users than sessions, which is illogical. But make no mistake about it.

There are several reasons why GA displays such reports, and we will explain why in this blog. But first, you must understand what Google Analytics users and sessions are.

What exactly are Users in Google Analytics?

Users in your Google Analytics report typically refer to unique visitors or individuals who have visited your website. In Google Analytics, go to the "Audience Reports" section and select the "Overview" option to see the number of users and new users.

The number of users and new users are updated on a regular basis.

But make no mistake about it. If the GA shows 5,000 users, this does not necessarily imply that 5,000 unique people have visited your website. Here are a few things you should know about Google Analytics users or organic traffic:

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If the visitor does not delete the cookies, GA can only identify individual users. For example, if someone visits your website once, deletes the cookies, and then returns, he or she is not counted as a single individual user. GA will treat it as two distinct users.

If someone visits your website on two different devices, Google Analytics will recognise them as two distinct unique users rather than one.

Return Users vs. New Users Anyone who visits your website using a device will be added to Google Analytics as a new user. Except in the two cases mentioned above, everyone who visits your website for the first time is considered a new individual user.

GA adds a unique tracking ID to their cookies whenever they visit your website.

No matter how many times they visit your site, if they don't delete their cookies or use a different device, they will be registered as one individual user.

Individual users who return to your website will be counted as return users by Google Analytics.

What are Google Analytics Sessions?

In Google Analytics, sessions or organic sessions are the number of visits to your website. When a new or returning user visits your website, GA counts it as the start of a new session.

It means that if a user is inactive for 30 minutes and then becomes active again, they can have two or more sessions on your site without leaving.

It also means that if a user visits your website before midnight and then returns after midnight, it will be counted as two sessions. Even if the user was always active on your site and never left, it still counts as two sessions.

Why does my Google Analytics report more users than sessions?

Now that you understand the difference between sessions and users in Google Analytics, it's time to address the issue at hand. When you open a custom report, you may notice that the number of users exceeds the number of sessions.

It makes no sense and should not have appeared. This is, after all, common sense.

However, there are a few scenarios in which this type of situation could occur. If you used a page-level dimension like "Page" or "Page Title" or the Hour dimension in your custom reports, the number of users may be greater than the number of sessions.

Scenario 1: You're Using a Dimension Filter at the Page Level If you included page-level dimensions or filters in your custom report (such as Page, Page Titles, or any page-level custom variable), you may find that the number of users is greater than the number of sessions. This can occur when attempting to combine sessions with any type of page-level dimension.

This occurs because the sessions are linked to the session's first hit.

If you use the custom report filters to include a page or a specific group of pages, the report may display more users than sessions.

Let's look at an example to see how the number of users in Google Analytics can be higher than the number of sessions: Assume there are two distinct users who went through two distinct sessions.

Session 1: The user navigates to page A. Following that, the user navigates to page B. Finally, the user returns to page A. The session has come to an end.

Session 2: The user navigates to page C. Following that, the reader is taken to page B. The session has come to an end.

Google Analytics summary: Page A has two page views, one session, one user, and one unique page view.

Page B has two page views, zero sessions, two users, and two unique page views.

Page C: one page view, one session, one user, and one unique page view

Overall, there were 5 page views, 2 sessions, 2 users, and 4 unique page views.

As you can see from the full report, there is no difference in the number of sessions and users. However, when you apply the page-level filters to the data on Page B, the report shows two users but no sessions.

As a result, the number of users exceeds the number of sessions. As a result, if you examine the sessions vs users report in Google Analytics using page-level filters, you may encounter this type of perplexing situation.

Scenario 2: You are employing the Hour Dimension Filter.

When viewing custom reports using the "Hour" or "Hour of Day" filter, you may notice that there are more users than sessions at any given hour. But how does this occur?

If a single session lasts several hours and you use the "Hour" filter to examine the report's hour-by-hour metrics, Only the first hour's worth of sessions will be counted.

However, the number of users for each active hour will be recorded.

Let us use an example.

If a user starts a session on your website at 7:50 p.m. and ends it at 8:15 p.m., the 7 p.m. report counts 1 session and the 8 p.m. report counts 0 sessions from this user. However, the user will be recorded in both hourly reports.

So, in the 8 p.m. report, you'll notice that there is one user in Google Analytics but no sessions.

Conclusion As you can see, any Google Analytics custom report can show more users than sessions when combined with pagerelated or hour-related dimensions or filters.

To avoid further confusion, investigate various Google Analytics metrics, such as users, organic traffic in Google Analytics, page views, the relationship between users and sessions, and how different dimensions affect the results displayed in custom reports.

When you carefully study them, you will be less likely to be surprised by unexpected factors and spend your valuable time focusing on important tasks.

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