Reverting Back to Original "Average Time on Site" Calculation Today

We recently introduced a new way of calculating "Average Time on Site" that removed visitors who "bounce" from your website (people who hit one page of your site and then leave). This updated calculation attempted to give you a better idea of how long engaged visitors spend on your website. However, many of you prefer the original calculation: the total time on site for all visits divided by the total number of visits. So today we are changing it back.

Effective immediately, all current and historical Average Time on Site metrics are calculated using the original methodology. This ensures that your data-set is consistent. So if you compare data from today or tomorrow with data from two weeks ago, it will be an apples to apples comparison.

Two other updates in this release...

The number of Absolute Unique Visitors displayed in the Visitors Overview report previously did not match the number of unique visitors in the Absolute Unique Visitors report. This is because the Absolute Unique Visitor report shows data over time and was therefore summing daily unique visitors. The Absolute Unique Visitors report no longer sums the day by day totals but instead displays the absolute unique visitors metric that is displayed in the Visitors Overview.

Careful, this one's a bit geeky. We recently changed the way we ordered URL parameters. Why is this important? Take a look at the following two URLs:

www.google.com?rooms=3&beds=2
www.google.com?beds=2&rooms=3

Instead of considering these two URLs as a single URL: www.google.com?beds=2&rooms=3 (i.e. alphabetically ordered parameters), we now consider these as two separate URLs (i.e. without reordered parameters). We made this change to accommodate those of you with filters or goals dependent upon parameter order.

We are always seeking to improve the value you get from Google Analytics. We try to be right 100% of the time, but we're human.

Posted by Brett Crosby, Sr. Manager, Google Analytics

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Website Optimizer Gets an Update

Today, we are happy to announce the first major update to Website Optimizer. (For those who are unfamiliar with Website Optimizer, we've blogged about it before here and here.)

The first feature that we've added is a wizard for creating A/B split experiments. A/B tests are ideal for testing how well different page layouts perform and for pages that don't get a lot of traffic. Although you can perform A/B testing in Google Analytics, using Website Optimizer simplifies the process and makes it really easy to set up experiments and view results. Watch this demo to learn how to set up an A/B experiment.

We've also improved the experiment list display. Your most recent experiments appear at the top and you can now delete experiments.

Finally, we've added My Client Center Access Manager. Now, with permission from their client accounts, agencies can access Website Optimizer directly through the My Client Center.

We've published a testing strategy that details how to set time on page as a conversion goal and an article describing how we look at full factorial versus fractional experimental data analysis.

For more details, visit the Website Optimizer site or read the Inside AdWords blog post.


Posted by Peter Harbison, Website Optimizer Team

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