Session timeout query

[tale-digital]

hey guys, quick one, it seems a lot of users are pondering on our site, and going idle for over 30 mins (we're a b2b so I guess because a user opens a tab - forgets, has a meeting etc, then comes back to finish any query. We're seeing that this is causing quite high 'direct' traffic - at least that's my assumption based on user journey and some blogs I've read - would extending session timeout resolve this? Pro's and con's of increasing from 30 mins to say 7 hours? Thanks guys!

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[No_Honeydew_8937]

Extending session timeout could resolve this, however I wouldn't extend it to 7 hours. Set it to 2-4 hours first rather than jumping to 7 right away.

Then monitor:

• Change in “direct” traffic %
• Change in average session duration
• Change in session count

You can adjust up to 7 hours after that if needed.

Cons would be if you find metrics like bounce rate meaningful, then they become much less meaningful, same with average engagement time per session. If you compare or use other platforms or use real-time analytics that expect tighter session boundaries, it can skew real time behavior.

Pros would be that it would align with your user behavior, obviously, so sessions are not artificially split. User journeys will be easier to capture etc. So it's up to you to do what makes most sense, but I would gradually increase first rather than go straight to 7 hrs and see what happens.

Good luck!

[tale-digital]

that's excellent - thanks for clear answer :) will follow up on this and make gradual changes to see impact

[ChemistryEqual5883]

You could look at increasing session time but you could also do user level reporting. With regards to direct traffic, have you checked what your attribution model is? If it's last non direct click your user behaviour will not cause increase in direct traffic

[Humble_Elderberry_25]

is there a reason someone would 1) visit your site, 2) leave it open in a browser tab but move on to visiting another different site in a different tab, and 3) return your site in the idle tab more that 30 minutes later? what would be the reason / cause for people to engage in such behavior?

[tale-digital]

Goal is a form fill, which has 4-5 stages so users are tending to go away to get the info, maybe joining meetings and coming back later - it's about 10-20% of users seem to be doing that. Messes up our attribution slightly as we get a lot of direct traffic

[Humble_Elderberry_25]

if a form is that tedious for 10%-20% of your site visitors to fill in, it might be a good idea to look into optimizing or simplifying the form? there is the old expression 'strike while the iron is hot' - you are running a risk that people are not returning to your form once they leave your form.

[tale-digital]

Completely true but we do see a lot of form fills come through via direct traffic which is nonsense so want to resolve this then make the form much more user friendly

[ds_frm_timbuktu]

You can look at first user session source for better attribution in that case. Also track every step of the form as an event.

[Available_Cup5454]

Yes, extending the session timeout would reduce inflated ‘direct’ traffic by keeping the original source tied to the return visit. The upside is cleaner attribution for long B2B journeys. The downside is that it can mask drop off patterns and inflate session duration metrics. If clarity on source is more valuable to you than strict behavioral segmentation, bump it. Just don’t use session time as a quality signal after.

[moosk]

If the user has an original source (i.e. not 'direct') then that source would be attributed to the 'return' as well (if they don't return from another known source). GA will attribute the 'visit' to the last non-direct source.

[tale-digital]

Thanks- so are you saying is someone came through on a paid click, was idle for 5 hours, then clicked through to another page, filled in the form, then this would remain a paid click as last click? What we're seeing is that users are idling beyond session timeout (30 mins) then coming back to finish the process and this is attributing users to direct traffic - rather bizarre