Engagement (Trends)

Last updated: 16th September, 2021

Quickly jump to our definition of bounce rate.

Actively Engaged Time per Visitor Explained

GoSquared tracks several metrics to see if a visitor is still engaged in a site. The metrics we track to determine if a visitor is engaged in a site is if they are scrolling or have clicked a link. We then assume that they are engaged for a further 15 seconds. If a new tab is opened, effectively putting the site to the background the visitor is then no longer counted as being engaged.

To find the average engaged time per visit for a chosen time period, we take the total Engaged Time and divide it by the number of visits in that period.

Why use this Metric?

The internet has changed and so has the way we use it. One page web apps and multiple tabs being open mean that bounce rates are a cumbersome metric for judging engagement. GoSquared created this metric to help you understand very quickly if someone is engaged in your site. We are also completely open as to how it is calculated so that you can understand the analytics behind GoSquared.

How GoSquared Calculates Bounce Rate

Most analytics services have a very basic understanding of what bounce rate is. Most services class a bounce as a visitor who has come to the site and then left after viewing just one page. At GoSquared, we believe measuring bounce rate like that, in this day, is misleading. So we looked at bounce rate from a different angle.

We asked "what is the point of bounce rate? What is it trying to tell you?". We believe it's unfair to class a visitor as a bounce if they have actually spent time reading a page and engaging with its content. Just because a visitor has not gone to another page after their first page, it doesn't mean they're any less engaged with your site. In GoSquared, we only class a visitor as having bounced if they have spent less than a minute of engaged time on the page. So a visitor who is reading a page, or engaging with a page for more than 60 seconds, will not count as a bounce. We feel this is better because it highlights how many visitors are engaging in content, regardless of the number of pages they have viewed.

What does the Engagement Widget in the Now dashboard do?