What is a good Average Visit Duration

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   SimeyCposted 12 years ago

   One of the things I try and improve is my average visit duration. I've moved it from about 35 seconds to close to a minute. What do you consider a good Average Visit Duration? Is it worth culling some hubs that seem to get a low AVD?

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Good topic, and I'd like to hear some discussion.
      
      Where are you getting AVD?  I use "Average time on page", accessed from Analytics, content, content drilldown.  Is that the same thing?

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         SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I think it's probably an average of those figures. I simply go to 'Home' when logging on to analytics and voila - there it is!

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            wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            OK, how do you separate out the junk?  The slide show views, the visits to ----=done, the translations, etc.?  I find a tremendous number of views to those kinds of things that show up in the "time on page" and if not removed they will skew the results horribly.

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               derek gulbransonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Use the Content > Site Content > Content Drill-down to look at /hubs/. As you mentioned, Average Visit Duration includes things that are not Hubs.

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                  wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Oops, I missed one category.  You're right - that's what I use and then ignore all the visits that aren't to the actual hub. 
                  
                  If you allow all the non-hub visits to be included in an average the results are nearly worthless.  I see nearly as many views that are NOT to the hub as there are to the hub, and all those other views are mostly of zero duration or very low.

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                  Rosie2010posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks, Derek.  I didn't know that.  The average visit duration showing on my Standard Reporting page is only 1:01, but when I used Content > Site Content > Content Drill-down to look at /hubs/ as you suggested, my Avg Time on Page is 1:56... so much better.  Cool!

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   2uesdayposted 12 years ago

   I would like some tips on how to increase the on page time as increasing that and reducing bounce rate would be good. Unless of course they are leaving to go to Amazon or by clicking on an ad.on the page.

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   safiq ali patelposted 12 years ago

   Remember some people do not read a hub all in one go. Instead they take a note of your hub and return to read it over a couple of days or more....

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   tipstoretireearlyposted 12 years ago

   That's an interesting question.  I've just started watching the average visit duration stat on Google Analytics.  My hubs have been averaging about 1 minute.  I'm just beginning to look at why some have longer durations and some have shorter durations.

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   derek gulbransonposted 12 years ago

   The average time on page for all Hubs is about 3 minutes. The most highly trafficked Hubs (i.e. 100k+ visits/mo) are typically higher, about 5-7 minutes.
   
   The site-wide average visit duration is about 1 min, but that includes lots of stuff that isn't Hubs so not as interesting.

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Now that's interesting, and perhaps valuable information. 
      
      Thanks, derek!

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      SimeyCposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Ahhh - that makes my figures look a lot better! Thanks for the info!

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      Rosie2010posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Oh dear, the average time on page for all hubs is about 3 mins... my avg time on page is only 1:56... below average.  And to think I was happy with that compared to 1:01 with all the junk in.  No wonder my hubber score sucks.  I'm a below average hubber with below average hubs. 
      
      And thanks for the info, Derek.  Merry Christmas!

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      Knightmare Golemposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Huh... about how long would you guess that an article might need to find its legs in order for this metric to be relevant?  I mean, one of my hubs seems to be doing really well with this metric, just over 6 min, but it's readership is like 100, not 100k.  I'm also relatively new so I don't know the flow of things yet

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   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   G.A. tells me my average visit time for my questions is 00:00:00. I know that's a crock. What's up with that?

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      paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      My basic question does G think that is site wide?

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         derek gulbransonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I don't know how to get a Average Visit Duration for questions, I just have Time On Page, which is roughly the same as for Hubs.

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            paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Oops. That is what I meant. G.A. says my time-on-page is 00:00:00 for questions. Apparently something is amiss for me, since I know it is not 00:00:00.

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   Bob Zermopposted 12 years ago

   Thank you for the Analytics tip - my AVD looks a lot better now! Though I don't have enough views altogether for it to matter too much (just barely broke 10,000) . I have a feeling I might be skewing my own AVD by keeping my in-process hubs open for hours at a time. Does anyone know if hubs open on an editing page count for duration?

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      derek gulbransonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      When you're editing a Hub the URL is different so if you drill down to /hub/ then those visits are not included.
      
      You could also set up a filter in GA to exclude traffic from your own IP address if you really want to. Probably more trouble than it's worth imho.

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         Bob Zermopposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Fantastic, thank you.

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