Google Analytics Sessions: New Calculation

Recently Google Analytics made a change to how sessions are calculated. A session represents a period of interaction between a users browser and a website.

Previously, a session ended every time a user closed his or her browser. Now, sessions are ended when the traffic source value of a user changes. This means that if a user closes their browser for only a short period of time and then returns under the same traffic source, the session will be continued. If, however, the user returns under a new traffic source, a completely new session will be started. This is particularly useful when trying to track interactions from different sources such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

Google has decided to make this change to the way sessions are calculated in an attempt to more accurately represent a users engagement with a particular website.