In a recent article, we explained the difference between bounce rate and exit rate.

In this article, we'll cover another topic from access analysis tools: the difference between 'sessions' and 'users'.

When you open an access analysis tool such as Google Analytics, the first things you notice are the session count and user count.
They're sometimes both called 'visits', but if both sessions and users mean visits, what exactly is the difference…?

Sessions = number of visits

Let's go through them one at a time.
First, the session count is the number of visits.

The number of visits is how many times your website or mobile site has been accessed.
So the unit for sessions is 'times'.

For example, if you had 1,000 sessions in a day, it means your website or mobile site was visited 1,000 times.

The user count that comes up next is also easier to remember by its counting unit, so keep in mind that the key point is that sessions are counted in 'times'.

Users = number of visitors

Next, the user count is the number of visitors.

The number of visitors is how many people visited your website or mobile site.
So the unit for users is 'people'.

For example, if you had 800 users in a day, it means 800 people visited your website or mobile site.

There's one thing to be careful about when looking at the user count.
That is, duplicate accesses within the measurement period are excluded.

In other words, if the measurement period is just one day, May 1, then a user who visited your website or mobile site two or more times on May 1 is counted as one person.
Whether they come twice, three times, ten times or a hundred times on the same day, they're counted as one user.
This is why the user count is lower than the session count (if every single visitor viewed the site exactly once, the two would be equal).

Sessions are counted in 'times', users in 'people'.
Remember this and you'll be all set.