{"id":2717,"date":"2023-03-30T16:11:07","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T14:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/?p=2717"},"modified":"2025-09-17T16:52:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T14:52:09","slug":"dont-focus-on-time-on-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t focus on time-on-site"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At The Data Story we try to make data understandable. To us, that is one of the most important aspects of turning data into gold. Once you understand what the data is telling you, you can turn that insight into value. For this, it is essential to go beyond where the data comes from and understand what it actually represents. Digital behavioural data is generated by the things people do online. In this blog we will look at why time-on-site doesn\u2019t give you the right insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Time\/Events on site<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As the name suggests, time-on-site indicates how much time someone spent on a website. However, how important is it really and what does it tell us? Can it put us on the wrong foot due to things out of our control? For example, your audience might:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Be slow readers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Have difficulty understanding your content<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Have multiple tabs open that all gather \u201cminutes-on-the-web\u201d, which add up crazily rapid, while they compare your content with others<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>So while you might consider high time-on-site as something positive, it\u2019s possible you are mistaken. Your audience could either be struggling or could be doing something very different that takes time but doesn\u2019t provide you any value. What to focus on instead? Well, since you want to measure engagement and interactions, you should focus on a data point that more clearly represents this. As an example, we suggest you take a look at events.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1829\" src=\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Text-Shape-Photo-Unsplash-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"time-on-site\" class=\"wp-image-3711\" style=\"width:409px;height:276px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Text-Shape-Photo-Unsplash-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Text-Shape-Photo-Unsplash-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Text-Shape-Photo-Unsplash-1024x731.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Text-Shape-Photo-Unsplash-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Text-Shape-Photo-Unsplash-1536x1097.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Text-Shape-Photo-Unsplash-2048x1463.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Text-Shape-Photo-Unsplash-18x12.jpg 18w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Which events to focus on?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Not all events are created equal. As explained before, when connecting data to behaviour you should check whether the data correctly represents that behaviour. For instance, clicks, pageviews and interactions all indicate dedication and interest for a product or service on the site. However, if a page is not well-constructed, scrolling is likely not data you want to consider when studying such behaviour. The same goes for a timer that sends an event every minute, as it is time-based data similar to the time-on-site discussed previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, be careful what data you use to study the right data points to measure success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Follow&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/\">The Data Story<\/a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/the-data-story\">LinkedIn<\/a>&nbsp;to stay up to date on our blogs and more!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At The Data Story we try to make data understandable. To us, that is one of the most important aspects of turning data into gold. Once you understand what the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Don&#039;t focus on time-on-site - The Data Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At The Data Story we try to make data understandable. In this blog we will look at why time-on-site doesn\u2019t give you the right insights.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don&#039;t focus on time-on-site - The Data Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At The Data Story we try to make data understandable. In this blog we will look at why time-on-site doesn\u2019t give you the right insights.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Data Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-30T14:11:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-17T14:52:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-16.06.09.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1664\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"932\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Data Story\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Data Story\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Data Story\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e218295bc2730947de16723cb69d18f3\"},\"headline\":\"Don&#8217;t focus on time-on-site\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-30T14:11:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-17T14:52:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/\"},\"wordCount\":373,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-16.06.09.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Data stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/\",\"name\":\"Don't focus on time-on-site - The Data Story\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-16.06.09.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-30T14:11:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-17T14:52:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"At The Data Story we try to make data understandable. In this blog we will look at why time-on-site doesn\u2019t give you the right insights.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-16.06.09.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-16.06.09.png\",\"width\":1664,\"height\":932,\"caption\":\"time-on-site\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Data stories\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/data-stories\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Don&#8217;t focus on time-on-site\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/\",\"name\":\"The Data Story\",\"description\":\"Data Analyse, Visualisatie &amp; Automation\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Data Story\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Logo-negatief.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Logo-negatief.svg\",\"width\":250,\"height\":49,\"caption\":\"The Data Story\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e218295bc2730947de16723cb69d18f3\",\"name\":\"The Data Story\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3b7086714fe59d0954156d3cedeeaf914f3630d097c0c9587f9fb4793ce63818?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3b7086714fe59d0954156d3cedeeaf914f3630d097c0c9587f9fb4793ce63818?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3b7086714fe59d0954156d3cedeeaf914f3630d097c0c9587f9fb4793ce63818?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"The Data Story\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/author\/the-data-story\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Don't focus on time-on-site - The Data Story","description":"At The Data Story we try to make data understandable. In this blog we will look at why time-on-site doesn\u2019t give you the right insights.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Don't focus on time-on-site - The Data Story","og_description":"At The Data Story we try to make data understandable. In this blog we will look at why time-on-site doesn\u2019t give you the right insights.","og_url":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/","og_site_name":"The Data Story","article_published_time":"2023-03-30T14:11:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-09-17T14:52:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1664,"height":932,"url":"http:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-16.06.09.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"The Data Story","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"The Data Story","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/"},"author":{"name":"The Data Story","@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e218295bc2730947de16723cb69d18f3"},"headline":"Don&#8217;t focus on time-on-site","datePublished":"2023-03-30T14:11:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-17T14:52:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/"},"wordCount":373,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-16.06.09.png","articleSection":["Data stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/","url":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/","name":"Don't focus on time-on-site - The Data Story","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-16.06.09.png","datePublished":"2023-03-30T14:11:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-17T14:52:09+00:00","description":"At The Data Story we try to make data understandable. In this blog we will look at why time-on-site doesn\u2019t give you the right insights.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-16.06.09.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Screenshot-2023-03-30-at-16.06.09.png","width":1664,"height":932,"caption":"time-on-site"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/data-stories\/dont-focus-on-time-on-site\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Data stories","item":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/data-stories\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Don&#8217;t focus on time-on-site"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/","name":"The Data Story","description":"Data Analyse, Visualisatie &amp; Automation","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#organization","name":"The Data Story","url":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Logo-negatief.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Logo-negatief.svg","width":250,"height":49,"caption":"The Data Story"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e218295bc2730947de16723cb69d18f3","name":"The Data Story","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3b7086714fe59d0954156d3cedeeaf914f3630d097c0c9587f9fb4793ce63818?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3b7086714fe59d0954156d3cedeeaf914f3630d097c0c9587f9fb4793ce63818?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3b7086714fe59d0954156d3cedeeaf914f3630d097c0c9587f9fb4793ce63818?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"The Data Story"},"url":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/author\/the-data-story\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2717"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3712,"href":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions\/3712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedatastory.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}