Bounce rate, visit duration and same-day returns

What it is

Bounce rate is the share of visits with a single pageview. Average visit duration is the time from the first to the last pageview of each visit. Same-day returning visitors is the share of visitors who started more than one visit that day.

Why it matters

Traffic only matters if people read. These three numbers show whether a page or a source brings engaged visits or quick exits.

How it works

1. A visit is a run of pageviews from the same daily visitor ID, no more than 30 minutes apart.
2. Bounce = visits with one pageview ÷ all visits.
3. Duration = last pageview time minus first pageview time, so a one-page visit counts as 0 seconds.
4. The visitor ID resets every day, so a return on a later day cannot be linked and is not counted as a return.

Set it up

Nothing to set up: it works with the standard one-line script.

<script data-host="https://quietstats.co.uk" data-dnt="true" src="https://quietstats.co.uk/js/script.js" id="YOUR_SITE_ID" async defer></script>

Privacy: what is and isn’t collected

Collected

• Pageview times you already collect

Never collected

• Cookies, localStorage or anything else stored on the visitor’s device
• IP addresses or user agents (used in memory, then discarded)
• Anything that links a visitor across days (the visitor ID resets daily)

How quietstats works, and the legal caveats →

Rows and limits

• Rows: 0 extra per pageview
• Returns are same-day only, by design

“Rows” are database rows written, which is what our hosting is billed on. Reads are not rows written. Methodology →