A persistent random visitor id alongside the per-tab session id, and a new-or-returning marker on every page view. The panel reports views, sessions, distinct visitors, returning visitors and views per visitor for every page.
Also called: unique visitors · how many people · returning visitors · am I counting the same person
- 1The visitor id lives in localStorage and persists across tabs and visits; the session id is per tab.
- 2The first page view of a new visitor is named 'new'; later ones are 'returning'.
- 3Per page, the panel counts distinct visitor ids, distinct returning ids, and derives views per visitor.
- 4If storage is blocked the visitor id is simply absent and views are still counted.
The migration explains the failure it corrects: "the Pages table could report views and sessions, but a 'session' here is per TAB (sessionStorage), so one person opening three tabs counted as three. Views answer 'how much was this page loaded'; only a stable id answers 'how many PEOPLE', and the gap between the two is the number that tells you whether a page pulls a crowd or one obsessive reader — and whether search traffic is arriving fresh or the same handful returning."
- Multiple tabs counted as multiple people.
- There was no way to tell fresh arrivals from repeat readers.
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