Why does the sum of the % of total visits add up to more than 100%?

Summary

The sum of the % of total visits can exceed 100% because a single visit can include multiple page views across different pages.

Each page counts that visit independently, so when percentages are calculated per page and then added together, they can total more than 100%.

Overview

Analytics Page tables give an overview of the activity on each page.

Page tables are found at Analytics > Content > Popular pages/All Pages

The Pages tables include a "Visits | % of total" column for each page.

• Visits show the number of visits that included a page view on the given page in the selected time period.
• % of total gives the number of visits that included the page as a percentage of the total visits to the site and/or group selected.

Why totals can exceed 100%

A visitor can visit more than one page during a visit to the site, therefore adding up the visits for each page or adding the "% of total" will not provide accurate information.

If a visitor visits both "Page example 1" and "Page example 2" it will count as a visit on both pages individually but only as one visit to the site.

Example

• Page example 1 → 49.39% of visits
• Page example 2 → 19.59% of visits
• Page example 3 → 14.29% of visits
• Page example 4 → 12.24% of visits
• Page example 5 → 8.98% of visits

Total (sum of percentages): 126.53%

Actual total visits: 100%

A visitor can visit more than one page during a visit to the site, so the same visit is counted in multiple page-level percentages.

Key takeaways

• Percentages are calculated per page, not across all pages collectively
• A single visit can contribute to multiple page percentages
• Adding percentages across pages will often exceed 100%