Analyzing user session and page efficiency activity in the help center

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">Zendesk features a prebuilt self-service dashboard that helps you understand how often your help center articles and community posts are being viewed and who is viewing them.</p>
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<p id="docs-ai-summary-content">Use the self-service dashboard to analyze help center activity, including user sessions and page views. Track metrics like session duration, ticket deflections, and visitor numbers. Customize reports to focus on specific scenarios, such as filtering by brand or content type. This tool helps you understand content performance and user engagement, aiding in optimizing your support resources.</p>
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<div class="body">

<p class="p" dir="ltr">Zendesk features a prebuilt self-service dashboard that helps you understand
how often your help center articles and community posts are being viewed and who is
viewing them. </p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note important">
<span class="importanttitle">Important:</span> Self-service data is available since March 5, 2025 for all
accounts. Some accounts might contain more data, since January 15, 2025.</div>
</div>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">The dashboard can help you: </p>
<ul class="ul" id="Explore_analyzing_pages_users__ul_wjb_sgz_y2c">
<li class="li">See user session outcomes for specific users.</li>
<li class="li">Look at trends across the different roles.</li>
<li class="li">Understand content performance, including which articles are most helpful and which
are responsible for the most tickets submitted.</li>
</ul>
<p class="p">You can edit and customize the self-service dashboard by cloning it (see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821374362-Duplicating-pre-built-and-shared-dashboards" target="_blank">Cloning dashboards</a>).</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note tip">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> If you need something more complex, you can write your own reports
using a wide range of metrics and attributes. For details, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821589530" target="_blank">Creating reports</a>.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">The information in Explore dashboards is updated on a schedule. The schedule depends on
which Explore plan you are using. For details, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408823242778" target="_blank">Data refresh intervals for Explore plans</a>.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note important">
<span class="importanttitle">Important:</span> All ticket deflection reports, such as confirmed and assumed
deflections, only track tickets submitted using the help center request form.</div>
</div>
<p class="p">This article contains the following topics:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="Explore_analyzing_pages_users__ul_kvy_cqt_cnb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_p1h_fqt_cnb">Accessing the self-service dashboard</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_j14_fqt_cnb">Understanding the self-service dashboard reports</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_bz4_cvm_dfc">Filtering the reports for specific scenarios</a></li>
</ul>
<p class="p">Related articles:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="Explore_analyzing_pages_users__ul_phs_3vr_1fc">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409155064090" target="_blank">Metrics and attributes for Zendesk
Knowledge</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6297027870618" target="_blank">Enabling anonymous user tracking for your help
center</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_p1h_fqt_cnb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Accessing the self-service dashboard</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Use the following procedure to access the self-service dashboard.</p>
<p class="p"><strong class="ph b">To access the self-service dashboard</strong></p>
<ol class="ol" id="topic_p1h_fqt_cnb__ol_fsj_ggj_nlb">
<li class="li">Click the <strong class="ph b">Zendesk Products</strong> icon (<img class="image" id="topic_p1h_fqt_cnb__image_qd3_pyp_35b" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/products_icon2.png">) in the top bar, then select <strong class="ph b">Analytics</strong>.</li>
<li class="li">From the list of dashboards, select the <strong class="ph b">Zendesk Knowledge</strong> dashboard.</li>
<li class="li">Click the <strong class="ph b">Self-service</strong> tab.</li>
</ol>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_j14_fqt_cnb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Understanding the self-service dashboard reports</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The Self-service dashboard shows information about page views and user sessions. You
can filter the reports on the dashboard by <strong class="ph b">Time</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Brand</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Visitor
role</strong>, <strong class="ph b">Language</strong>, and <strong class="ph b">Sessions with search</strong>.</p>
<div class="p" dir="ltr">As of April 4, 2025, the self-service datasets have been filtered to show
only events that originate from the help center. Prior to this date, there were some
events from other sources, such as Agent Workspace that were included in the
following data:<ul class="ul" id="topic_j14_fqt_cnb__ul_ctv_lc1_z2c">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Page views (articles and community posts)</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Searches</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Quick answers</li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Depending on your usage of other channels, the inclusion of these
additional events might impact session duration, page view duration, and number of
sessions and visitors.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Data for end users and anonymous users were impacted less by this
exception, so filtering for end-user and anonymous user traffic prior to the date
above will give you more accurate data.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note important">
<span class="importanttitle">Important:</span> By default, these datasets track only authenticated users,
meaning users who are signed into their Zendesk account. If you want to track
anonymous user activity, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6297027870618" target="_blank">Enabling anonymous user tracking for your
help center</a>.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_rjj_d5t_cnb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">Self-service dashboard headline metrics</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">This tab displays the following headline metrics (KPIs) for the time range you
specify:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_rjj_d5t_cnb__ul_px3_k4v_dnb">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Self-service ratio:</strong> The number of sessions per ticket created in the
help center.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Confirmed deflections:</strong> The number of tickets that were deflected
based on an article suggested on the help center request form.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Assumed deflections:</strong> The number of times a visitor visits your help
center and does not submit a ticket.</li>
</ul>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_rjj_d5t_cnb__image_y2v_lzl_y2c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_users_sessions_1.png" width="550"></p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_rjj_d5t_cnb__ul_bkv_lws_y2c">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Sessions:</strong> The total number of visits during the date range you
specified. A session is defined as a period in which a user interacts with
your help center. This might include multiple page views, events, and other
interactions that occur in a single visit. Think of it as the time between
when they open your help center page until they close it. A session consists
of one or more of the following events:<ul class="ul" id="topic_rjj_d5t_cnb__ul_gc2_st4_2fc">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Page views:<ul class="ul" id="topic_rjj_d5t_cnb__ul_hc2_st4_2fc">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Article views</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Community post views</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Searches</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Suggested article clicked from the request form</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Tickets submitted by the user</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">A <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/8888178335898" target="_blank">quick answer search</a> result
shown</li>
</ul>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">A user session is limited to 100 of these events or a 30
minute timeout, whichever happens first. For sessions that reach the
event limit, a new session will only start after the user has gone
inactive for 30 minutes.</p>
<div class="p">
<div class="note tip">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> The visitors metric is a count of unique visitors
across the filtered parameters in a report. The session metrics are
a count of the number of sessions attributed to those visitors. To
get an idea of overall user traffic, the session metrics should be
used. The visitors metric is intended to count the unique users who
have visited your help center. </div>
</div>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Page views:</strong> The total number of page views. A page view is defined as
an instance of an article or community post being loaded or reloaded in the
visitor's web browser. Each time the visitor revisits or reloads the page,
it's counted as an additional page view.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Avg session duration:</strong> The average length of each session.</li>
</ul>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_rjj_d5t_cnb__image_zgg_nws_y2c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_users_sessions_4.png" width="550"></p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_rjj_d5t_cnb__ul_vtx_qbm_y2c">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Visitors:</strong> The number of unique visitors to your help center. </li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Sessions per visitor:</strong> The average number of sessions per unique
visitor.</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Bounce rate:</strong> The percentage of sessions where the user did not view
any pages (articles or community posts).</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Search exits:</strong> The number of sessions that ended on the search results
page.</li>
</ul>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_rjj_d5t_cnb__image_hmd_tbm_y2c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_users_sessions_3.png" width="550"></p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">The results from the self-service datasets and the other Knowledge
datasets might differ due to the nature of how a session is defined as well as
the ability for users to control if and how they’re tracked. This includes
factors such as:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_rjj_d5t_cnb__ul_njs_hd1_z2c">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Anonymous users will not be tracked if <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6297027870618-Enabling-anonymous-user-tracking-for-your-help-center" target="_blank">anonymous user tracking</a> is not
implemented or has been opted out of by the user.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Session events are not registered after a session has reached the
100 event limit. That visitor will only register new events when their next
session begins.</li>
</ul>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">This dataset is meant to provide insights into users session outcomes
and overall content performance while not being a complete audit of all user
interactions.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested2" id="topic_wbx_d5t_cnb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title5">Self-service dashboard reports</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">This tab displays the following reports for the time range and filters you
specify:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_wbx_d5t_cnb__ul_odc_bbm_y2c">
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Ticket deflections:</strong> Displays the number of confirmed and assumed
ticket deflections over the date range you specify.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_wbx_d5t_cnb__image_scf_lbm_y2c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_users_sessions_2.png" width="450"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Self-service ratio over time:</strong> Displays the ratio of tickets to help
center sessions, allowing you to measure the efficacy of your available help
center content. This report displays your self-service ratio over the date
range you specify.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_wbx_d5t_cnb__image_rkv_zws_y2c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_users_sessions_5.png" width="450"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Page views over time: </strong>Displays page views and community post views
over the date range you specify. Additionally, a line graph shows the
average page views per session.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_wbx_d5t_cnb__image_nzx_cxs_y2c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_users_sessions_6.png" width="650"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Sessions, visitors, and page views:</strong> A combined report showing the
number of sessions, visitors, and page views over the date range you
specify.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_wbx_d5t_cnb__image_e1t_ylt_y2c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_users_sessions_7.png" width="450"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Sessions with search:</strong> Displays the percentage of sessions in which
the visitor performed no search, a standard search, or a quick answer
session.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_wbx_d5t_cnb__image_kpt_bmt_y2c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_users_sessions_8.png" width="450"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Sessions by role:</strong> Displays a pie chart showing the percentage of
sessions for each user role over the date range you specify.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_wbx_d5t_cnb__image_jpd_vmt_y2c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_users_sessions_9.png" width="450"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Sessions by language:</strong> Displays a bar chart showing the number of
sessions in each language over the date range you specify.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_wbx_d5t_cnb__image_nvh_zmt_y2c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_users_sessions_10.png" width="450"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">
<strong class="ph b">Deflection drill-down: </strong>Displays a detailed report showing each
article that was viewed together with the article author, the average time
that visitors spent on the page, and deflections.<p class="p">You can filter this
report by article section, article category, or community topic title.
In addition, the brand, visitor role, and language filters at the top of
the dashboard also apply to the deflection drill-down
report.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_wbx_d5t_cnb__image_anf_dnt_y2c" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/Explore_users_sessions_11.png" width="650"></p>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested1" id="topic_bz4_cvm_dfc">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title6">Filtering the reports for specific scenarios</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The following topics provide useful information about how you can filter the reports
to get the information you need.</p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested2" id="topic_nyk_sc1_z2c">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title7">Filtering reports by brand</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">If a user visits multiple help centers under a given account, this will
be tracked across separate sessions. This allows for the analysis of a specific
help center’s performance, but you can filter for multiple, related brands on
the dashboard if you want to get an overall picture of help centers which you
are cross-referencing in your documentation.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title8" class="topic nested2" id="topic_yvz_vc1_z2c">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title8">Filtering by article and community posts</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">To optimize the display of combined article and community post results in
Explore, the titles and ids of both community posts and articles have been
combined to provide combined page attributes such as title. In reports where you
are exposing a community post and article id in a combined report, the community
post id will be NULL or blank if the item is an article, and the article id will
be NULL or blank when the item is a community post. To filter for only community
posts or articles, use the Page type attribute.</p>
</div>
</div>
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