Both metrics are telling you the rate readers are traversing from one page to another, but Historical recirculation is based on Pageviews, and Real-Time recirculation is based on Concurrents. Real-time recirculation is based on your site's current simultaneous visitor counts, whereas historical recirculation shows an aggregated number averaged over time. These two rates should be in the same range, but won’t match exactly.
How is this different from the overall site click through rate?
Chartbeat’s Recirculation metric is focused on movement from article pages to other articles or landing pages, excluding movement from landing pages to other pages (which would be included in an all-up click through rate calculation). We're focused on how article pages drive additional views because this behavior is much more indicative of deeper site visits. Consuming multiple articles in a row is correlated with higher Engaged Time and a higher likelihood of returning to your site — ultimately, a more valuable metric to track.
How is historical recirculation calculated for article pages?
For individual pages, the calculation is as follows:
(# of referred pageviews to subsequent pages) / (total pageviews to the referring page, excluding page refresh views)
Note that this calculation excludes page refresh views entirely, which are pageviews where a click brings you back to the same page you are already on. Sometimes publishers have links that redirect you to the same page again. Recirculation is looking at the rate you are traversing from one page to another.
How is historical recirculation calculated site wide?
Site-wide, the calculation is as follows:
(# of referred pageviews from articles to subsequent article or landing pages) / (total pageviews to all articles, excluding page refresh views)
Note that this calculation excludes page refresh views entirely, which are pageviews where a click brings you back to the same page you are already on.