Google analytics reality check?
-
Looking back over a 9 month period tracking analytics with getclicky my site showed a 29% bounce rate, with only about 1/4 of visitors spending 1 minute or less on my site.
I've recently implemented GA (removed old clicky code) and although traffic is strong, my site now shows a bounce rate of about 82%. Engagement stats also show that 82% of visitors spend between 0-10 seconds on my site.
My site is built on Wordpress and the GA tracking code wasn't placed directly in the footer, my developer built a field in the admin area to insert the UA number which automatically adds the code to all pages. I've checked the code and the tracking seems to appear on all pages.
I took a look at AW Stats. It corroborates GA and says that 80% of visitors are spending 0-30 seconds on the site.
Potential issues/clues:
browser tests show small loading problems in Internet Explorer 7,8,9 (the phone number at the top of the header loads on the wrong side of the page) and major issues in Internet Explorer 6 (site doesn't load at all in IE 6). The thing is no one who uses IE 6 is coming to the site.
Second, the site gets a grade of C in YSlow, it's not lightning fast at the moment. GA is showing average page load of 2.4 seconds, but don't think either of these issues should cause an 82% 0-10 seconds engagement number.
My site is content rich/focused with very minimal advertising. Content is accessible well above the fold.
My question:
Does the fact that AW Stats and GA agree mean that those numbers are accurate, or is there a bug I should be looking for? How to explain the clicky numbers?
-
I haven't run into any analytics related IE issues thank heavens, but no doubt, every time you build a website there are IE specific workarounds you have to make, especially when you're targeting older browsers.
I feel like demographics play a really big role in that though. I manage a news talk site, old browsers. On one of my spanish music radio properties... mobile browsers... specifically Android. These days... who knows what people are on. Go Look. It's crazy and never what you think.
I'm a coder but I don't fool myself, I can only image some of the backwards compatibility built into these plugins and all kinds of who knows what. They've been working on it for years and offer them as commercially supported and all that junk, they're nuts about it. Lucky us!
-
Delton, thanks for the answer. I'm using a few browser testing tools to look into the IE issues. What IE issues have you run into?
-
Don't use a GA tool your friend built. There are very powerful tools available inside a variety of plugins.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/
This is a commonly used and great plugin by a highly respected developer. That's step 1.
Step 2 (Arguably Step 1)... resolve your issues with IE immediately... we're web guys but the majority of the people out there are using "The Blue E" as they so lovingly refer to it. Ug. We're all practically all using Chrome or Firefox because we care about our browsing experience and utilize web development tools... they don't use these tools and don't know better. Problems with IE are HUGE problems in my experience. All the bosses i've ever had use IE and I like to keep them happy at the very least.
-
Hmmmmm then I dont know what it could be....I spent a good few hours watching on my site to see if what I saw matched what I was seeing in GA.
If you are not seeing the same behaviour then I would suggest something may be wrong.....I'm sure someone with better knowledge than me will be on shortly to give you some solid ideas....
Sorry I couldnt be more help.
-
Thanks Nicola. Clicky has a "spy" feature where you can watch the visitors who come to your site in real time. I didn't do it obsessively, but i did utilize spy frequently. What I saw was solid engagement, either a second/third pageview or a good bit of time on the site.
-
I once had a similar problem and I used a program to actually watch what and where visitors on my site did & went. I cant remember for the life of me what it is called but it was really cheap and gave me a good insight. I spent hours at an end watching what they were doing and then the program gave me an option to talk to the person visiting.....in a live chat type scenario.
In the end GA turned out to be correct and it was due to the fact that the customers coming to my site didnt want what I was offering.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Analytics, Wordpress, Sumo - who to trust
Something is wrong. I have a website that according to Google Analytics gets zero relevant clicks, with most of the clicks it does get coming from Russia. Wordpress says it gets a hundred or so visitors a month, with most traffic going to the pages that I know rank. Sumo says the heat map got 76 clicks. How would you figure out what's really going on?
Reporting & Analytics | | julie-getonthemap0 -
Does Google Analytics track conversions in real time?
Looking at the section: Conversions > Goals > Overview - does Google Analytics provide real time / same day metrics for this conversion data or does it take 24 hrs?
Reporting & Analytics | | Rich_Coffman0 -
Strange Traffic Spike In Google Analytics
Over the last two days I have seen a huge spike in the pageviews to my site www.learnbonds.com. Up to this point my average page views per visit has been less than 2. For the last couple of days it has jumped to 5 but the average time on the site has not increased. Upon further investigation under the browser and OS page of google analytics I found that traffic coming from internet explorer and IE with Chrome Frame is reporting 10+ pageviews per visit. Below is a screenshot. Any insight into what might be causing this and how to fix it that the community can provide would be appreciated. Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | davidwaring
DaveZUaQWJd.png?1?21800 -
Google Analytics Tracking Code Problems
I am having a problem with my Google Analytics tracking codes. The relevant GA tracking codes have been entered into the source code of certain sites I'm running campaigns on, but Google Analytics is still telling me that the tracking code hasn't been installed - yet it has. What could possibly be the problem here? I have checked that these sites don't run off multiple domains, and that the tracking code has been entered in the correct place within the source code - and yet I am still having problems with GA. Any suggestions?
Reporting & Analytics | | WebhouseISP0 -
Goal tracking in Google Analytics
Hi folks I read from various sources that if you setup goals in Google Analytics each of these goals can only be fulfilled once per visit. Also some sources suggesting that only one goal from each goal group can be fulfilled per visit. On our site we have a goal for external links since this provides value to partners. Some users do open an external link in a new tab, then come back to the main site. Any further goal completions would then not get tracked. Since we apply a result based payment model for our work this means we are literally loosing money. Anyone has official info from Google on this? Can it be configured? How long is a visit? Thanks a million and have a great day. Fredrik
Reporting & Analytics | | Resultify0 -
Exporting Keywords in Google Analytics
In the old Google Analytics, I would simply add &limit=30000 in the URL. Does anyone know how to export all keywords from the new Google Analytics?
Reporting & Analytics | | TommySwanson520 -
Best Practices For Google Analytics
Does anyone have any recommendations or resources for best practices in using Google Analytics. Specifically, as they relate to SEO and managing and monitoring several websites (i.e. registering/managing multiple accounts vs. master account, etc).
Reporting & Analytics | | Gyi0 -
Seeing / and no / in Google Analytics
When I look at my Google Analytics code, I see that the same content will show up twice, once with a / at the end of the URL, and once without. My site is at http://www.skypeenglishclasses.com. Does anyone know why this would happen? Is it duplicate content?
Reporting & Analytics | | Paulguy0