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  4. Google Analytics and Bounce Rates Query - Should I block access from foreign countries ?

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Google Analytics and Bounce Rates Query - Should I block access from foreign countries ?

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  • PeteC12
    PeteC12 last edited by Jan 12, 2015, 1:15 PM

    Hi ,

    When I look at my google analytics for my UK Website, I can see alot of visits come from outside the UK , i.e Brazil and USA. Both of which give me almost 100% bounce rates from people visiting from there.

    I am wondering, if google looks at bounce rates with regards to ranking factors and should I therefore block access to my site from visitors outside the UK ?... Would this help increase my rankings ?

    Given that we only serve uk customers, I cant see any benefit of allowing non uk customers the ability to see the site .

    what does people think ?

    thanks

    pete

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
    • flyntime_tx
      flyntime_tx @DirkC last edited by Feb 4, 2015, 3:26 PM Feb 4, 2015, 3:26 PM

      Yes it is (clear), and I'll review the Analytics documentation for more details.  Really appreciate you taking the time to reply.    ~Mike

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • DirkC
        DirkC @flyntime_tx last edited by Feb 4, 2015, 3:24 PM Feb 4, 2015, 3:24 PM

        Hi Mike,

        I don't have access to a of pc now. From my memory you first create a filter, and then aply the filter to a new view. You should always keep one view in original state without any filters. Hope this is clear. Hope it is sufficiently clear.

        rgds

        Dirk

        flyntime_tx 1 Reply Last reply Feb 4, 2015, 3:26 PM Reply Quote 0
        • flyntime_tx
          flyntime_tx @DirkC last edited by Feb 4, 2015, 3:10 PM Feb 4, 2015, 3:10 PM

          Thanks Dirk.  That answered the issue I was uncertain about, which was whether blocking visitors from Analytics reports truly prevents them from hitting the site (even an error page), and apparently it doesn't so your answer makes perfect sense.

          One more question:  Does an Analytics filter automatically apply to all Analytics views/reports for that domain/site, or does a filter have to be assigned to the views I want it to affect (in this case, all of them)?

          Thanks for the quick response!
          Mike

          DirkC 1 Reply Last reply Feb 4, 2015, 3:24 PM Reply Quote 0
          • DirkC
            DirkC @flyntime_tx last edited by Feb 4, 2015, 3:00 PM Feb 4, 2015, 3:00 PM

            Hi Michael

            The first thing you should do is to define the geography you are targeting in webmaster tools (If you have a generic tld).

            if you would block visitors from Brazil on your site the bounce rate measured by analytics will go down. However, Google is not using your analytics data to measure the bounce rate (at least that is what they claim). As al these people get an error message when they try to visit your site,the real bounce-rate will increase rather than go down, making the situation even worse, you just would not be aware of it.

            What you could do is set a custom filter in analytics, showing only the traffic from your target country and apply this filter to a new view. This gives you better insights on the behavior of your target audience.

            rgds

            Dirk

            flyntime_tx 1 Reply Last reply Feb 4, 2015, 3:10 PM Reply Quote 2
            • flyntime_tx
              flyntime_tx @DirkC last edited by Feb 4, 2015, 2:50 PM Feb 4, 2015, 2:50 PM

              I've got a similar problem with nearly 50% of the traffic to many of my client's sites coming from Brazil.  My clients are and will only ever be local, small town operations, so my questions are:

              1.  Why it's not a good idea to block those visits that are irrelevant to the traffic we want to measure.
              2.  Bounce rate is considered to play at least some role in the ranking algorithm, or at least I always thought so.  If over 50% of my traffic is bouncing because it's bot driven, spam related, etc, shouldn't I be worried about the adverse affect on my bounce rate?

              Just trying to understand the rules to this game.  🙂

              Thanks!
              Mike

              DirkC 1 Reply Last reply Feb 4, 2015, 3:00 PM Reply Quote 0
              • PeteC12
                PeteC12 last edited by Jan 12, 2015, 3:27 PM Jan 12, 2015, 3:27 PM

                Many thanks All

                Peter

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • Ray-pp
                  Ray-pp last edited by Jan 12, 2015, 3:27 PM Jan 12, 2015, 2:27 PM

                  I'd like to add to the answers above.

                  First, I agree - do not block foreign visitors. There are many reasons for this, do not worry about their bounce rates.

                  Second, and the part I'm adding, is I suggest setting up a Filtered View in your Google Analytics that only tracks your target demographic, in your situation the UK visitors.

                  This Filtered View will allow you to see more accurate metrics for the people you're targeting and allow you to do a better analysis of your web analytics. Make sure to add that filtered view and not overwrite your unfiltered view, so if you ever do expand into the other geographic locations you can dig into their performance analytics as well.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • Devanur-Rafi
                    Devanur-Rafi last edited by Jan 12, 2015, 3:27 PM Jan 12, 2015, 1:42 PM

                    Hi Pete,

                    Please don't block access to foreigners. You can set the geo-target in Google webmaster tools account, if you have not already done so. It is completely normal with country-specific websites getting traffic from all over the World. A small or probably 1 in a thousand foreign visits might come from UK people traveling abroad. So to conclude, its my honest opinion not to block access to foreigners even the bounce rates might be alarming. Its common and natural and search engine like Google know about this pretty well and there won't be any issue to your website from their end.

                    Best regards,

                    Devanur Rafi

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • DirkC
                      DirkC last edited by Jan 12, 2015, 3:27 PM Jan 12, 2015, 1:42 PM

                      Blocking access to your site for foreign visitors won't change anything for your "real" bounce rate. The measured bounce rate will decrease in Analytics, but these visitors will still bounce when they get to your website.

                      If you're using a generic domain extension - you can indicate in Webmastertools that you are targeting the local UK market (if you use a .uk extension this is automatically the case).

                      I wouldn't worry too much about this bounce rate - as long as the bounce rate (and time/visit - time on page) for your UK visitors is ok

                      rgds

                      Dirk

                      flyntime_tx 1 Reply Last reply Feb 4, 2015, 2:50 PM Reply Quote 1
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