Sudden increased google analytics bounce rate yesterday

Question

Yesterday I noticed sudden increase in google analytics bounce rate. What could be reasons for that, is it possible that there was something wrong on GA side?

Before that it was very good for 1 year, it was constantly at about 20-25% for Adword CPC source and 15-20% for organic traffic. It is realistic because I have a very specific product. Yesterday it as 80% and 65%.

Time spent has also reduced a bit, from 3:30 to 2:50, but this is not so sudden change and could be just normal. Also new vs returning sessions are the same at 65%.

I am starting to be worried if there is anything on my side or server side I can not see. Today it is continuing the same bad bounce rate.

Has anybody experienced the same, any idea what could cause this?

Answer 1

Generally a sudden increase in the bounce rate is multiple GA tags firing on one site. If you are using GTM, check the tags section, otherwise look in your code (maybe if you are using a CMS you have multiple analytics plugins active).

A great tool to help you track these issues down is the Google Tag Assistant. Simply install it, enable it on the site, refresh and it will tell you about common issues / errors.