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A month ago, my site had about a 30% bounce rate. One day I pushed some changes to the site, and all the sudden my bounce rate shot straight up to around 98% and my average time on site plumetted to 00:00. Clearly this is a technical issue causing an analytics bug.

From what I can tell, all my js is working well. What kind of technical problems can cause a complete skewing of bounce rate?

I run Google Analytics, and also Reinvigorate (to please some managers). Could that be causing a problem?

I have also implemented the async snippets.

UPDATE

Another idea - are there reserved js variables that I cannot use on the page? I am using "geo" as a variable on my page...could that cause a problem?

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3 Answers 3

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Have a look at any JS you added around the time, you may have variable names conflicting with the script used for analytics.

Could also be an unrelated script error, causing the rest of the JS not to load.

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  • I'll check out my console more....do you have an idea of which variable names might conflict? I use "geo"...wondering if that could cause a problem.
    – johnnietheblack
    May 19, 2011 at 15:28
  • Look at the GA code included in your pages, and look at any other js you may have for variable names
    – baldy
    Jun 9, 2011 at 12:40
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Did you check for any js errors in the console (through firebug or developers tool in chrome). Most probably if your visits are being recorded properly then there might not be any problem with the js or analytics at all. Can you provide a link to your site?

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  • Thanks for answering, unfortunately, I can't without lots of permission. I'm not finding any JS errors - there is actually functioning js on most the pages, so I'm fairly certain everything is in working order. Though it WOULD make sense. I'll keep looking
    – johnnietheblack
    May 19, 2011 at 15:27
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Perhaps you are accidentally adding two GA trackers into the HTML? Just double check this to make sure you aren't.

Also, check this, your problem may be settings within GA: http://www.e-nor.com/blog/index.php/web-analytics/problems-with-the-bounce-rate-in-the-top-content-report/

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