Anyone here use Google Analytics? I am a rank beginner but the only one in the office who uses it at all.
Our site’s bounce rate went from averaging 5% (always in the 3 to 15% range) to averaging 46% (always in the 42% to 57% range) in one day. It had been that low since forever, and it has stayed that high since the change, three months ago.
Overall number of visits and visitors has not changed much. Phenomenon exists across all types of traffic including search, direct, referral, and email campaigns (though least pronounced in email). Phenomenon exists across all landing and exit pages that I’ve looked at, all demographics, etc. Ecommerce stuff (revenue, conversion rate, etc.) does not seem to have changed significantly. Page views per visit have gone down somewhat, but I think it would pretty much have to with so many more bounces. Day-of-the-week patterns have stayed the same – that is, relatively more bouncing on weekends and holidays, and relatively less on Tuesdays, while count of visits & visitors is down on weekends and up on Tuesdays.
No significant changes to the site or tracking code or content or anything in that time. (The inertia of our site is noteworthy.) Not featured on Reddit or Digg or the New York Times. No major product introduction coincides.
WTF??
Any ideas at all? I don’t know what else to look for!