Bounce rate reduction

This plugin sets this straight. It will tell Google Analytics every 10 seconds that your visitor is still on the page and that there was some interaction on that page. Your page will be “unbounced”.

It’s all based on a script made by Brian Cray and is totally accepted by Google (see Other Notes for more info). The results are more accurate Time on Site and Bounce Rate statistics.
Useful links

• Idea based on Brian Cray’s post (which he deleted, but it still must be on the Internet somewhere…)
  
  
• Scroll percentage code heavily based on Mohamed Adel’s code
  
  
• Google says it’s OK to use this method
  

Click to expand...

blackbeans said:

Or if you want a white hat method, use longer pages with multimedia elements

Probably boosts conversions and overall dwell time too

Click to expand...

AryabhattZero said:

Bookmarked this thread. This plugin looks good but waiting for someone who has used it to reply.

Click to expand...

roki4ka said:

The plugin is white hat method and is allowed officially by google.

I am 3rd day with it, fro 55% bounce rate to (last 3 days) 10-20%

Click to expand...

blackbeans said:

Mind sharing an official google link where Big G says its okay to use this technique. I'd love to see it because this would solve lots of problems.

Click to expand...

seo said:

If this doesn't correlate to increased rankings or earnings, then it's a waste of time. Anyone can manipulate the data in their Analytics. You can send thousands of visitors to pump visitor metrics too, but what is your end game? There seems to be a massive assumption here that driving your bounce rate down will affect your rankings, but it's just one small part of a much larger puzzle. Google probably gives more weight to pogo sticking than the bounce rate data. I'm not saying this won't work, but if you aren't correlating this with ranking changes, then you're chasing ghosts.

Click to expand...

roki4ka said:

I am not here to discuss how important the bounce rate is (everyone can answer this question for themselves).

I am here to discuss how to lower my bounce rate without any black or gray hat methods.

Click to expand...

seo said:

Ok then. Mission accomplished. You've successfully manipulated data in your analytics console.

Click to expand...

Have you ever wondered how many visitors really pay attention to your website before exiting the page? Have you wondered how many of those “bounced” visitors will remember where they’ve been in future? How many of them are totally useless, how many are not?
There is a way to track this!
“Bounce rate” in Google Analytics is one of the key metrics that helps to evaluate the quality of your traffic. “Bounce” happens when the visitor exited the website right from the landing page, without going to any other page. This is a great indication on how relevant the content was for the user and how engaged they were with your website.
While working perfect for most websites, there are categories of sites where this metric is not enough.
Imagine you’re promoting a blog post that describes all the benefits of your company. The visitor might read the whole post and remember your company and products really well - they might even go to search for your product on one of the search engines straight away. However, since the visitor only looked at 1 page (exactly where the blog post is) they will be recorded as bounced visitor.
Another example if you have a description of the product right on the landing page, and your phone number on the same page. The visitor might study the description and call straight away - again, they will be recorded as a bounced visitor, as only 1 page was viewed. There are many more examples, and even traditional websites may benefit from the method described below as opposed to the standard bounce rate.
There is a solution to this - something that we call “Adjusted bounce rate”. You implement a small tweak to your Google Analytics code, which executes an event when a user has spent over a certain amount of time on the webpage. Depending on the website, the time can range from 10 seconds to few minutes - you should decide for yourself the amount of time you consider the user to be sufficiently engaged with your website or product.
Once the event is executed, the visitor is no longer counted as “bounce,” even though no additional pageview is recorded. This will mean your bounce rate will show users who have not spent a required “minimal time” on your website - the ones who have really bounced. Here is a modification to the Google Analytics code that you need to make (on the example of the latest, asynchronous code):
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXXXX-1']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
setTimeout("_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', '15_seconds', 'read'])",15000);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();
</script>
The setTimeout function is the one that does the trick here, and you can set it up to whatever delay you wish (in this case, it is 15 seconds).
Moreover, since the event is created once 15 seconds lapse, you can define this event as a goal in Google Analytics, and even import this goal as a conversion to AdWords, provided the conditions are met.

We hope this small fix will allow you to track and understand the users’ behavior and quality of the traffic coming to your website more accurately, and make more informed decisions. One thing website owners should be vary of, though, that not only the function may slow down the users' experience, even insignificantly, but will also increase the volume of hits your site sends to Google Analytics, which might bring your usage over the limit (currently set at 10 mln hits per month). As such, this fix should only be applied when necessary and justified by the concept of the website and the landing pages.
Posted by Alexey Petrov, Google Analytics Insights Team

Click to expand...

roki4ka said:

Indeed, exactly as Google Analytics Insight Team teach us to "Manipulate"

Click to expand...

seo said:

If this doesn't correlate to increased rankings or earnings, then it's a waste of time. Anyone can manipulate the data in their Analytics. You can send thousands of visitors to pump visitor metrics too, but what is your end game? There seems to be a massive assumption here that driving your bounce rate down will affect your rankings, but it's just one small part of a much larger puzzle. Google probably gives more weight to pogo sticking than the bounce rate data. I'm not saying this won't work, but if you aren't correlating this with ranking changes, then you're chasing ghosts.

Click to expand...

The Doctor said:

The search CTR and associated bounce rate are two of the most weighted metrics AFAIK.

Click to expand...

seo said:

The mistake though is thinking Google is using your analytics data. They can measure bounce rate in other ways such as return to search results, etc. It makes sense they would do it that way as many people don't use Google analytics on their site.

Click to expand...

roki4ka said:

The only mistake is that you speak about something that you have no idea how it works... Wait there is another mistake - you don't even care how it works, you don't even read what I post.

Click to expand...

I am not sure why we are speaking if you are not interested in this?

Click to expand...

seo said:

CTR is Google's data. The mistake that's being made is thinking that your analytics data is what Google uses to calculate the bounce rate.

Anyways, all I'm suggesting is to correlate your tests work actual performance indicators to make sure it's useful. That's just good SEO.

I'm not saying this won't work. I'm not saying Google doesn't use this data (although their data sharing options in the analytics admin might suggest it isn't, but I don't remember them off the top of my head). All I'm saying is to test rather than assume.

With that said, I don't want to Holland this thread. OP, I hope it works and I hope it makes you money.

Click to expand...