Planet13 - 9:31 pm on Nov 14, 2010 (gmt 0)

@Robert Charlton

Is there anything to suggest that the type of traffic you've been getting recently... ie, in say research vs commercial... is different enough to cause the changes you're seeing?

Nothing that is obvious. The most popular pages for the period after the drastic drop in Bounce Rate is the same for the corresponding period before. That is the same for the entrance keywords as well. Some slight variation, but nothing major.

I wonder if it might be due to the fact that while I am using the ga.js code in my pages, it is still the (older) version that goes in the footer of the page, right before the closing body tag, as opposed to using the newer asynchonus code that goes in the head element.

On my other site, I still use the same older version of the code, and HAVEN'T seen the same drop in bounce rate.

However, I think the google analytics code might work differently on different sites.

For example, I had been using the ga urchin code up through 2008, and suddenly in late August 2008, it stopped working on my site. GA was reporting zero traffic. I then had to change to the ga.js code (in the footer) to track any traffic.

However, I talked to other web masters who were still using the ga urchin code up through 2009 and they said it was working fine on their sites. So I don't know why the urchin code would stop working on my site but continue to work on other sites.