Bounce Rate

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Proud Texan

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Swirt,
On your page that discusses Google Analytics, you gave the following example of a "bad" bounce rate:[td]/ (home page)[/td][td]120
[/td][td]80%[/td][/tr][td]/rooms[/td][td]80
[/td][td]65%[/td][/tr][td]/policies[/td][td]19
[/td][td]75%[/td][/tr][td]/dollcollection[/td][td]82
[/td][td]99%[/td][/tr][/table]

In this example, an 80% bounce rate from the main page doesn't seem that bad IF the page they are leaving for is, let's say, the page for ROOMS or any other page within a given site. Am I totally misunderstanding Bounce Rate?
What exactly is "Conversion Rate" ? Is this the percentage increase of people that stay on a page a.k.a. the polar opposite of Bounce Rate?
Since I revamped my website, I've noticed a mark improvement of my bounce rate from around 65% down to around 25% or less. On a page by page breakdown, the percentage of people leaving my home page is still around 65%, but the number of visits to my other pages appear to be up. This is all clear as mud....but I think i'm doing something right.
Finally, is it possible to put the Google Analytics code on my Webervations page to make it appear to be part of my site? If people are clicking the link button to check availability, then they are leaving my site, which seems to me, something that would skew the results of Google Analytics.
 
In this example, an 80% bounce rate from the main page doesn't seem that bad IF the page they are leaving for is, let's say, the page for ROOMS or any other page within a given site. Am I totally misunderstanding Bounce Rate?
A bounce means they left your site, not just went to another page on your site. (If that were the case every page would have a 100% bounce rate)
What exactly is "Conversion Rate" ? Is this the percentage increase of people that stay on a page a.k.a. the polar opposite of Bounce Rate?
A conversion means they did something that you consider them to have converted and taken some action. For an online store it is easy, if they bought an item, they converted. For us in B&Bs it is a little more difficult. Analytics lets you define "goals" and if a visitor achieves a goal, analytics counts them as converted. I usually set up the goals in Analytics to consider it a conversion if they
  • Went to the contact page. Meaning they looked for a way to make contact, by email or phone
  • clicked on a link to send us an email
  • checked for availability (they may have been willing to book, but the room they wanted was unavailable)
  • made an actual reservation online
Finally, is it possible to put the Google Analytics code on my Webervations page to make it appear to be part of my site? If people are clicking the link button to check availability, then they are leaving my site, which seems to me, something that would skew the results of Google Analytics.
I am almost positive that there is a field in webervations that is for entering your analytics id number. It has been a while since I have been into a webervations control panel so I can't tell you exactly where it is, but I bet somebody else that uses webervations daily can point to.
 
In this example, an 80% bounce rate from the main page doesn't seem that bad IF the page they are leaving for is, let's say, the page for ROOMS or any other page within a given site. Am I totally misunderstanding Bounce Rate?
A bounce means they left your site, not just went to another page on your site. (If that were the case every page would have a 100% bounce rate)
What exactly is "Conversion Rate" ? Is this the percentage increase of people that stay on a page a.k.a. the polar opposite of Bounce Rate?
A conversion means they did something that you consider them to have converted and taken some action. For an online store it is easy, if they bought an item, they converted. For us in B&Bs it is a little more difficult. Analytics lets you define "goals" and if a visitor achieves a goal, analytics counts them as converted. I usually set up the goals in Analytics to consider it a conversion if they
  • Went to the contact page. Meaning they looked for a way to make contact, by email or phone
  • clicked on a link to send us an email
  • checked for availability (they may have been willing to book, but the room they wanted was unavailable)
  • made an actual reservation online
Finally, is it possible to put the Google Analytics code on my Webervations page to make it appear to be part of my site? If people are clicking the link button to check availability, then they are leaving my site, which seems to me, something that would skew the results of Google Analytics.
I am almost positive that there is a field in webervations that is for entering your analytics id number. It has been a while since I have been into a webervations control panel so I can't tell you exactly where it is, but I bet somebody else that uses webervations daily can point to..
Yes there is such a page on Webervations. Log in to the Webervations control panel. Go to Configuration > Stats and paste the code into the box called HTML Code. Be sure you also put your Google Analytics ID in its box.
Two things to be aware of when doing this:
  1. Your GA code can be either synchronous (older style) or asynchronous (newer style - Google prefers this as it is faster). See the GA help pages for samples if you're not sure what to use.
  2. When a user clicks a link from your domain to go to your availability page on Webervations (or another booking program), they are leaving your site and going to the booking site's domain. In order to track the visitor from one domain to another (yours to Webervations, for example), you must modify the standard GA code on BOTH your site and on Webervations (in the HTML Code box) to allow the cookie GA sets to be passed from one domain to another.
If #2 didn't make any sense to you, you may want to have your webmaster or SEO person take care of it.
Google's help pages show how to set this up for ecommerce, using a "third-party shopping cart". This is analogous to a B&B using a booking site, like Webervations.
 
In this example, an 80% bounce rate from the main page doesn't seem that bad IF the page they are leaving for is, let's say, the page for ROOMS or any other page within a given site. Am I totally misunderstanding Bounce Rate?
A bounce means they left your site, not just went to another page on your site. (If that were the case every page would have a 100% bounce rate)
What exactly is "Conversion Rate" ? Is this the percentage increase of people that stay on a page a.k.a. the polar opposite of Bounce Rate?
A conversion means they did something that you consider them to have converted and taken some action. For an online store it is easy, if they bought an item, they converted. For us in B&Bs it is a little more difficult. Analytics lets you define "goals" and if a visitor achieves a goal, analytics counts them as converted. I usually set up the goals in Analytics to consider it a conversion if they
  • Went to the contact page. Meaning they looked for a way to make contact, by email or phone
  • clicked on a link to send us an email
  • checked for availability (they may have been willing to book, but the room they wanted was unavailable)
  • made an actual reservation online
Finally, is it possible to put the Google Analytics code on my Webervations page to make it appear to be part of my site? If people are clicking the link button to check availability, then they are leaving my site, which seems to me, something that would skew the results of Google Analytics.
I am almost positive that there is a field in webervations that is for entering your analytics id number. It has been a while since I have been into a webervations control panel so I can't tell you exactly where it is, but I bet somebody else that uses webervations daily can point to..
Yes there is such a page on Webervations. Log in to the Webervations control panel. Go to Configuration > Stats and paste the code into the box called HTML Code. Be sure you also put your Google Analytics ID in its box.
Two things to be aware of when doing this:
  1. Your GA code can be either synchronous (older style) or asynchronous (newer style - Google prefers this as it is faster). See the GA help pages for samples if you're not sure what to use.
  2. When a user clicks a link from your domain to go to your availability page on Webervations (or another booking program), they are leaving your site and going to the booking site's domain. In order to track the visitor from one domain to another (yours to Webervations, for example), you must modify the standard GA code on BOTH your site and on Webervations (in the HTML Code box) to allow the cookie GA sets to be passed from one domain to another.
If #2 didn't make any sense to you, you may want to have your webmaster or SEO person take care of it.
Google's help pages show how to set this up for ecommerce, using a "third-party shopping cart". This is analogous to a B&B using a booking site, like Webervations.
.
Wow! Thanks for that very thorough reply. I'm afraid that I am my own webmaster, but I think I can figure it out.
 
O.K., I found it.
The code for Asychronous is:
Primary
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-12345-1']); <-----Bogus Number
_gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);
_gaq.push(['_setAllowHash', false]);
Secondary
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-12345-1']); <-----Bogus Number
_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'none']);
_gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);
_gaq.push(['_setAllowHash', false]);
I'm guessing that the primary goes on my website and the secondary goes on Webervations. Right?
Does this need to be set into a javascript tag?
i.e. <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> </script>
 
O.K., I found it.
The code for Asychronous is:
Primary
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-12345-1']); <-----Bogus Number
_gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);
_gaq.push(['_setAllowHash', false]);
Secondary
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-12345-1']); <-----Bogus Number
_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'none']);
_gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]);
_gaq.push(['_setAllowHash', false]);
I'm guessing that the primary goes on my website and the secondary goes on Webervations. Right?
Does this need to be set into a javascript tag?
i.e. <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> </script>.
Basically, yes. Here is the GA example for the minimum required code for asynchronous:
<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(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>
To modify this for cross-domain ecommerce tracking, you need to put the code you listed in the primary (your) site and secondary (Webervations), in place of the _setAccount entry in Google's code above.
 
Actually, Webervations must have it already set up. I called them and all I had to do was enter my Google code in the appropriate box. We'll see what happens.
 
Actually, Webervations must have it already set up. I called them and all I had to do was enter my Google code in the appropriate box. We'll see what happens..
That's actually good news. I had talked with Scott Crumpton of Whitestone Marketing, and I know he was working with them to get that set up properly at one time.
Scott
 
The link showed up in Google analytics. I think now I have a clearer picture of how visitors are moving through my site.
 
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