Google analytics reality check?

[JSOC]

Looking back over a 9 month period tracking analytics with getclicky my site showed a 29% bounce rate, with only about 1/4 of visitors spending 1 minute or less on my site.

I've recently implemented GA (removed old clicky code) and although traffic is strong, my site now shows a bounce rate of about 82%. Engagement stats also show that 82% of visitors spend between 0-10 seconds on my site.

My site is built on Wordpress and the GA tracking code wasn't placed directly in the footer, my developer built a field in the admin area to insert the UA number which automatically adds the code to all pages. I've checked the code and the tracking seems to appear on all pages.

I took a look at AW Stats. It corroborates GA and says that 80% of visitors are spending 0-30 seconds on the site.

Potential issues/clues:

browser tests show small loading problems in Internet Explorer 7,8,9 (the phone number at the top of the header loads on the wrong side of the page) and major issues in Internet Explorer 6 (site doesn't load at all in IE 6). The thing is no one who uses IE 6 is coming to the site.

Second, the site gets a grade of C in YSlow, it's not lightning fast at the moment. GA is showing average page load of 2.4 seconds, but don't think either of these issues should cause an 82% 0-10 seconds engagement number.

My site is content rich/focused with very minimal advertising. Content is accessible well above the fold.

My question:

Does the fact that AW Stats and GA agree mean that those numbers are accurate, or is there a bug I should be looking for? How to explain the clicky numbers?

[DeltonChilds]

I haven't run into any analytics related IE issues thank heavens, but no doubt, every time you build a website there are IE specific workarounds you have to make, especially when you're targeting older browsers.

I feel like demographics play a really big role in that though.  I manage a news talk site, old browsers.  On one of my spanish music radio properties... mobile browsers... specifically Android.  These days... who knows what people are on.  Go Look.  It's crazy and never what you think.

I'm a coder but I don't fool myself, I can only image some of the backwards compatibility built into  these plugins and all kinds of who knows what.  They've been working on it for years and offer them as commercially supported and all that junk, they're nuts about it.  Lucky us!

[JSOC]

Delton, thanks for the answer. I'm using a few browser testing tools to look into the IE issues. What IE issues have you run into?

[DeltonChilds]

Don't use a GA tool your friend built.  There are very powerful tools available inside a variety of plugins.

 http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/

This is a commonly used and great plugin by a highly respected developer. That's step 1.

Step 2 (Arguably Step 1)... resolve your issues with IE immediately... we're web guys but the majority of the people out there are using "The Blue E" as they so lovingly refer to it.  Ug.    We're all practically all using Chrome or Firefox because we care about our browsing experience and utilize web development tools... they don't use these tools and don't know better.  Problems with IE are HUGE problems in my experience.  All the bosses i've ever had use IE and I like to keep them happy at the very least.

[RankStealer]

Hmmmmm then I dont know what it could be....I spent a good few hours watching on my site to see if what I saw matched what I was seeing in GA.

If you are not seeing the same behaviour then I would suggest something may be wrong.....I'm sure someone with better knowledge than me will be on shortly to give you some solid ideas....

Sorry I couldnt be more help.

[JSOC]

Thanks Nicola. Clicky has a "spy" feature where you can watch the visitors who come to your site in real time. I didn't do it obsessively, but i did utilize spy frequently. What I saw was solid engagement, either a second/third pageview or a good bit of time on the site.

[RankStealer]

I once had a similar problem and I used a program to actually watch what and where visitors on my site did & went.  I cant remember for the life of me what it is called but it was really cheap and gave me a good insight.  I spent hours at an end watching what they were doing and then the program gave me an option to talk to the person visiting.....in a live chat type scenario.

In the end GA turned out to be correct and it was due to the fact that the customers coming to my site didnt want what I was offering.