How to measure Bounce Rate via Timeout

[Webicultors]

Hi,

I want to change the way Google Analytics measures my bounce rate: after 20 seconds timeout instead of next page criteria.

I know that I may do it adding some content like:

setTimeout(“_gaq.push([‘_trackEvent’, ‘NoBounce’, ’20 seconds’])”,20000);

But I wonder if there is some way to do it via Google Analytics configuration.

Thanks in advance,

[DirkC]

You could create a new property within the account - and then add this second tracking code to your pages with code of this 2nd property.

You can find more info here: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/creating-trackers#working_with_multiple_trackers. Basically - you add a second tracker

ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Y', 'auto');
ga('create', 'UA-XXXXX-Z', 'auto', 'normalTracker');
....(rest of your tracking code here)...

ga('send', 'pageview');
ga('normalTracker.send', 'pageview');

The js from cutroni will launch events for the "standard" tracker - however these events are not tracked by the second tracker. Never tested exactly the same config - so you might want to use the tag assistant and/or GA Debugger plugins for Chrome to test that it's doing what you want it to do.

Dirk

Dirk

[Webicultors]

Hi, thank you all for your answers...

I finally implemented a setTimeout code (as in https://moz.com/blog/adjusted-bounce-rate) but suggested my client to later implement browsing event (as in http://cutroni.com/blog/2014/02/12/advanced-content-tracking-with-universal-analytics/).

Now the question is: may I have both Bounce rates counting? I mean, on different profiles of the same Google Analytics account?

Thanks in advance

[ThompsonPaul]

Dirk's got a good response for how to do this properly, but to answer your specific question...

No, you cannot change the definition of a bounce from within the Analytics configuration. The only way to do it is to add event tracking customisation to the page's tracking code to fire an interactive event which creates an additional hit to the tracking script.

Paul

[DirkC]

If I understand your question you don't want a visit to be counted as a bounce if they stay on the page for 20sec. If that's what you need - you can find all the info in this article: https://moz.com/blog/adjusted-bounce-rate

Be warned however that one of Google Analytics guru's (Cutroni) warns for using an arbitrary criterium like 20sec to measure if your audience is engaged with your content.  If you read the comments on the Moz article mentioned above he's not the only one. According to him - it's better to tie engagement to an action performed on the page (like scrolling).. How to do this can be found here: http://cutroni.com/blog/2014/02/12/advanced-content-tracking-with-universal-analytics/. Personally I agree with Cutroni and I implemented the adjusted bounce rate as he described.

Dirk