Sudden increase in returning visitors

[AsafY]

Hi,

in the last couple of days I've seen the following changes in my analytics:

1. about 35% increase in overall traffic(both organic and ppc)

2. new visitors dropped about 20%(both organic and ppc)

3. bounce rate increased in about 10%(both organic and ppc)

I haven't done any changes to the analytics code nor any other big change to the website.

I'm obviously pleased with the increase in traffic but worried about the fact that it is mostly from returning visitors.

I just want to make sure that nothing went bad so I can catch this on time, any advice on what to look for would be great.Thanks,

Asaf

[tlampel]

right now I am using "absolutely unique visitors" as my gauge. Not perfect, but it will have to do.

[tlampel]

right now I am using "absolutely unique visitors" as my gauge. Not perfect, but it will have to do.

[AsafY]

I think they have a huge issue with sessions now.

based on people's comments, the change seems to be rather big and renders the results almost useless. I guess if It's going to stay that way I should learn how to read the new results.

[tlampel]

Yes.. this would have been nice. However I believe they think there is little to no change. I use Joomla on the site that has problems and I am curious if Joomla's sessions are conflicting...  I went from 90% new visits to 70% visits. Now I use a calculator to see what my old traffic was.

From what I can see, with some users it is counting each page view as a visit. If someone comes to my site searching like "how to build a red widget" and I see 15 visits. I know there is not 15 people that search this term. Rather the sessions are screwy. Not sure if this is a Google fix, or something on my part yet.

[AsafY]

well it is a change: http://analytics.blogspot.com/

apparently on 11/8 Google has changed they way they close sessions.

and I'm way out of they're 1% change - "this change may slightly increase the number of visits"

they could have sent a simple mail.........

[tlampel]

I am experiencing it too... it looks like GA changed how they look at sessions. This is the problem I assume. It is really throwing off my numbers. I am curious if it is a CMS thing.

[AsafY]

Usually I don't have a lot of traffic

Organic search was

a couple of days ago(very much average)

39 visits - 76.92% new visits - 20.51% bounce rate

today (till now):

72 visits - 50.00% new visits - 62.50% bounce rate

[DanSpeicher]

How much traffic do you have? Could it just be a large fluctuation?

[AsafY]

It's an adult novelty store,

and there is currently a valentines day like event here but the keywords that bring in the traffic are also not directly related to this event and the fact that the bounce rate has increased on these terms alerted me.

but maybe I should wait a couple of days and see

[RyanKent]

What is the topic of your site? Are there any real-world events going on related to your site that could explain this change in traffic?

Are there any seasonal factors for your site? Any sales or discounts? Is your site in any way related to "back to school" activities?