Comments on: Google Analytics Glitch – 300% Increase in Average Time Spent on Site

By: Bobby

Bobby — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:54:56 +0000

I have not noticed a thing. I wonder if this challenge is happening to my site as well. I will have to look further into it. Thanks for the heads up.

By: Sascha

Sascha — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:48:58 +0000

We have just optimized our portal conform Goolge standards; actually, an agency has done that for us (last week).

As marketing manager, I just received the stats today and I was flabbergasted. Our visitors usually spent 5- 10 minutes on our sites but since this week, this is 19 minutes (average) and on some sites (we publish in 6 countries), even 27 minutes!

I discussed this with our interactive agency partner and they claim that they have implemented everything conform instructions.

However, I have serious doubts about the stats!

By: Ian Lee

Ian Lee — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:26:40 +0000

Looks like Time Spent on Site is back to normal. Anyone else see this too?

By: Google Analytics Fixed 300% Increase in Time Spent on Site Reporting » ADS-Links.com Internet Marketing - Ian Lee

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:47:06 +0000

[...] month, I noticed a 300% increase in average Time Spent on Site as reported by Google Analytics. Apparently, Google no longer including users who bounced in the [...]

By: Carl

Carl — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:16:07 +0000

Google apparently modified the calculation for the average time on site to no longer include bounce visits. I'm not sure why they tried to do this so quietly. Google Analytics: Bounce Visits are excluded for Avg. Time On Site

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:34:47 +0000

I’m using google analytics to track my blogs traffic, I too feel the some sudden higher changes in the average time spend on my blog. I thought I’m getting good visitors, who spends more time in my blogs, but after read this article I should rethink.

By: Clebsch Gordan

Clebsch Gordan — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 03:42:17 +0000

Hi Ian.thanks for the article.The AJAX technology is truly amazing.it helps me a great deal with my site.

By: Robin

Robin — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:55:13 +0000

Hi Ian Lee,You are careful man,I noticed the same problem recently.the average time spent on my site had increased 210%.

By: Ian Lee

Ian Lee — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:42:15 +0000

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the helpful information. It’s appreciated.

As I mentioned in Pageviews Distorted by AJAX Pageless Technology, engage ability and time spent on site is becoming more relevant with the adoption of Ajax and streaming technology. Recently, even Nielsen/NetRatings announced it would focus more on Time Spent on Site and put less emphasis in reporting page views.

I am not disagreeing with Google’s new methodology, but it’s unusual that 2 emails to Google tech support about this issue have gone unanswered. Normally, they respond relatively quickly.

This new calculation has me wondering if it has also affected user loyalty (length and depth) reporting. Interesting.

I hope Google does make a formal announcement. This is important information and is definitely a new way of measuring engage ability.

So does that mean we can feel happy about our increased time spent on site as reported by Google Analytics?

By: Chris Gilmartin

Chris Gilmartin — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:44:24 +0000

I attended the GA Conversion University earlier in the month and recall someone brought up the same issue after having pulled past reports and seeing the jump.

GG explanation is that GA is no longer counting visitors who bounce in their TOS calculation. Not sure when the change took effect (end of july I think). The Google folks agreed it should have been announced. That should explain your jumps…

I think most agreed that this was a better way of measuring time on site becaues the way it was explained is that TOS is calculated is looking at the time between one page is called to the next. With those that hit the homepage and leave, they were getting zero values, bringin the TOS down – even if they spent a couple of minutes looking at your homepage, then left.

Hope that helps.

By: Louie Herr

Louie Herr — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 17:01:19 +0000

Had an oh shi- moment, thought I’d been reporting analytics incorrectly!

Thanks for the post!

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 06:35:18 +0000

Thanks for the heads-up, I was surfing for ‘average’ length of visit info when I came across your article. I was surprised by a 450% rise in average length on one of my client’s sites – then after reading your article I checked the ‘previous period’ figure against last month’s report and noticed it had jumped by 400%! Ridiculous. I checked the client’s reporting package, they host all their sites and record raw stats and they were recording significantly lower average times. Definitely something fishy going on.