Google Analytics and Bounce Rates Query - Should I block access from foreign countries ?
-
Hi ,
When I look at my google analytics for my UK Website, I can see alot of visits come from outside the UK , i.e Brazil and USA. Both of which give me almost 100% bounce rates from people visiting from there.
I am wondering, if google looks at bounce rates with regards to ranking factors and should I therefore block access to my site from visitors outside the UK ?... Would this help increase my rankings ?
Given that we only serve uk customers, I cant see any benefit of allowing non uk customers the ability to see the site .
what does people think ?
thanks
pete
-
Yes it is (clear), and I'll review the Analytics documentation for more details. Really appreciate you taking the time to reply. ~Mike
-
Hi Mike,
I don't have access to a of pc now. From my memory you first create a filter, and then aply the filter to a new view. You should always keep one view in original state without any filters. Hope this is clear. Hope it is sufficiently clear.
rgds
Dirk
-
Thanks Dirk. That answered the issue I was uncertain about, which was whether blocking visitors from Analytics reports truly prevents them from hitting the site (even an error page), and apparently it doesn't so your answer makes perfect sense.
One more question: Does an Analytics filter automatically apply to all Analytics views/reports for that domain/site, or does a filter have to be assigned to the views I want it to affect (in this case, all of them)?
Thanks for the quick response!
Mike -
Hi Michael
The first thing you should do is to define the geography you are targeting in webmaster tools (If you have a generic tld).
if you would block visitors from Brazil on your site the bounce rate measured by analytics will go down. However, Google is not using your analytics data to measure the bounce rate (at least that is what they claim). As al these people get an error message when they try to visit your site,the real bounce-rate will increase rather than go down, making the situation even worse, you just would not be aware of it.
What you could do is set a custom filter in analytics, showing only the traffic from your target country and apply this filter to a new view. This gives you better insights on the behavior of your target audience.
rgds
Dirk
-
I've got a similar problem with nearly 50% of the traffic to many of my client's sites coming from Brazil. My clients are and will only ever be local, small town operations, so my questions are:
1. Why it's not a good idea to block those visits that are irrelevant to the traffic we want to measure.
2. Bounce rate is considered to play at least some role in the ranking algorithm, or at least I always thought so. If over 50% of my traffic is bouncing because it's bot driven, spam related, etc, shouldn't I be worried about the adverse affect on my bounce rate?Just trying to understand the rules to this game.
Thanks!
Mike -
Many thanks All
Peter
-
I'd like to add to the answers above.
First, I agree - do not block foreign visitors. There are many reasons for this, do not worry about their bounce rates.
Second, and the part I'm adding, is I suggest setting up a Filtered View in your Google Analytics that only tracks your target demographic, in your situation the UK visitors.
This Filtered View will allow you to see more accurate metrics for the people you're targeting and allow you to do a better analysis of your web analytics. Make sure to add that filtered view and not overwrite your unfiltered view, so if you ever do expand into the other geographic locations you can dig into their performance analytics as well.
-
Hi Pete,
Please don't block access to foreigners. You can set the geo-target in Google webmaster tools account, if you have not already done so. It is completely normal with country-specific websites getting traffic from all over the World. A small or probably 1 in a thousand foreign visits might come from UK people traveling abroad. So to conclude, its my honest opinion not to block access to foreigners even the bounce rates might be alarming. Its common and natural and search engine like Google know about this pretty well and there won't be any issue to your website from their end.
Best regards,
Devanur Rafi
-
Blocking access to your site for foreign visitors won't change anything for your "real" bounce rate. The measured bounce rate will decrease in Analytics, but these visitors will still bounce when they get to your website.
If you're using a generic domain extension - you can indicate in Webmastertools that you are targeting the local UK market (if you use a .uk extension this is automatically the case).
I wouldn't worry too much about this bounce rate - as long as the bounce rate (and time/visit - time on page) for your UK visitors is ok
rgds
Dirk
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Whatstuffwherebot user agent messing up Google Analytics
Starting yesterday, Aug 26, 2020, I noticed a new bot crawling our site with user agent whatstuffwherebot. Google Analytics is counting these hits as human traffic, completely throwing off my numbers - yesterday, Analytics reported nearly triple my typical number of visitors. As of now, Search Console only shows data through Aug 25 so I don't know if Search Console is also affected. Is anybody else seeing something similar? Does anybody know what the whatstuffwherebot bot is? I don't get any results when I search on Google or Bing. For what it's worth, the traffic is coming from Columbus, OH, running over Amazon AWS via 278 different IP addresses so far. Also, WordFence (my WordPress security plugin) correctly identifies these hits as bot traffic.
Reporting & Analytics | | ahirai0 -
Using logical operators (AND / OR) in Google Analytics Goal Funnels
When setting up a Funnel within Google Analytics, is it possible to use logical operators (e.g. OR, AND) in the first (required) step of the funnel? For example, suppose I want to track users who visit page1.html AND page2.html before proceeding to the destination goal. I've entered two pages separated by the OR operator, and neither the "Verify this Goal" nor "Save" produces an error message - is it safe to assume that this is working as I intend? Thanks in advance!
Reporting & Analytics | | ahirai0 -
Google Analytics: Dashboard to show popular content per directory
Hello, I work for a furniture business and I would like to set up a dashboard in Google Analytics to show a table for each of the 10 sections to show the most popular content, ie. /Sofas
Reporting & Analytics | | Bee159
/Sofas/black-leather-sofa | 987 PVs
/Sofas/brown-leather-sofa | 782 PVs
/Sofas/classic-material-sofa | 636 PVs
etc. /Beds
/Beds/king-size-bed | 900 PVs
etc How would I go about doing this? Thank you0 -
Tracking time spent on a section of a website in Google Analytics
Hi, I've been asked by a client to track time spent or number of pages visited on a specific section of their website using Google Analytics but can't see how to do this. For example, they have a "golf" section within their site and want to measure how many people either visit 5 page or more within the golf section or spend at least 6 minutes browsing the various golf section pages. Can anyone advise how if this can be done, and if so, how I go about it. Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | geckonm0 -
Dip in traffic from Pune for our sites in Google Analytics
Hi, We have noticed dip in traffic from Pune after 6th May'14 in our Google Analytics account for few of our sites. Did anyone noticed the same for your site. Kindly let me know if you have any idea. Thank and Regards
Reporting & Analytics | | vivekrathore0 -
Whats 'Other' in Google Analytics (in Acquisition)
When i look in GA under Channels (under Acquisition) 'other' is listed What is 'other' ? I have been told its other unidentified channels as they did not allow 3rd party cookies or surfers were in anonymous/private mode. Other is usually organic traffic that couldn't be identified for the aformentioned reasons. This data is encrypted and available but it violates Google guidelines as they are not allowed to pass personal info//data to third parties so it is automatically filtered. But they are not 'Not Provided' (since that still shows under organic) but is usually/mainly some form of organic visits. Hence Seo can take credit for much of that traffic, is this correct ? Many Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Switching Google Analytics from Urchin to GA
I want to finally make the switch from Urchin to GA in Analytics, but the Google support page is no longer working (I realize I'm late to this so they likely took it down/moved it to where I can't find it). I've been searching on Google but can't find a straightforward guide to changing that won't disrupt my data. Anyone have a link to a working guide, or can you provide some guidance?
Reporting & Analytics | | Axios_Systems0 -
Best practices to track blog.mydomain.com in Google Analytics?
What is the best practice in Google Analytics? Tracking blog.mydomain.com + mydomain.com under the same profile? Or creating separate profiles for each blog.mydomain.com and mydomain.com? Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | gerardoH0