Member Avatar for MrDavo

Hi Everyone,

I just noticed a jump in my Average Visitor time which occurred around September / October of 2011. Does anybody know if there was a change to Google Analytics around this time which could explain a sudden jump?

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Davo

Edited by canadafred because: url not needed
  • 3 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 91 Views
  • 4 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Chronister

Dani AI

Generated

Short expert summary and hands-on checklist that complements and :

Google Analytics measures time using timestamps on hits (pageviews or other interactions). That means a single change that adds or removes hits (for example: event tracking, virtual pageviews, or different placement/timing of the tracking snippet) can produce a sudden, persistent shift in reported Average Time metrics. For the exact calculation and why the last page in a session often shows no time unless another hit occurs, see Google’s explanation:

Quick diagnostic steps (apply to date ranges immediately before and after the jump):

  • Compare traffic composition: Acquisition -> All Traffic -> Source/Medium for the two periods. A shift toward referral types that produce deeper engagement (or away from high-volume low-engagement sources) will change averages.
  • Isolate tracking changes: check your site code, CMS/plugin updates, or version control for changes to the GA snippet, addition of event handlers, or new virtual pageviews around the cutover date.
  • Segment to separate measurement effects from real engagement: build segments for “Sessions with >1 hit”, “Non-bounce sessions”, and “Only organic search” to see which segments changed the most.
  • Inspect pages: Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages, compare Avg. Time on Page per page. A single high-traffic page or embedded media (video, long-form Ajax content) can pull the site average up.
  • Check admin/config: look for filters, view settings, or bot/internal traffic exclusions added around that time. Also review server logs for crawler volume changes that match the date.

A note on site speed (as asked): page load time itself does not directly inflate GA time metrics — GA uses hit timestamps — but if a code change moved pageview firing or added delayed events, measured times will change. If no config or content change is found, the most likely root is a tracking implementation change; cross-check deployment logs or backups for the exact date.

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for canadafred

Could be that the search engine implemented a better tracking mechanism that disallowed more crawlers (robots, spiders, data miners etc., aka Internet noise) than previously. Bots only require a fraction of a second to retrieve all the web page code and then they go away whereas a larger percentage of human traffic will increase visitor time because they take longer to digest a web page than a program does. Just a guess.

Member Avatar for Chronister

Did anything change with your load time? Any other changes you can remember that could have afffected the site?

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.