For several days now, I have noticed visits coming from Google inc. everyday. It’s usually 1 or 2 pages. I started suspecting some kind of spider that would now execute javascripts. I don’t know.
And this morning, I was quite surprised that yesterday visit was clocking more than 8 hours (!!) with only 2 page views.
What? No more visit time out after 30 minutes of inactivity?? Anyone aware of something similar lately?
Jacques,
I would suspect it is coming from the new google preview bot. Some amount of JS must be used to get an accurate screenshot.
-Rudi
Hi Rudi
Interesting. This does not explain why the visit two days ago was being reported in Google Analytics has having 2 pageviews, but lasting more than 8 hours!! As if the GA session time out did not work.
BTW, any known way of filtering that activity out, without taking out legitimate visitors from Google inc. (not that I get many)?
Hmm.. the 8 hour session is very odd.
As far as filtering out the google preview visits, check out: http://webanalyticsland.com/sitecatalyst-implementation/how-to-stop-google-preview-from-being-counted-in-sitecatalyst/
It seems that the google preview bot is registering as Safari 3.1 . So you might be able to check if you have had an uptick in visits from that specific browser. Then you could write some quick JS to block that browser from firing off your tracking code.
-Rudi
Definitely sounds like the google preview bot- I noticed this a couple of weeks ago-
http://www.analyticscanvas.com/google-instant-previews-google-inc-in-your-data/
The two big effects will be obviously visits- but also, its largely very high bounce traffic- so your bounce rate (and related metrics like average page views and time on site) will get out of wack too.
Whats interesting is how to deal with it- obviously, we can just filter it out- but there is actually information in there- just not the same information as standard click-bounce. I feel a blog post coming on.
Thanks again Rudi.
I would hate to filter out people using that version, though…
Take a look at this report from Rusty Brick – it is the Google preview tool
http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/023304.html
Maybe this is the cause? http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/023304.html
Jacques:
See http://analytics.blogspot.com/2010/11/instant-preview-issue-resolved.html
FYI
Derek
Thank you all for commenting. Not that it had anything to do with it, but it’s a cool coincidence that GA solved this situation on the same day we had that discussion!