I have Google Analytics tracking my website, Outdoor High Adventure. For some reason, most of my visitors spend zero time on my site, and I don't know why! Is Analytics messing up or does my site not load for some users or what? If you could help me with this it would be great! A .pdf file of my stats of March 1st from the Google Search Engine can be found here. Thanks! Any site feedback is welcome!

What do your log files tell you?

looking in your apache logs is good advice...

all i can suggest apart from that is have you checked you have the latest version of googles code?

I think its because of your articles.. I am not saying that you don't have a nice niche but sometimes or most of the times visitors spent lots of time on your blog or site if they found your articles interesting..

Well I would look at the log files but I have no idea what you mean. Please elaborate on how I would look at the log files. Sorry, I'm new at this business. And gHing:-), I realize that some of those users may exit my site quickly, but if your saying that 90% or the people who view my site leave within seconds, I'm not sure if that is the case. Maybe I just didn't understand what you were saying. Thanks for the help!

Ask your host if, or where your server log files or stats are available.

I've seen that too on my own site. Some visits show 0 seconds. It could be someone who clicks a link and then clicks back before the page has loaded. I've wondered if it's automated traffic of some kind. I'll notice the 0 seconders will all come through one link.

I don't think it's your site. It looks really good (Very nice design) and I checked the page you get directed to for the search 'backpacking dehydrated recipes' and the page is relevant to the query. At the same time it might not be what people are looking for when they type that query. If that query commonly leads to no time spend on the page you'd be better off optimizing it for a different keyword phrase.

Your PDF is only showing 1 visit and you really can't make any conclusions from one a statistical sample of 1.

I think that you should fix your content.... You should make it more attractive.. For me it sounds boring.. Specially to those who don't have any background in mountain climbing. You should make an article that anyone can look to it and realize that they should also try this, and that ... You should make them feel that they can also do those things... Anyways, keep it up and you've got nice web template...

Google analytics code is one of the last things to load on pages that have it installed properly, so if the site doenst load or a user clicks back before it loads, google wont record this user.

Try install awstats - this runs off the apache logs so will give you an accurate account of how many times a page was request, loaded and failed to load ! google for awstats if you need

All the best

OKay thanks! I'll try awstats and I like your comment mcaronan. I'll be sure to work on that!

Thanks... <snip>

Check out http://www.outdoorhighadventure.com/googlepdf.pdf. It shows a months worth of stats of users who reached my site through google. It is sorted by time on site. As you can see, the first 3 pages are all 0:00 minutes. I really don't think that is all people you just don't like my site. I understand that it would be the content if they stayed for 0:10 minutes, but I really think there must be a server problem or a loading problem with my site. It is not the browser or os that affects this, and the only thing I can think of is a problem with my code, or my hosting service isn't working to well.... any more feedback would be very appreciated.

I think Sir_P has it right about how Analytics will be the last thing to load on your page so anyone who leaves before the page finishes loading will show as having spend no time.

Your site is on the slow side. Here's a speed report where you can see the trouble areas. It doesn't look to me like you optimized your images. Did you run them through something like Photoshop with the save for web option. You can probably decrease the files sizes quite a bit and speed up the loading of your pages just by optimizing your images.

I use http://www.netmechanic.com/index.shtml to help optimize my images and do speed tests. I understand that Sir_P is right, but I look at the connection speeds of these people that spend zero time on my site and they have very fast speeds, not just dial-up. I've tried the site on several computers and networks and it was always loaded at an appropriate speed. I've looked into what else I could do to speed up my page, and a big thing is my css layout. I've optimized all my photos a lot, but if you have any more suggestions I am open! Thanks so much.

Well, after I take your speed test, it doesn't look to good. I can hardely believe it takes 52 seconds to load my page at 56K.......... I've tried it before. I've reduced the amount of images and objects on my homepage, and I really don't know what else I can change other than my layout.

I believe that everytime a user views just one page analytics always records the time as zero - I believe it to be inhrant to Google Analytics - I would def run another analytics program and would not necessarily change your site code.

If a visitor bounces, then time on site seems to always bre recorded as 0:00 in GA, or at least with the sites I monitor

I don't think Analytics counts zero time if you only visit one page. I do get my share of 0:00, but I also have bounces with a few seconds.

Colton I think with your images you'll be able to reduce the file size a lot by converting them to jpgs. gifs are best for solid blocks of color with very clear transitions between the colors. Most of the images in your site's template vary in color.

I'm attaching the image that serves as background behind your content. I opened it in Photoshop and saved it for the web as a medium quality jpg.

I didn't refine the settings much so there might be better settings to find the best balance between quality and file size, but I don't think you'll notice all that much difference between the image I attached and the one you're currently using.

However your gif is 84.6 kb while this jpg is 8.44 kb. That's a huge difference. You can probably gain a similar reduction in file size by converting some of your other images.

I know more people are using high speed connections, but I still set a goal of under 8 seconds over 56k modem. If you can try to keep the overall size of your page under 30k including the images. It's not always possible, but it's a good goal.

I have been looking into the differences between gif and jpg and that does make sense. I've been trying to convert my layout images do a lower quality of gif, instead of jpg. I now realize this, and I appreciate it! I just don't understand why netmechanic shows my pages at loading a lot faster (although 10 seconds at 56k isn't fast...) than Website Optimization (80 second difference). But ya, I've fixed all the files on http://www.outdoorhighadventure.com/thekalalautrail.htm, and it has saved about a 30 seconds at 56k. Although I need to fix that file so that it makes my background - see the Kalalau Page. Thanks for all your time on this issue!

I suggest you to update google analytics code because google has just change their analytics code with more features. May be updating your code will fix this problem.

All the best dude..

Colton it doesn't look like netmechanic is picking up all the background images loaded through css. Your largest image is a css background image, which is probably where the difference is coming from.