High Bounce Rates (99%) When Installing Two Google Analytics Trackers

Question

I have one Google Analytics tracker (pageTracker) installed across my website. I want to install a second Google Analytics tracker (pageTracker2) so I can send data into another account. To test all this, I installed pageTracker2 only on one page: my splash page.

When I go into Google Analytics and look at the data for this splash page in Account 1, the time on page is reasonable (~2 min) but the bounce rate is very high; 99.54% compared to 30% before I installed pageTracker2).

In Account 2, same thing. The time on page is reasonable (~2 min) but the bounce rate is very high; 99.98%. For Account 2, I'm guess the bounce rate is inaccurate because I haven't installed pageTracker2 across my website, so this makes sense.

The problem lies with Account 1. Why does the bounce rate rise to ~99% when I install the second page tracker (pageTracker2)? The code for the splash page follows:

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-ACCOUNT-1");
pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>    
<script type="text/javascript">
try{
var pageTracker2 = _gat._getTracker("UA-ACCOUNT-2");
pageTracker2._setDomainName(".mydomain.com");
pageTracker2._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}
</script>

Answer 1

Google tells you not to install two trackers in the same page, as it could cause inconsistencies... There you have them!

Also, this thread might help you: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Analytics/thread?tid=4731d8a407382376&hl=en

Answer 2

Try this instead:

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try{ var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-ACCOUNT-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); var pageTracker2 = _gat._getTracker("UA-ACCOUNT-2"); pageTracker2._setDomainName(".mydomain.com"); pageTracker2._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}