drop in pageviews and increase in bounce rate following event tracking implementation

Question

I have just completed a round of Google Analytics Event Tracking updates on the site, which has included updating my _addOrganic calls, which are included in the file /scripts/ga_search_engines.js.

These files are:

NEW - 27kb in size and 28kb in size, respectively. OLD - 4kb in size and 5kb in size, respectively.

$.getScript('/scripts/ga_search_engines.js').complete(function() {
    _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
});

$.getScript('/scripts/ga_search_engines_global.js').complete(function() {
    _gaq.push(['rollup._trackPageview']);
});

My event tracking sets the interaction parameter to false, e.g:

_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'Product Details', product_name, product_code, product_price, false]);

So this code (event) above is being fired on every product page on the site, the getScript calls are being included in every page on the site and you will notice will have to be downloaded before the trackePageview is fired.

What I can't work out is why I am finding an increase in my bounce rate of about 50% as Google's docs suggest that adding event tracking would decrease bounce rate, rather than increase.

I'm also noticing a 30-40% drop in pageviews, but again I can't put my finger on this although the slightly increased size of the two JavaScript files above make me wonder.

What is the best way to debug this and is there anything that I should be investigating to find out what has went wrong and where?

Here is the full section of GA code I have included on every page - http://pastebin.com/fj6rf4Xa

Answer 1

Apparently, this was down to previously inflated pageviews through an implementation of Virtual Pageviews. The removal of these as part of improvements brought the value of pageviews down, which looked like a problem but in reality was actually bringing them down to an accurate level.

Not the easiest thing to debug and troubleshoot.