Bounce rate high because customer login on different domain

[Brit-Page]

Years ago we switch domain names for our site for almost everything except the client log in portal. Now we are experiencing really high bounce rates because site visitors will go to our site and then click on the client log in portal which takes them off our domain and on to our old domain. Because of this our bounce rate is around 80% and I know this is negatively effecting our traffic. Is there any way to fix this without switching the domain for the client log-in portal?

Thanks for everyone's help!

[R0bin_L0rd]

Hi Brit,

Interesting question! So I'd frame my answer in two parts:

1. It would be an idea to deploy Google Analytics code to both domains to give a better idea of what people are actually doing on your site, rather than seeing lots of bounces. If the login portal isn't being tracked then there is the potential that those are actual bounces and not log ins. Tom Capper wrote a post about setting up multiple domain tracking here.
2. If what you are seeing _are _logins then that shouldn't be affecting search traffic volume. Google monitors for users going to your site, then immediately going back to search results and clicking on something else, as a sign that they weren't satisfied with your site as a result. Google can't monitor what users do on non-Google sites and even if they did the fact that some users are going straight to somewhere else isn't necessarily a sign that your site isn't giving them what they want (in this case you're potentially giving them exactly what they want). On the other hand, if what you are seeing as bounces are actually users leaving your site and going back to search results then that could impact search traffic for the reasons above. So rather than considering domain moves, a good first step would probably be tying up those Analytics properties so you're tracking movement the same way your users are experiencing it, that way you can tell if you actually have a problem.

I hope that helps, do come back if you'd like more information