Google Analytics New Tracking Helps Load Time

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Sunday, December 6, 2009 Comments (6)

Google Analytics recently announced, on December 1, that there is a new code in beta. It’s the Google Analytics Asynchronous Tracking Code.

If you have a Google Analytics account then you can start using the code right away. But what does it do? According to the Google Analytics blog, it increases your page load time, uses enhanced data collection, and eliminates some tracking errors. The page load time benefit is tremendous both for your visitors and for search engines as well.

For Google to offer this tracking code now indicates to me that page load time is something webmasters, business owners and marketers should pay more attention to. Currently, if you have a slow loading website you won’t be penalized, but your site won’t be given extra points while your competition may at some point. Page load time is extremely important to help improve the user experience of your website. Google has recently hinted that in the future, page load time of your website may become a more important role when determining web page rankings as part of its search algorithm.

It actually makes sense that Google would start by helping load time with their Google Analytics product. I have experienced many situations that the loading of the Google Analytics code on a page sometimes takes longer to load than other aspects of a page. So it makes sense that they start with the Asynchronous Tracking Code especially if in the near future, page load time will become a factor as part of an on site optimization program. We would not want Google to contribute to longer load times, now would we?

Comments (6) Category: Search Engines

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6 Comments

Comment by Rifki

Made Sunday, 6 of December , 2009 at 9:49 am

Hi Nick

Thanks for another informative post. I especially like your last point regarding the old Google analytics code making the page load time slower.

It’s quite ironic that Google themselves have contributed to slower page load times. Many times have I seen: ‘Waiting for Google Analytics’ in the status bar when visiting some websites.

Rifki

Comment by Nick Stamoulis

Made Sunday, 6 of December , 2009 at 11:06 am

Hi Rifki,
It sure is ironic, I too have seen this as well with many sites…thanks for the comment!

Comment by Erik

Made Monday, 7 of December , 2009 at 7:21 am

It is good to think about speed but difficult to realize. Somewhere soon I hope to dive in this subject a little more to increase the loading time of my pages. According to webmaster tools my best site is slower than 52% of the sites. THat is a bad score.

I am using WP and drupal including several caching scripts. Although they compress my files I will probably be better of if I decrease the source files. This would mean that I should clean up HTML and css. MOreover, I have to look carefully at JS scripts.

Is there already some kind of weblog dedicated to increasing loading times?

Comment by Nick Stamoulis

Made Monday, 7 of December , 2009 at 10:33 am

Hi Erik,
Thanks for your comment and sharing your situation. I have not seen any specific blogs out there that are dedicated only to page load times. I will be sure to keep an eye out and will let everyone know once I find a good resource…thanks again.

Comment by Erik

Made Monday, 7 of December , 2009 at 2:13 pm

NOt sure if you already new this page but certainly worth looking at.
http://code.google.com/intl/nl-NL/speed/tools.html

Comment by Nick Stamoulis

Made Monday, 7 of December , 2009 at 3:20 pm

Hi Erik,
This is great, thanks for sharing this! I actually had someone a few days ago tell me about a plugin to use for load time but I could not find it…thanks again!