Setting Up Asynchronous Google Analytics Tracking

Posted on January 26, 2010
Google Analytics, Google Updates, Web Analytics |

Google launches asynchronous tracking as an alternative google analysis tracking tool to help website owners track their site visitors. The Google Analytics Asynchronous Tracking Code snippet is a small piece of JavaScript code that website owners paste into their web pages. It activates Google Analytics tracking by inserting ga.js into the page which then provides an API for customizing how the page is tracked.

Google explains that there are a number of advantages to using Asynchronous tracking that include: ‘allows for much quicker tracking code load times as a result of the improved browser execution, optimizes how browsers load ga.js, eliminates tracking errors from dependencies when the JavaScript hasn’t fully loaded, and improves data collection and accuracy.’

The below snippet displays the minimum configuration required to track a page asynchronously. It denotes the page’s web property ID and then calls ’trackPageview’ to send the tracking data back to the Google Analytics servers.  The best location for the google analytics tracking snippet is at the top of the <body> section. To set up asynchronous tracking, you just have to copy and paste the following snippet replacing UA-XXXXX-X with your web property ID:

<script type=”text/javascript”>

var _gaq = _gaq || [];

_gaq.push([’_setAccount’, ‘UA-XXXXX-X’]);

_gaq.push([’_trackPageview’]);

(function() {

var ga = document.createElement(’script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true;

ga.src = (’https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’;

(document.getElementsByTagName(’head’)[0] || document.getElementsByTagName(’body’)[0]).appendChild(ga);

})();

</script>

If you want to add the asynchronous snippet on pages that do not use Google Analytics or are currently using traditional tracking with ga.js, Google shows how you can convert your pages to use the asynchronous snippet by doing the following:

1. If the page already uses Analytics, remove your existing tracking code snippet and any customizations you have made.

2. Insert the asynchronous snippet at the top of the <body> section of your pages.

3. Modify the _setAccount method with your web property ID.

4. Add your customizations back in using the asynchronous syntax.

If you would rather place the Analytics snippet at the bottom of the page, you can still keep most of the benefits of asynchronous loading by splitting the snippet in half. You have to keep the first half at the top of the page and the other half at the bottom of the page. You will have to place the snippet that inserts ga.js at the bottom of the page. For more detailed information about setting up asynchronous analytics tracking and answers to common installation questions, Google Analytics provides a helpful guide on their Google code web pages.

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