Comments on: Lies, Damned Lies and Web Statistics

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:13:33 +0000

Just a quick update to this (old old) post.

One of the reasons for the placement of the code at the bottom of the page is that it allows the main page content to load in first. Your users see what is important to them rendered first.

As a follow on point to this the new Google Analytics snippet is asynchronous. Basically this means that it is isn’t going to hold up the page loading (unlike the previous method) so it is even less intrusive on the user experience. Note however that its placement is the opposite of the; the asynchronous Analytics code is placed near the top of the page in the section.

By: Vinna

Vinna — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:00:47 +0000

The reason for the code being at the bottom of the page instead of the top is to stop it conflicting with other javascript code.

By: abeen gurung

abeen gurung — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:32:16 +0000

Hey
Thank You a lot for your information. I was having the same problem with over counting and under counting from the Web Statistics results.
Thank You,

abeen

http://outsourcing.javra.com

By: Tom Cotton’s 8109 » 86% of statistics are fiction

Tom Cotton’s 8109 » 86% of statistics are fiction — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 01:50:25 +0000

[...] http://aonach.com/chatter/lies-damned-lies-and-web-statistics/ [...]

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:31:26 +0000

Jordan,

There’s no issue in moving the Google Analytics code to the top of the page in fact where you make explicit calls to the Urchin Tracker you must first have the relevant Javascript files loaded. However if you don’t need this functionality having it at the end of the page is preferable with regard to loading the page as the main page content will load first.

Joe

By: Jordan McClements

Jordan McClements — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:11:21 +0000

Good article…

I am not sure if there any problems associated with moving the analytics code to the top of the page… But I will give it a try and see how it goes…

By: Shedding Light on Website Statistics : Faith and Web

Shedding Light on Website Statistics : Faith and Web — Thu, 10 May 2007 00:19:13 +0000

[...] Lies, Damned Lies and Web Statistics: includes how statistics are gathered (with great graphics), as well as why the numbers themselves can be deceiving. [...]

By: Har du kontroll på statistikken? | Søkemotoroptimalisering

Har du kontroll på statistikken? | Søkemotoroptimalisering — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 01:08:25 +0000

[...] Personlig tilhører jeg den pessimistiske gruppen når det kommer til sånne ting. Derfor går jeg for statistikken fra Analytics. Selv om jeg vet at ingen av disse gir meg det riktige svaret. Det har seg slik at alle disse programmene måler statistikken på forskjellige måter, og det er fordeler og ulemper med alle tre. Du kan lese om hvordan hvert enkelt av dem fungerer ved å følge denne lenken: Lies, Damned Lies and Web Statistics. [...]

By: Idea Guy

Idea Guy — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:12:23 +0000

Hi Joe,

I definitely admire when you point out this one “A huge volume of visitors to your website is rarely a disadvantage however a huge volume potential customers is going to have a much more beneficial effect to your online business”. It is important that each and everyone must know about this.
Thank you and keep it up..