Comment on Don't Put Google Analytics at the Top

A new tracking code from Google Analytics was released recently. GA is a free web traffic reporting tool that let's you track how many users are viewing your website. The new code snippet uses an asynchronous process, meaning your site would load up without having to wait for the tracking code to finish executing. This results in faster loading times, and you don't have to worry about an outage from Google Analytics dragging down your site. It's a good upgrade. Because the tracking code is now asynchronous, they recommend that you place it at the top of your pages instead of the bottom for more accurate results. I recommend that you keep it at the bottom for SEO reasons. The code snippet isn't huge, but placing it at the top would mean that Google and other search engines would have more code to parse through before reaching the actual content of your site, resulting in lower relevancy and ranking. In summary, install the new code, but keep it at the bottom of your pages.