Most Website Users will leave if a site takes more than a few seconds to load.
This prompts the question:
Does Google Analytics Code Slow Down My Site?
The quick answer is “probably not” but you can verify this with a few minutes of investigation.
There are two components to consider with the Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC):
- Connection Speed: the amount of time it takes to download external files
- Processing Speed: the amount of time it takes for a browser to render JavaScript
First, open your browser console (press F12 on your keyboard), click the Network tab, and reload the page.
Click the “Domain” column to sort the content items by the website they’re loaded from, and look for “www.googletagmanager.com” in the column. GA4 uses this domain.
You should see a low time (100 ms or less) for everything from this domain.
If you’re still using Universal Analytics, it loads GATC from “www.google-analytics.com” – you can look for that domain in the list as well.
If you see higher load times than 100ms or if you still have slow page loads, you’ll need to investigate further.
Here are some troubleshooting ideas:
- Click the “Console” tab of the browser console and reload the page: look for errors
- Verify you’re using the current version of the tracking code snippet
- Move the GATC snippet to a different location in the page, like the header or footer
- Identify slow-loading content items with Google PageSpeed Insights or the Lighthouse chrome extension
- Individually disable third-party scripts and reload the page: check Timings
A Brief History of GA Tracking Code Slowness
When Google Analytics was first released in 2005, slowness caused by the Google Analytics Tracking Code was common.
You could eliminate the delay by storing the tracking code locally, but you lost automatic updates to the code by storing a local, static file.
A few years later, the asynchronous version of the tracking code was released. This version made sure the browser wasn’t blocked from loading UI elements by the tracking code, and eliminated most slowness issues.
Fast forward to today: GA4 integrates with other Google services like DoubleClick and Google Tag Manager (GTM), which is a global CDN.
The biggest threat to GA4 isn’t slow-loading tracking code, it’s Users who block the tracking code.
Blocked Tracking Code
When GATC doesn’t load, neither the the User nor the Page that references the code shows up in Google Analytics.
Popular browser plugins like AdBlock and NoScript make it easy to block GATC from loading.
This is an unscientific study…but starting in January 2023 we observed the highest rates of blocked GATC we’ve even seen. It’s consistently 20%, and it affects both public website and intranet websites.
If your marketing budget drives inbound traffic, you won’t see traffic from Users who click your ads that also block GATC.
The best way to see these Users is with a web analytics tool that doesn’t rely on JavaScript-based tracking.
Google Analytics Wingman
No web analytics product does everything. In the case of Google Analytics, it doesn’t:
- Show Users who block GATC
- Store PII, like IP addresses & Usernames
- Show a date range smaller than 1 day
We recommend using a tool that complements Google Analytics by providing data you won’t see in your GA reports.
Angelfish Software is a Google Analytics Wingman– it sees things GA doesn’t see!