Speed up Google Analytics on your server

The Problem: You have a frequently visited website and use Google Analytics to gather important statistical information about your users. Unfortunately, every time a user accesses your main page, it takes longer load whenever they have to download the urchin.js file that Google’s server sends.

The essentially technical problem is that the user not only has to connect to your server to download your content but also has to contact Google’s server to download urchin.js. This takes more time and increases your page load time.

The Solution:Host urchin.js locally on your server. That way, the user never has to connect to Google’s server for anything. The only issue to resolve is what to do when Google updates their urchin.js. Fortunately, a thoughtful user has created a script, complete with instructions, that will periodically get the new urchin.js file from Google. Now you will have a faster site and still know whether or not people are actually visiting it.

Photo: Flickr