January 5th, 2011 | Published in Google Website Optimizer
Happy New Year fellow testers! We’ve just made a change to the Website Optimizer tags that will help your pages load faster, improve data accuracy, and eliminate tracking errors when tags are not fully loaded.
The next time you go to create an experiment, you’ll be given the new tags, which use asynchronous JavaScript. Asynchronous tagging, which is already a standard for Google Analytics, allows the Website Optimizer tracking and conversion scripts to run in parallel to your site loading. For Website Optimizer veterans, these new tags appear in Step 2 of the setup wizard -- be sure to read the instructions as the installation is slightly different.
Here’s five things you should know about the new tags:
- The traditional (non-async) snippets will continue to work if you want to use them. And there’s no need to retag experiments.
- We’ve combined the Control Script and Tracking Script into one snippet of code. Be sure not to double tag your pages.
- Async tags go immediately after the opening tag on your test and conversion pages, not at the bottom of the page like the old tags.
- If you customize your Control Scripts (for experiments with cross-domain experiments and the like), the Control Script still uses urchin.js-style methods.
- Articles in the Help Center have been updated to reflect the new tags though we still have articles with the traditional tag for your reference.
Here’s to winning experiments in the new year.
Posted by Trevor Claiborne,
Website Optimizer team