Google Analytics now supports Asynchronous loads, which allow the browser to continue loading content while ga.js is being loaded. Now it's safe to put the script tag in the <head> for you XHTML STRICT junkies.
Here's the new code to do so:
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script');
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ?
'https://ssl' : 'http://www') +
'.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
ga.setAttribute('async', 'true');
document.documentElement.firstChild.appendChild(ga);
})();
WordPress Plugin Update
I love this new code clip so much, I decided to write a WordPress Plugin for it. Enjoy!