Have you upgraded your Google Analytics tracking code to the new ga.js versus the older urchin.js code? Just about everybody and their cousin in Miami or San Diego these days is using the Google Analytics tool that comes free with a Google account. Google about two months ago announced a the new gs.js tracking code that will enable those who upgrade access to their new Analytics features and capabilities.

One of these new features called Event Tracking was recently made available. According to Google, "Event Tracking is a new method available in the ga.js tracking code that you can use to record user interaction with website elements." Suffice it to say that if you are not past or beyond the first learning curve with non-event tracking web analytics, this will not simplify or magically provide answers to your business questions using web data. It is truly a next level in analyzing your web traffic that goes beyond pageview and visitor tracking using a DOM or Document Object Model.

If anything, movement of your analytics program to event tracking will require more planning and pre-analytics hypothesis building to ensure you are asking the right questions using the right data. Because of the low entry cost to the use of powerful analytics tools for your web traffic, this is by far the biggest "first mistake" made by many companies looking for quick and easy answers to complicated web site performance and marketing questions using analytics.