To our fellow web-developers:
Recently FindSportsNow decided to abandon AWStats (another analytical tool) and adapt to the more modern Google Analytics. If you plan on switching over to Google Analytics, you should probably read this article first.

Prequel:
All was going well -- FindSportsNow was in it's first month of launch and traffic was steadily increasing (note that most of our traffic was coming from relevant Google searches). We had been reading up on Google Analytics, because we wanted to scrap using AWStats. If we switched to Google Analytics, we knew that Google could use the information it recorded, which in-turn could affect our rankings. We came to the following decision:

Even if our rankings fluctuated by utilizing Google Analtyics, the changes should be minor. Additionally, the tools that Google Analytics offers would be used to bring in additional traffic, which should make up for our ranking fluctuations.

The Switch from AWStats to Google Analytics:
We decided to make the leap -- we signed up for Google Analytics. Within the first day we were receiving wonderful information from Google Analytics. At the time, we thought we had made the right decision.

A couple weeks later, we started noticing that some of our most popular search keywords were not returning any results to our pages. When searching for keywords like "Find Sports Now", which we should definitely have a high-rank, we were nowhere to be found!

Our Hypothesis:
"We have reason to believe that by adopting Google Analytics, a site could be risking their search rankings."

Our Rational:
So why were our search rankings being negatively effected? Even though our traffic shows that we are a growing site, we are still in our early stages of development (not yet in the top-500 Alexa ranked sites).

We believe that Google's algorithms did something like this:
1. How much traffic does FindSportsNow.com bring in?
2. Oh wow, that's it?
3. Let's go ahead and throw them to the back of the line. No more search results for them!

The other option, which is unlikely, is that Google implemented a different set of algorithms to determine keyword relevance. We strongly doubt that any algorithm that Google puts in place would change rankings in the way that we have seen.

The Conclusion -- We Were the Guinea Pig
We inactivated our Google Analytics account and within a couple days our search rankings were back to normal. Therefore, our hypothesis was correct. By utilizing Google Analytics, you risk altering the current state of your search engine rankings. It's sad to see someone help Google, by joining into Google Analytics early-on, and then get kicked in the rear for it.

No worries though! Setbacks are only temporary. :)

How to Fix the Problem -- Delete Your Google Analytics Account
After doing some research, it seems as though the best method to fix this problem is to delete your Google Analytics account. Some people have found that by doing this, their rankings went back to where they previously were. Within a day of removing Google Analytics, our rankings were back to to normal! For certain keywords, we went from the back of the line to the very first item!

I find it strange that you cannot automatically remove your Google Analytics account and instead have to "request removal". If you know why this is, please do comment. Either way, here is the link to delete your account:
http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/request.py?contact_type=account_cancellation

Why are we telling you this?
Hopefully, this information will help you make the best decision for your site.