Why GA tracking beacon is being sent twice on page load?

While optimizing page loading times and doing speed tests, I noticed that the tracking beacon is being sent twice, first request is for page (utmt parameter is missing) and the second is for event (utmt=event). I checked few of my websites and it's the same everywhere. Here is the GA script I use:

<script type="text/javascript">
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-1234567-8']);
_gaq.push(['_setSiteSpeedSampleRate', 100]);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'httpsXXX://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();

Note: I inserted XXX after "https" here otherwise it wouldn't post as it DP editor tries to resolve the URL

Any ideas? Explanations?

 

Perhaps the culprit is this "_gaq.push(['_setSiteSpeedSampleRate', 100]);" or you have one more event tracking in your code.

 

Remove the tracking code and try to put tag manager in website and track all of your analytics and different data through tag manager.

 

Thanks for recommendation. I am not familiar with tag manager, but will investigate.

 

No, it cannot be. It shouldn't generate an event.