Big Changes for Google Analytics – Act Now!

If you use Google Analytics to check your website’s performance, you’ve probably seen a message at the top of the Analytics screen recently, informing you of a big change that Google is introducing in July 2023. 

That might seem a long way off, but we want to explain to you what these changes are, and why you should get ready for this transition sooner rather than later. 

Universal Google Analytics

Until recently, Google’s Analytics’ most up-to-date reporting platform was called Universal Analytics. That’s probably the version you’re using at the moment.

For lots of complicated reasons, Google has spent several years developing a new version of Analytics, and to cut a long story short, they recently announced that Universal Analytics will stop collecting new data on 30th June 2023. 

It’s a headache, but we should all learn to use Google’s replacement analytics platform, GA4, as soon as we can.

GA4

Google Analytics 4, or GA4 as it’s now known, is the replacement for Universal. It’s been around for about 10 months now, but Google’s been working out some kinks and adding new features, so it didn’t immediately gain mass uptake by users. 

Compared to Universal Analytics, data is collected differently, stored differently and even visualized differently. In some cases, GA4 might not even have the equivalent report to one you’ve been using in Universal Analytics.

We share your pain!

The payoff, once you accept that the change is inevitable, is that GA4 is actually quite a bit more advanced in terms of what you can get out of it, and the comparative ease of tracking new types of data on this platform – at least that’s what the data scientists tell us! If you’re a marketer or a business owner trying to make sense of it all, there’s a learning curve ahead as you switch from one platform to the other.

Making the transition

You can set up GA4 right now, and run it right alongside your existing Universal Analytics property. We thoroughly recommend doing this, as it means all the data from your website is streamed to both platforms and you can gradually start to find your way around the various GA4 reports over the next few months, while still using Universal Analytics from day to day.

Why you should set up GA4 right now

If you’re interested in checking your website’s performance, you’ll understand how invaluable historic data is for comparison and context. The sooner you set up GA4, the more historic data you will have when Google turns off Universal Analytics on 1st July 2023.

Your historic data from Universal Analytics will not be transferred to GA4 on 1st July 2023*.

(*You can export old Universal data to Excel, Google Sheets, pdf etc. up to that point. This is a messy and imprecise solution, though.) 

How Kontrolit can help

• If you’ve never used Google Analytics before, but would like to take more interest in how your website is performing, please get in touch. We can help you set up Google Analytics so you can discover new opportunities to attract more customers to your website. 
• If you’re already using Universal Analytics but need help setting up GA4, we'll be glad to help.  
• And finally, if you are not currently a Kontrolit customer, but would like help setting up GA4, or you’re interested in having a performance report for your website, we’d love to hear from you.