For years, marketers and SEOs have relied heavily on Google Analytics, a free platform that provides advanced data, tracking, and metrics regarding website and app performance. By logging into the Google Analytics dashboard, you can quickly ascertain how much traffic your website is getting, where that traffic is coming from, how long visitors stay on the page, and more. Needless to say, this information is crucial for determining how to allocate resources and how to form an effective content strategy.
Given the extent to which marketers lean on Google Analytics, any shakeup to the platform qualifies as a noteworthy event. The upcoming transition from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) promises to be especially disruptive. Here’s what marketers need to know in order to prepare.
GA4 at a Glance
For those who aren’t familiar with it, what is GA4, exactly?
This is essentially the new and improved version of Google Analytics. It was rolled out as an option in October 2020, though up until now, marketers have had the choice to use it or the tried-and-true UA. But soon, that choice will be gone: As of July 1, 2023, access to UA will be disabled, with GA4 becoming the only option for using Google Analytics.
So, what makes GA4 so special? Basically, it’s an event-based model for data measurement, which simply means that it tracks user interactions with your website as events: Button clicks, page views, and so forth. By contrast, UA was always more narrowly focused on pageview only.
The upshot: GA4 is intended to provide a much more comprehensive, accurate, and actionable insight into how website visitors or app users behave across a variety of platforms. Not only does it provide insight into basic parameters like traffic volume, but it also helps you to understand patterns in user engagement, purchasing behavior, and more.
Preparing for the Transition
Long story short: GA4 is the future. While marketers who haven’t yet used this platform may understandably be anxious about the change, we feel confident in saying that this will ultimately be a much more useful platform for anyone who takes the time to master it.
There are a few things marketers and website designers can do to get ready for the transition, and for the final sundowning of UA. Some tips:
- Make sure you spend some time learning the new interface, as it’s quite different from the old, familiar UA. We recommend exploring all that GA4 has to offer before UA is phased out and you’re thrown into the deep end. Note that GA4 differs in terms of its data model, tracking capabilities, and basic layout.
- Take some time to assess the quality of your data, specifically verifying the accuracy of your tracking and tagging. Remember that inconsistent data will lead to incorrect insights.
- Set up a whole new property for GA4, preventing interference with your current endeavors in UA.
- If you have questions or concerns about using the new interface correctly, reach out to your marketing or website development partner. Here at Woland Web, we will be happy to talk with any of our clients about the changing analytics structure.
Preparing for a Seismic Change in Website Analytics
The bottom line: To be an effective marketer, you need to take a data-driven approach. Google Analytics is one of the best tools available, and it’s only going to become more useful once the transition to GA4 is finalized. For now, make sure you’re learning everything you can about this new set of tools. With any questions, don’t hesitate to contact Woland Web at your convenience.
