Google has announced that Universal Analytics is being phased out and will no longer be supported at the end of June 2023. What’s taking its place? Google Analytics 4 (GA4). GA4 is already up and running. But the kicker is that you can’t simply upgrade from UA to GA4. You need to create a brand new GA4 account and recreate the customizations you made in UA, which won’t just transfer over.
Why use Google Analytics
There are almost infinite ways to parse and use the data that you can gather from Google Analytics. Here are just a few insights to help you tailor your website content as well as your product offerings or services for the best ways to turn website visitors into customers or clients:
- How users found your website. For example; organic search, direct, paid search, referral, social media, etc.
- How long users stayed on your site
- Which pages they visited
- Which pages they first landed on
- Whether they got to the page you wanted them to (product, service offering, etc.)
- What they did on specific pages (watched a video, entered their email, clicked a button)
- How much they spent on your website
- And so, so, so much more
Using some of this information, you can adjust your offerings, add different types of content, change your call to action (CTA) button size or text, and more.
So how do you get started now that GA4 is the future of analytics?
If you are creating a new Google Analytics then, yippee! – you can simply register a free GA4 account and get started tracking your website metrics.
If you have a UA account, though, you’ll need to do some more fancy footwork to keep a handle on your past data while you set up your new GA4 customizations.
The best solution is to act soon
Keep your UA going. But also create a GA4 account now, and start collecting data on the new platform along with your current UA data. This way you can get used to the new interface, keep seeing trends and insights, and when the time comes, move seamlessly over to GA4 entirely.
Also, keep in mind that you only have a few months to download and save your UA data and reports after the UA sunset. Make sure you download your data before the end of 2023 or its curtains for that data!
- On July 1, 2023, all your UA reports will go to zero but you can still access historical data
- On December 31, 2023, you will no longer be able to access historical data
We help you create your GA4 account
Need help getting up and running with GA4? Sora Creative can help. We’ll do your account setup with just a few quick interactions with you. Find out more on our services page.
