Google has released its newest version of Google Analytics called GA4 (Google Analytics 4), an updated version of Google Analytics that more accurately tracks users on your website.
GA4 will use ‘event’ based tracking instead of ‘session’ tracking. It will therefore measure data per user rather than per session which can measure multiple sessions despite being the same user.
Why does this matter to you?
In July 2023, your current Google Analytics property, Universal Analytics, will be ‘sunsetted’ (switched off) by Google, and it will no longer be able to collect data from your website.
The majority of your website’s data is currently measured through your existing Google Analytics property, Universal Analytics. From July 2023 onwards, GA4 is the only property that will be able to measure the performance of your website.
Therefore, to continue measuring the performance of your website and making decisions based on your website’s data, you will need to set up a GA4 property within Google Analytics.
What do you need to do?
If you have already set up a GA4 property in Google Analytics, you’re all set for July 2023.
If not, you’ll need to create a new GA4 property within your existing analytics account that will run alongside your existing Universal Analytics property until this is sunsetted in July 2023.
When is the update happening?
The current Google Analytics (Universal Analytics) will be sunsetted (switched off) in July 2023.
Therefore, in order to be able to make year on year (YoY) comparisons with your data, GA4 will need to be installed BEFORE July 2022.
What happens to your old data?
You can export and download a report of the data you want to keep BEFORE July 2023 and you can save this data in your own files and keep it safe for when you want to view it.
However, if you don’t do this, you will lose all the historical data from Universal Analytics and won’t be able to view this data again.
