Last week Google announced that on July 1, 2023, Google Analytics (Universal Analytics) will stop gathering data. Now if you use Google Analytics for your bridal shop you may be asking so what does this Google Analytics update mean for me? Well, Google will be switching to Google Analytics 4 and new data will flow into your Google Analytics 4 (GA4) properties. Now this all sounds pretty complicated, so let’s break it down:
What is Property?
A property is the website or app that you are using Google Analytics to track. Once you set up your GA4, you will have a “Google Analytics 4 property” for the website/app.
What’s the difference?
This Google Analytics update will not only bring changes to where your data goes, but also what data you will collect. While current analytics are session-based, new Google Analytics (GA4) will focus on events. But what does that mean?
A session is a user interactions with your website within a given time frame where google collects interactions such as pageviews, events, and transactions as hits.
Events, however, provide more insight on what users are doing within your app/website. The actions users take are more specified and add further context to the event. This could be value of a purchase, title of the page the user visited, or their geographical location.
GA4 will also allow visibility into consumer journeys with cross-device tracking and privacy-friendly measures.
How do I make the switch?
If you set up you property after October 14, 2020 then you are likely already using GA4. You can check this by clicking on the arrow in the top left next to your property name. To tell which you are using, look at your property ID. If the ID only has numbers, then you are using GA4 but if it only starts and ends with a number then you are still using the older version of Google Analytics.
If you are using the older version, you will want t make the switch to GA4 as soon as possible using these steps from Google.
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