Some time ago (back when we were a different company even) we announced the news that Google Analytics 4 had been released to the public. Last week, Google released the news that from 1st July 2023 the current model of Analytics, known commonly as 'Universal Analytics' will cease to work. This has caused some rather mixed feelings in the digital world.
What does this mean for you and your website and why is this such a big thing?
For many in the Digital/SEO world the announcement has caused some concern, namely due to GA4 not migrating legacy data from Universal Analytics (UA). Adding to this, it appears that legacy data from previous years will not be accessible unless it is manually exported. Google have said
"You'll be able to access your previously processed data in your Universal Analytics property for at least six months. In the coming months, we'll provide a future date for when existing Universal Analytics properties will no longer be available. After this future date, you'll no longer be able to see your Universal Analytics reports in the Analytics interface or access your Universal Analytics data via the API."
Put simply - unless the data is exported, eventually you'll not even be able to view it.
Another cause for consternation is the interface used for GA4, whilst looking very similar from the outset is a lot different to Universal Analytics and generally considered to be more difficult to either find the most basic information or to create/edit particular views or goals in GA4. Granted, we have had the luxury of using the UA version of Google Analytics since 2012 so change was always going to be harder to navigate...but for many, this does feel like a step backward and may encourage some marketers to utilise a different analytics platform. Needless to say, it hasn't gone down well.
For any of our clients in our Pod; you don't need to worry. For many, there has been a GA4 profile running in parallel with a UA profile for some time so nothing will need to be done from a tracking point of view. We will be reviewing the profiles of all our clients to ensure that, for those without an active GA4 profile, one is setup and tracking everything that the existing UA profile does.
Whilst the date is still some 15 months from the date of this blog post, its critical that things are working as they should to protect legacy data and make the transition as smooth as possible for all concerned.
If you're reading this and have any questions or concerns about your Google Analytics account, whether it be related to GA4 or even if you are not a current client of ours (in which case, say hello!) then do call, email us or reach out to us on our social profiles - we can be found under the 'bemoreorca' username on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
