Google Analytics 4 replaces Universal Analytics and will be the only Google Analytics game in town beginning in July 2023
Starting in July of 2023, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will be the only option for collecting data with Google Analytics. But there are problems with GA4, at least for those of us who used and loved Universal Analytics (UA). In this author’s opinion, the new platform is simply not yet as good as UA. So, let’s review 4 common GA4 problems and explore what options we have.
Google Analytics 4 will track external link clicks by default. But for a comprehensive picture that includes internal link clicks, we can bring in the help of Google Tag Manager (GTM). This guide will review the process to set everything up to do that. For those who want to take the next step, there’s also a link to a tutorial to set up a GA4 link click tracking report so you can easily see all of your link click data in one place.
When GA4 was first launched it did not include a bounce rate metric. That changed on July 11, 2022 when bounce rate was added to GA4. But it’s a different metric and calculation from what we were used to.
One of the most powerful features of GA4 is event tracking. Events are not tracked by default with Universal Analytics (Google Tag Manager is required), but they are the default tracking approach with GA4. This is a guided tour of event tracking and specifically, events in GA4 vs UA.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool. It can also be challenging and frustrating . That’s especially true in 2022 as GA4 is the new “standard” (and will be our only option beginning in July of 2023) but it still lacks many of the capabilities of Universal Analytics (UA).
So here are 7 things you should be doing with Google Analytics in 2022 to get more out of the platform and better understand your data.
So you’re learning about the new Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property and how it compares to Universal Analytics.
Congratulations, you’re on the right track! Many of us (like this author) will miss Universal Analytics, but Google has told us that GA4 will be the future.
One of the most important areas to understand is how traffic comes to our site, and how those various traffic channels perform. So let’s take a look at 3 things we need to know about traffic acquisition reports in GA4 and how they compare to UA.
