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If you belong to the SEO industry hope you know Google Analytics. If not, read this Google Analytics is a platform that collects information and data from websites and apps to make the report and provide insights into your business. Now Google Analytics 4 is replacing Universal Analytics (UA or GA 3) and the new update is known as Google Analytics 4. As per the update, On July 1, 2023, all standard UA properties will stop processing data. Also, the 360 Universal Analytics properties will stop data processing on July 1, 2024. That means you have to relook at your analytics plan to make the surely of your GA4 is working properly and giving you accurate data. Here we have mentioned how to migrate GA4.
Let’s read the steps carefully:
Step 1: Make your GA4 property and launch it
The first and foremost important thing is that you need to create a new GA4 property and launch them instantly.
Also, properties will not import the UA past data, the GA4 property will only start to track the traffic data from the moment it is forwarded and created.
The sooner you build it; the sooner data will appear in the GA4 property.
How to launch the new property:
- Make the new GA4 property.
- Add the new GA4 tracking tag to your website.
With the help of Google tag manager, you can do it easily. After placement, check out the new property within a few days to make sure that you is seeing the traffic data populating the property.
Step 2: Make a list of your key items
Specific tracking objects (such as goals and events) are not inherited by new analytics properties from any other properties (including UA properties).
Below is the list of common tracking items that are used in Google Analytics. Maybe you have some additional items to add on but these are some common items you need to add to the list:
- Events
- Goals (Conversions)
- Content Groupings
- Custom Dimensions/Metrics
- Referral Exclusions
- Product Link Connections
- Audiences
When you create your list, now you can evaluate it like what kind of items you want to keep and what you want to discard, and possibly where gaps exist where you may wish to establish new monitoring items, such as new events or goals, etc.
Keep in mind that goals are set in each reporting view. Because GA4 does not support reporting views, you must list all of the goals you presently have in different reporting views for the same UA property and replicate them in the GA4 property.
In UA reporting the view is limited to 20 goals per reposting; on the other hand in GA4 this limit is 30 conversions per property.
When you create a list of your current goals, make sure to note down the non-event goals (like destination-based goals). You need to do some changes to how you track those going forward.
Step 3: start migrating single items to GA4
When you get your items to list to recreate in GA4, the real setup work starts.
These are some common items you need to set up:
Events
Events are the same in GA4 like UA setup, but you have to set the tagging up anew for GA4 goals.
Maybe you have manually set up some events in the past, like scroll depth, they will automatically add for you in GA4.
First, you need to look at the events under Configure in the menu to see which automated objectives are tracking in your GA4 property. There’s no need to duplicate events that Google has already established!
Google Tag Manager, like adding the basic GA tracking code to your site, is the most user-friendly tool for this task.
Goals (Conversions)
Goals are renamed as “conversions” in GA4; also every goal is event bases.
When transferring your current UA objectives to GA4, we recommend starting with event-based goals because they are more similar to the original goal set up in Universal Analytics.
Once you have set up the events in Google Analytics 4 and marked them as conversions, now start with engagement goals and destination-based goals.
You can add previously destination-based goals to GA4 either through the interface or through code.
You must first build a GA4 audience (see below) and then replicate the previously engagement-based goals using that audience.
Content Groupings
Content groups in Universal Analytics were established directly in the interface. But now there is no interface setup in GA4 – page tagging is used to establish all content groups.
Somehow you can say that it is a good change but it needs a lot of time at the onset.
Every page has many “gtags”, and Google tag manager can prove the simplest way to implement these.
Custom Dimensions/Metrics
Setting up custom dimensions and metrics in UA is a two-step procedure that requires configuration in both the code and the UI.
Your existing UA custom dimensions and metrics tags should work correctly in GA4, but you will still need to configure them in the GA4 property interface.
Refer to Google’s setup guide to configure custom dimensions and metrics in the interface.
Referral Exclusions
Referral exclusions are still available in GA4, but they’ve been renamed and moved a few tiers below the main admin navigation levels.
To add referral exclusions, navigate to Data Streams, then your site data stream (your URL), and finally More Tagging Settings in the Additional Settings section of your GA4 property admin menu.
Finally, select Configure Your Domains and input your domain as well as any other domains (such as third-party apps that are integrated with your website, such as certain marketing automation platforms).
Product Link Extensions
Now is the time to reconnect your Google products’ links in your new GA4 property. It’s important to note that you can connect your Google properties to numerous GA properties, so you don’t have to remove your existing UA product connections to join GA4.
Product Links are now shown at the top of the property admin menu. You have to connect your new GA4 property to every Google product you use for your business, like Google Ads.
Audiences
The audience is useful for advertising and also for the conversion setup in GA4. That is why it is very crucial to set up your audience before July 1, 2023 thus When the UA properties stop monitoring, you can refresh the Google Ads campaigns with comparable, viable audience lists.
When you are recreating the audience in GA4, just look at your UA audience list (at the property level) and Search for those with Google Analytics as the audience type. Those will have to be redone in GA4.
However, the vocabulary and method for creating audiences in GA4 have changed, so consult Google’s audience-building guide for guidance.
E-commerce
Google suggest you create a separate set of tags for GA4 e-commerce tracking; however, it is the same as UA.
Also for this Google Tag Manager is the fastest and easiest way to implement e-commerce tagging across your website.
Step 4: Check your items
After launching the tracking items in the GA4 properties, just recheck all the things to know that they are tracking properly.
Evaluate all the points like your conversions, event tracking, e-commerce, and others to make sure that they are tracking as per the expectation. If you find that everything is not going as per your expectations so troubleshoot the problem and fix it ASAP.
Step 5: Determine a date for migrating to GA4 as your single source of truth
Many departments depend on Google Analytics for reporting, therefore the organisation must agree on when the new GA4 properties will become the “single source of truth” for data and reporting.
The best thing is that you should wait until you have year-over-year data in the GA4 properties before switching your single source of truth to GA4, in part because the metrics and tracking in GA4 are completely different than they are in UA, and thus you cannot accurately compare UA data from one year to GA4 data from another.
If you can get your new GA4 in place by July 1, 2022, you should be able to use it as your single source of truth by July 1, 2023.
Regardless, if you use Google Analytics free version, you will be obliged to transition to GA4 as your primary source of truth on July 1, 2023, even if the year-over-year data with UA isn’t comparable.
Stage 6: Archive your UA data
To add insult to injury, Google has decided to force all the users to migrate to GA4 which is why they will delete all of our historical UA data beginning on January 1, 2024.
Now you can understand that you have limited time to archive this data, and this is the time when you need a strict plan for archiving if you want the reference in future.
First, you need to determine what data you need on regular bases. For example, use the source/medium report.
Consider the time intervals at which you obtain this data. Data is often accessed every month, like June 1-30. You should preserve your data in a way that corresponds to these data usage practices.
You will find the UA interface cumbersome for archiving. In my example of the source/medium report and retrieving monthly data, you can only retrieve two months of data at a time (one as the original month and one as the comparative month), and then download the data to CSV via the interface. That will take an eternity!
Consider using the Google Analytics Spreadsheet Add-On, which works with Google Sheets, instead, especially if you are not a developer who is familiar with the Google Analytics API. It’s quite useful and retrieves data quickly!
Just make sure you don’t run into any problems with data sampling, and if you do, take smaller reports.
For example, if we extract 10 years of data from the source/medium report, divided down by month, there may be so much data that Google is forced to sample the data. If that’s the case, we’d suggest dividing it up into numerous report pulls, each with one year’s worth of data. Once the data is gathered, you can always integrate it into a single sheet.
Conclusion
Yeah, it is stressful somehow, but it will work well for your website. GA4 aims to get businesses closer to true ROI and cross-device reporting. Though, change and growth are challenging somehow. Just prioritize this now, and if you need my help, please connect with us here we offer you the best SEO services with an experienced team of SEO experts.
