What’s happening with Google Analytics in Summer 2023

Recently Google announced that they are going to switch off a version of Google Analytics – known as Universal Analytics – in July 2023. Instead, they want everyone to be using the newer Google Analytics 4. 

There are a few reasons for this. Universal Analytics was built around desktop web, each device representing a different session (even if both are used by the same person) and more easily observable data from cookies. All of these, and more factors, are becoming obsolete on the modern web. 

Google Analytics 4 is better in this regard – it doesn’t rely on cookies, for one thing, and that’s good for all things data protection. It tracks events in a more consistent way and has better support for non-desktop devices. 

What needs to happen

If your website is running Universal Analytics then it needs to be set up with a separate Google Analytics 4 account. 

Unfortunately, any data that is in your Universal Analytics account cannot be transferred over to Google Analytics 4. We essentially start from scratch when installing Google Analytics 4. 

What we would recommend is installing Google Analytics 4 as soon as possible, and having it run alongside Universal Analytics for the next year or so. You can continue to use Universal Analytics if you need to access previous website data. At any time you’ll also have access to use Google Analytics 4 and can use that as you wish. But importantly, when you’re forced to use Google Analytics 4 next July there will be a decent amount of data in there already. 

Jambi can help with any of this, so if you need a hand or more information, please do just let us know any time