Google Analytics 4 and what it means for your business

So many of us, as executives and business owners, want to have all the necessary tools in place to keep our website running smoothly and to have access to necessary data when we need it.  Some of Drio’s larger clients are reviewing their website metrics on a monthly basis with their team leads, others like to have it working behind the scenes so that they know it’s there when they are ready for it.  

Enter Google.  We all need google, but there’s always been a love-hate relationship with those of us who run a business and want to be found in the search engines and the ever-changing algorithms that google subjects us to.  

I wish I was going to spin this to: “but the good news is…”, but unfortunately that’s not the case.  Google is at it again with another major change and this one requires action that must be taken or we risk the loss of those oh-so-precious metrics that allow our businesses to focus on what’s working with our audiences and how we rank amongst our competitors.  Even if we only look at our metrics once a quarter or once in a while, we rely on them being there with the simple & free tool that google has provided for anyone who builds a website. 

Ok, I should be more upbeat about this because it’s not Google’s fault, afterall. Google has had to re-engineer their analytics to keep up with the privacy laws that we will continue to see popping up around the US and the world and in doing so, we can no longer rely on the Google’s Universal Analytics property to provide us with the metrics that we want to track and we must now shift with the times. 

Despite the privacy laws in place, the options on websites to opt out of cookies and other data that’s being collected on us, we as business owners still want to have some usable data to help market our businesses.  We need to track conversions, monitor your organic search, inbound traffic sources, and other key performance indicators (KPIs) for your business.  

Google’s new GA4 property was engineered in a way to close gaps in the data that exist because of these privacy laws. Their robust solution can allow us as business owners and marketers to still have access to the metrics that we depend on without compromising the privacy of consumers.

Okay, so what does this all mean for your organization? 

Google’s universal analytics, the one that we have all come to know and love, is going away.  It will officially be depreciated on July 1, 2023.  On that date it will no longer be processing any new data. You will not officially lose this data until December 31, 2023. After this date, your data will be deleted from your account and will not be accessible to your team any longer.

Even though Google is giving us plenty of time to react, we should not delay the switch to GA4.  They strongly encourage us to make this switch as soon as possible so that we can build the necessary historical data that we will need to have access to once Universal Analytics is no longer available.

To get started we’ve created this helpful video that you can follow along with for the set-up. 

Additionally, Drio is here to help you.

We know that not all businesses are tech savvy and that’s why we don’t want to leave you without support. If you’d like our help making the switch, jump into our queue and for $100 we’ll take care of the basic migration for you.

Unsure if you have google analytics on your website? Use this free tool to receive a report letting you know if google analytics is active and set-up.