If you’ve logged into your Google Analytics account within the past few weeks, you’ll likely have noticed a blue reminder popup along the top of the page. It contains the news that some people were expecting: starting in July of 2023, Universal Analytics will be phased out to make Google Analytics 4 the primary analytics tracker for your websites. While that deadline is still far out, it’s important to know what you’re getting into before the old platform is gone. We highlight all of the key differences between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics below!
No More Monthly Hit Limits
One of the biggest changes from Universal Analytics to GA4 is one that many businesses will appreciate. With the universal analytics platform, users couldn’t track their website traffic once it hit a limit of 10 million (if they were using the free version of the platform). Google Analytics 4 differs from this by changing the way it measures data. GA4 removes the monthly hit limit, instead replacing it with a limit on the amount of events you can track. This number is set at 500, so you won’t have much issue tracking the analytics you need to.
A Deeper Look At User Experience
Understanding how your audience interacts with and experiences your website is crucial to giving them exactly what they’re looking for. Google Analytics 4 adds a new feature that Universal Analytics lacks to give you a more defined idea of that experience. Called “Explorations Reports”, this system gives you a set of templates to use that help track a user’s experience on a website. You can track anything from a given session to a path that leads to a conversion! You’ll get a lot more specific data when you use this new feature.
Interactions = Events
The main change to think about between Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics is the way that any interaction with the website is recorded. It used to be that interactions were recorded as specific categories, like page hits, hits from social media, and transactions. All of these categories are now recorded as events in Google Analytics 4. Any interaction that a user makes with the website is recorded as an event, and there is no limit as to the amount of each event that can be recorded. Recording data becomes a lot easier with the new update!
SEO With Boston Web Marketing
Google constantly changes its algorithms to reflect the user experience. Boston Web Marketing ensures that your website is ready to face any changes, helping to ensure that its SEO strategy is always in tip top shape. To get the highest reach possible for your website, click here to contact us directly!