Google Analytics Will Be Replaced With New Google Analytics 4 For Website Tracking on July 1, 2023

Google Analytics, the go-to platform for millions of users

The time for search migrators to migrate to Google Analytics 4 from Universal Analytics is here for a seamless product support

Google has announced the departure of Google Analytics. Google Analytics has been in the market for up to a decade. However, now Google is getting new changes on its web tracking standard. Even though these changes have been in the rumour cycles for a while now, Google has recently confirmed such news about these changes. Google is ending the asset for Universal Analytics and is now shifting to a brand new standard platform which is known as GA4 or Google Analytics 4, from July 1 2023.

Google Analytics is an extremely popular platform that has greatly become the choice, and go-to platform for a myriad of businesses that are running websites and need to monitor their traffic, growth and various other data that helps in shedding light on their demography.

Google is all set to release the Google Analytics 4 on July 1, 2023

Google also announced that GA4, the new Google Analytics platform, was launched in December 2020. It was released to give various businesses and companies enough time to get all the issues sorted out before releasing it as the only Google Analytics platform. Google has been working on various releases ever since to ensure that the product is ready for use by millions of customers worldwide.

Google Analytics 4 has been crafted to be the next-generation analytics measurement solution. It has been designed to replace Universal Analytics. Starting July 1, 2023, the current Universal Analytics products will stop processing any new analysis for all customers. There are millions of Google Analytics users throughout the world, and many of them still depend solely on Universal Analytics. This is the reason why Google has opted to make this announcement to help customers in preparing for Google Analytics 4 on the way forward. Google declared the change via a blog post earlier this week.

What does this migration mean until July 1, 2023?

This migration from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4 means that up until July 1, 2023, you can still use Universal Analytics to collect and process new data. However, after July 1, 2023, you will only be able to access any data that you processed in Universal Analytics for around six months prior.

Google recommends migrating all your data to Google Analytics 4 during the allotted timeframe

Google is yet to share a future date to announce when Universal Analytics would no longer be open and available for people to use. This is why Google recommends that businesses and consumers should utilise the timeframe allotted for six months to export all of their reports and data from the standard Universal Analytics.

How is the migration to Google Analytics 4 going to be?

Google is also focused on helping businesses in determining if they use their analytical operations as Google Analytics 4 centric or Universal Analytics centric. Google has also announced that any properties that were created prior to October 14, 2020, are currently using Universal Analytics. However, the properties that have been created post this date have already been the standard Google Analytics 4. Since there are major and advanced changes being made by Google on Google Analytics 4, there is a possibility that website owners may have to go through some inconvenience to adhere well to this switch.

Why does Google want to make this switch?

 Google had built Universal Analytics primarily for an era of online measurement. This generation marked the processing and analysis of data that had been anchored on cookies, independent sessions, and desktop web and was very easily obtainable and observable. However, Google recognises that in the current times, this methodology of data measurement is getting a bit obsolete and requires updates to stay relevant as per the current demands.

How is Google Analytics 4 different from its earlier versions?

GA4 or Google Analytics 4 is quite different from its predecessors. Google Analytics 4 has the capability of being operational across multiple platforms. Unlike its earlier version, it doesn’t rely solely on cookies. Google Analytics 4 is known to utilise a data model that is event-based for its operations and data measurement. Google Analytics 4 also does not hold any IP addresses, which is a functionality that could greatly help brands in staying on the proper side of any applicable privacy regulations.

Google Analytics 4, a brief history about its capabilities, release and advancements

Google Analytics 4 was first launched in October of 2020. It was designed with the promise and vision of offering predictive insights. Google Analytics 4 also features deeper and more comprehensive integrations with Google Ads. It is equipped with cross-device measurement abilities. Since Google Analytics 4 has been released, Google has been making a lot of notable updates to its brand-new flagship go-to analytics platform:

• Google Analytics 4 has been updated to include data-driven attribution. These include machine learning models that can be used to fill in any gaps in the measurement and also include a Search Console integration
• It is now possible to easily link and integrate your Google Analytics 4 platform to your Google Search Console
• Google has launched a brand new homepage for Google Analytics 4
• Google has rolled out a new Search Ads 360 integration for the platform

Conclusion

Google has announced earlier this week that they are planning to completely deprecate and replace Universal Analytics in the middle of the next year. The current standard Universal Analytics properties are planned to stop processing any new hits starting July 1, 2023. In addition to this, it has also been announced that all Universal Analytics 360 are going to stop processing any new hits starting October 1, 2023. Any data that has been processed using Universal Analytics would be stored and would be available for a minimum of six months post the deprecation dates that have been listed above.

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