Google Analytics will sunset its current Universal Analytics and replace it with Google Analytics 4. Here’s what you need to do now.
If you rely on Google Analytics for your blog, you have until July 1 to prepare for Google Analytics 4. Universal Analytics, incidentally, is GA3. Somehow, though, the name sounds a lot more impressive.
When I first saw the little banner across the top of my analytics page, I got a little anxious. Analytics works fine for me as is. But I hated the thought of trying to figure out what I’d need to do to make the necessary changes, which the banner advised I should do starting this month!
Why kill a good thing? The answer, Neil Patel says, is privacy.
“This comes in the face of some of the latest privacy laws, such as GDPR and CCPA,” he says. “With privacy-first tracking, cross-channel data measurement, and AI-driven predictive analytics, GA4 is an advanced tool that provides unparalleled insights.”
Fortunately, the process is fairly painless.
All you have to do is click the “Manage GA4 Migration” link on that yellow banner. You’ll be taken to the GA4 Property Setup Assistant where you will click the “Get Started” button in the “I want to create a new GA4 property” box. I clicked the button in the popup and suddenly I got this message: “You have successfully connected your properties.”
Wait, what? That was it? I was stressed out over that?
No, that wasn’t really all there is to it.
It takes you to a setup assistant where you have to do a few more steps.
It provides you a code that you must add to the header of every page of your blog. But it also gives you a great alternative. It lists a couple of WordPress plugins you can use to help make this a fast setup.
I chose MonsterInsights. While you’re still logged in to GA4, you can activate the plugin. It will automatically link your site to your Google Analytics account. You just click a few boxes to verify things as they come up.
You can upgrade to a pro version of MonsterInsights for additional reporting options. For now, I skipped that option.
Don’t panic: At first you won’t see any data. Google advises it can take up to 24 hours before the data begins to populate. So if you see lots of zeroes, don’t worry. The data will come in fast enough.
I have to give credit to Google. Between them and the MonsterInsights plugin, they’ve made migration to the new GA4 about as simple as it could possibly be.
Hopefully GA4 will provide as much data for blog owners as the old version has. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see!