3 things you should know about the new Google Analytics 4
Although you may not be actively using the tool, there are a few things you may want to know.
This summer saw the release of Google's new analytics tool, Analytics 4 (also known as GA4). Most Gasta customers now have this installed on their website. Here are three things you should know:
1. New user interface
The new tool is not just an upgrade, but actually a completely new program. You can still find it in the same place(analytics.google.com) and can log in with the user you already have - but otherwise you will see that there is quite a lot that is new.
Things have changed names and been moved around, and it can be confusing at first. But the only way to get used to the changes is to dare to try.
This is what the old Universal Analytics looked like. Click on the image for a larger view.
This is what the new Analytics 4 looks like. Click on the image for a larger view.
2. More focus on what users do on the website
The old tool was mostly focused on what subpages people visited, known as pageviews. In the new tool, there is far more focus on what actions people take on the website, known as events. The new program is more concerned with things like scrolling, clicks, video playback and other interactions.
Among other things, this makes it easier to track and measure events that are important to your business, such as submitted contact forms or clicks on the buy button. This has to be set up manually; something we can help with if you need it.
Whereas the focus used to be on the number of visits and page views, it is now users and actions that are most important(users, events and conversions).
3. More choices related to privacy
There has been a long process related to whether Google Analytics may be illegal. Not long ago, however, it was clarified that the tool is now legal.
But! As a user of Google Analytics, your company must still take GDPR into account. With the new tool, Google gives us more choices for settings we can make. These include how long data is stored and what data is collected. For most people, it is not necessary to work so much with this, but it is worth knowing about.
