Google Analytics is a free audience measurement tool developed by Google. It helps website owners track their site's performance and understand how visitors interact with it.Google Analytics collects valuable data about website visits, such as the number of visitors, the duration of each session, pages viewed, and the bounce rate (or engagement rate).Website owners can also track conversions, traffic sources, visitor geolocation, user behavior on the site, and much more.At Socialsky, we use all this data to understand the different user journeys to conversion, and then to improve the user experience on the website. Google Analytics is an essential tool for businesses seeking to maximize their online presence and understand their audience.
In March 2022, Google announced the end of Google Analytics Universal in favor of its new version, Google Analytics 4 (GA4). From July 2023 onwards, website owners will be required to switch to GA4 if they wish to continue tracking their audience.Google Analytics Universal was primarily focused on measuring visits and tracking conversions, whereas GA4 provides a more advanced view of how visitors interact with the website: events, pages and screens, landing pages, advertising campaigns, and applications.
GA4 offers several views similar to its previous version, such as an acquisition summary (how users arrived at your site), the most viewed pages, conversions, and monetization tracking (e-commerce).The data is now presented differently. From now on, scroll events, clicks, and form completion steps will also be counted. Goodbye to the bounce rate, which now becomes the engagement rate. Historically, the bounce rate was the percentage of visitors who visited a maximum of 1 page of the website. The engagement rate takes into account events on the page, such as scrolling or clicking on buttons, images, watching videos, etc.
Since time is running out for Google Analytics Universal, it's time to consider switching to a GA4 property. To do this, log in to your Google Analytics account and go to account administration (⚙). Under "Property", click "GA4 Setup Assistant" and create your GA4 property. If you need to install a Google tag, go to "Data Streams" and create a stream for your website.Depending on the technology used on your site, copy the Measurement ID G-XXXXXXXXXX or check the instructions for correct tag installation further down the page.At Socialsky, we use Google Tag Manager to install the tag and Google Analytics GA4 events.
