A Guide to GA4 vs Universal Analytics

The information from your website analytics can play a large role in your business’s growth. In addition to sharing general traffic data, it will let you know if your SEO and SEM efforts are working, can inspire your digital marketing Dallas campaigns, and will help you improve the overall user experience.

Google launched Universal Analytics (UA) in 2012. This version introduced advances like custom metrics and cross-platform tracking. In late 2020, Google launched its newer iteration

– Google Analytics 4 (or GA4). While GA4 is currently the default version of analytics, it will become the only available version in July 2023. As such, it helps to understand some differences between GA4 and Universal Analytics.

Understanding Universal Analytics and GA4

There are several changes between UA and GA4 to note, especially if you are working on your

SEO marketing Dallas. Some of the most recognizable differences include:

Users

There are two user metrics recognized by UA: total users and new users. To provide more user information, GA4 users three metrics: total users, new users, and active users. This new metric measures users who are active within a 28-day time frame.

Pageviews

UA measures Pageviews (the total number) and Unique Pageviews (which ignores repeated viewings). GA4 measures Pageviews, also called Views, which include any instance where users view an app screen or webpage.

Sessions

UA and GA4 end sessions after 30 minutes of inactivity. UA starts a new session when an inactive user returns or if an active user stays online past midnight or encounters new parameters. GA4 only starts new sessions when a user returns after a session timeout. A significant change is that GA4 will generate a session ID after every event.

Conversions

To monitor conversions on UA, you define a goal that indicates which actions are conversions. Each goal can have only one conversion per session. GA4 monitors specified conversion events. These are counted every time they occur during a session.

Your Website Design and Digital Marketing Dallas Team

While monitoring analytics is important, it is only one part of successfully growing your business through your digital presence. To learn more about SEO marketing Dallas, website design, and other ways to boost your brand, visit myheartcreative.