Google Analytics 4
36 – Google Analytics 4
There has been a lot of talk about Google analytics 4 recently and although they sent out emails telling everyone they needed to change it isn’t actually until summer 2023 that this becomes a necessity.
However that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. If you already use Google analytics then it is nice and simple to swap over and if you don’t then it getting started isnt as scary as it looks.
The key element to successfully using Google Analytics 4 is the Google Site Kit Plugin. Once you have this plugin installed then you can easily link it to your google analytics account. The Site Kit Plugin will help with analytics but also with site speed, content errors and so much more.
The Google Site Kit plugin is one that I highly recommend for all websites. It allows you to connect your Google Search Console, Analytics and Adsense all in one place and helps to make the process easy to manage for non technical users.
If you have not yet signed up to google analytics then using this plugin to set it up will automatically get you started on Google Analytics 4. However if you already have Google Analytics then you will need to follow the process to update to Google Analytics 4.
Running through the standard Site Kit setup will include a prompt for this. If you already have Site kit setup then you can find the prompt for this under this file directory Site Kit > Settings > Connected Services > Analytics
For the time being you should run Universal Analytics (the old version) and Google Analytics 4 at the same time. This is because you will not see the Google analytics 4 in the site kit dashboard just yet but by running them side by side Google Analytics 4 will collect historical data before the switch over in the summer.