Did you know that Idea Digital Agency holds an SEO club, where our best specialists describe cases, life hacks, and SEO news? Yes, we have such interesting meetings every two weeks. From now on, we have decided to share with you videos, presentations, and a brief overview of the reports. The first topic is the differences between the old and new Google Analytics. Watch, and read the report from Team Lead Idea Digital on SEO website promotion for English-speaking markets.
You can view the presentation on the topic here
Differences between Google Analytics and GA4
The Universal Analytics property was used in the previous version of Analytics as standard for all websites until October 14, 2020. Universal Analytics supports only websites.
Google Analytics 4 is a new type of property that is used for a website, an app, or both.
Hit types
Hit types for a Universal Analytics property include page hits, events, e-commerce, and social interactions.
Instead, Google Analytics 4 property tracking is event-based, meaning each interaction is treated as a separate event. Therefore, Universal Analytics hit types are logged in the Google Analytics 4 property as events.
New types of hits in GA4
In the Universal Analytics resource | Considered in Google Analytics 4 |
|---|---|
Page View | Event |
Event | |
Social Interaction | Event |
Transaction/E-commerce | Event |
User Time | Event |
Unexpected Error | Event |
View screen/app | Event |
Analysis Center
Google Analytics 4's Analytics Center allows you to conduct an in-depth analysis of user engagement. GA 4 has no such thing as a "bounce rate." Instead, it uses new metrics that determine which devices people use to convert, and what content captivates visitors of different ages and locations. Previously, such capabilities were only available to Google Analytics 360 users, but now they are available to everyone.
GA4 Analytics Center
Why data in Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 may differ
Why GA4 and Universal data may differ
Data Collection Differences: What Didn't Carry Over to GA4
IP Anonymization. This feature is enabled by default in new analytics assets.
Getting Client ID is not yet available for sites in Google Analytics 4.
Custom tasks (only in analytics.js) are not yet available.
User time is not yet available in Google Analytics 4.
In addition, GA4 receives information from many different systems, it is often processed at different times. Therefore, the results of the same queries made within 48 hours may differ slightly in GA4 and Universal.
What to read on the topic
