What’s changed?
Since its initial launch in October 2012, Universal Analytics has served as the primary method for gathering data for over a decade. It has long been regarded as a dependable and effective analytical solution. However, the new GA4 system provides users with numerous technological enhancements, resulting in a more robust and formidable platform.
The differences between GA4 and Universal Analytics are primarily driven by the evolving landscape of digital analytics and user behaviour tracking as it is not relying on 3rd party cookies.
The goal of GA4 is to combine the tracking of numerous channels into a comprehensive platform and adapt to the changing user behaviours on different devices and platforms. The move towards a model that focuses on events and users, and demonstrates the requirement for more extensive understanding, tracking across multiple platforms, and automated processes in data analysis.
As the industry keeps evolving, Google has identified GA4 as the forthcoming analytics platform, urging users to switch to GA4 for advantages and to keep up with the latest analytical functionalities. Although the official date for this transition was July 1, 2023, Google is rolling it out gradually, so your website might not have experienced any impact thus far.