Have you ever looked Google analytics for your website? If you have a UF site, the likelihood is Google analytics is running in the background, feeding you valuable information about your site traffic. In this article, I’ll touch on why analytics are important and a current issue facing analysts.
Why are analytics important?
I use analytics to understand what people are interested in and focus my limited resources in on those areas. Some of the metrics that help with this effort:
- Device: Of course we all want our sites to display beautifully on both large and small screens, but getting to that point can be a bit of a lift. Understanding if your audience is primarily on a computer or a phone will help you tweak your pages toward your most important viewers.
- Page views: Is one of your most highly trafficked pages out of date? Update it!
- Number of users over time: Spikes in traffic will help determine the efficacy of your emails, social media, and new content. Answer questions like: did that big investment in content development pay off? How does this year’s campaign compare to last year’s? What time of year should I release my most important content?
- Acquisition: Where is my site traffic coming from? Are people just typing in my url (generally known as direct traffic) or are they googling me (generally known as organic search)? If my organic search numbers are low, do I need to invest more in search engine optimization?
A recent change
If you monitor your analytics, you’re probably aware that Google Analytics recently required its users to switch to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) from the previous version of Google Analytics (Universal). Here are some common questions:
Q: Why are there two dashboards for my site?
A: One is for Universal and one is for GA4. They are kept separate because GA4 measures data differently than Universal and the metrics can’t be accurately compared.
Q: What’s different about GA4?
A: It tracks logged-in users more accurately across platforms (websites and apps). For the most part, UF websites don’t require users to log on and don’t use apps, so this change doesn’t impact the basic elements we are interest in.
Q: Can I import the Universal data into GA4 to show accurate reporting over time?
A: No. But you can still access your Universal data until July 1, 2024.
Q: How do you recommend analyzing data with two different modes of measurement?
A: I would use the statistics from Universal as “good information” but take them with a grain of salt, and rely on GA4 going forward.
Want to learn more?
If you have a UF email, you have free access to LinkedIn Learning (learn more here). I recommend the LinkedIn Course “Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Essential Training” if you want to dig deeper into Google Analytics. Need access to Google Analytics on your CLAS website? Enter a website ticket here.