Running a website in today’s digital world is all about the numbers. And when it comes to these numbers, analytics is king. As a site owner, it helps you understand the user interactions and what they seek. At the same time, as a visitor, analytics ensures that the website provides a great user experience.
When it comes to analytics, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the most popular tool. So why is GA4, the juggernaut of analytics, important to you?
A Brief History of Google Analytics
In April 2005, Google purchased a company named Urchin Software Corporation that provided a web analytics service called Urchin Analytics (UA). Google rebranded the tool as Google Analytics and made it available to website owners for free. Since then, Google Analytics has been the most popular analytics tool on the web.
In 2005, the internet was still young. YouTube and Reddit got their start alongside UA. And while UA was ahead of its time (like YouTube and Reddit), a lot has changed in the online world. So Google figured it was time for a new analytic paradigm. With the advent of GA4, Google has reinvented the tool with a new architecture, metrics, and look.
Google Analytics provides vast data, from page views to demographics, user behavior to conversions, and more. It helps businesses of all sizes to obtain insights into user behavior and site performance. With Google Analytics 4, website owners can dive deeper into their audience’s behavior, identify the visitors’ complete journey and understand how each visitor interacts with their website.
How Has GA4 Changed Analytics?
One of the most significant changes from Universal Analytics to GA4 is the shift from sessions to events. In GA4, events are defined as user interactions with the website, such as clicks, page views, and time spent on the site. As a website owner, you can customize events to track specific actions based on your needs. It helps provide valuable insights into your users’ actions, such as how many people added an item to their cart or clicked on a particular button.
Another important feature of GA4 is the AI-driven insights that Google provides to website owners. The tool allows you to create custom insights based on visitor interactions, demographics, and performance. The insights will help you make better marketing decisions based on the data obtained from GA4.
So What Does This Mean for You?
Google Analytics 4 is the future of web analytics. It provides website owners with in-depth insights into visitor behavior and helps identify the areas for improvement. With its AI-driven insights and custom events, GA4 has everything you need to understand your website’s performance fully. As a website owner, if you want to make the most out of your website, analytics is an integral part that you cannot ignore. It’s time to move forward with reliable and efficient analytics, which can help you make informed decisions and take your website to the next level.
If your website is with TecAdvocates and you also have our SEO Essentials service, we will handle the upgrade to GA4 for you. We understand the importance of keeping your website up-to-date and will ensure that the transition to GA4 is a smooth and seamless one.
If you want to learn more, get a website with us, or add our SEO essentials service, please CONTACT US!