You may have seen in your Google Analytics account a message offering to upgrade to “Google Universal” which is now the new operating standard for analytics.
Do you need to upgrade? well the product is still in beta but you should because otherwise Google will do it for you eventually and if you continue to use the standard analytics actually your data won’t be processed anymore. There are a couple of functions that are not yet working (until product goes out of beta) and a couple of things you need to do…
Firstly you can check to see what version of analytics you are currently using, if you login to your admin area, select a property from the property area. If you are using ‘normal’ analytics then you will see an item called ‘Tracking code’ if you are using the universal analytics then this item will be called “Tracking Info” – if you haven’t upgraded your account yourself then for both of these you should make sure you are still collecting your valuable website data as the likelihood is that you will need to change your tracking code.
For every website property you have you need to
- Transfer your property to Universal Analytics data processing technology, and
- Implement the new Universal Analytics tracking code.
The benefits of upgrading to this better analytics package are
- Get the new and more flexible data collection methods that let you track any digital device.
- Use simplified and more accessible configuration options.
- Create custom dimensions & custom metrics to collect data that’s unique to your business.
- Stay up to date with new features and updates.
At the moment the new tool does not support, remarketing, Google display network impressions, double click campaigns, demographics and interest reports, so if you are using any of these then you should wait to upgrade until the product comes out of beta (you can see the timeline here)
With the new tool you’ll be able to get much more tangible data from your analytics, Google have put together a helpful guide to direct you through the process, you can find it here