Google Analytics 4: What Does It Mean for Business Owners?

Data is the most valuable asset when growing a website for businesses, whether big or small. In 2005, Google started offering Google Analytics, and in 2006, it made it accessible to everyone. After that, more and more features were added until a newer version came out in 2012 called Universal Analytics. 

Finally, in 2020, Google launched Google Analytics 4 to provide its users and business owners with a streamlined method of collecting data.
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Universal Analytics (UA) helps give business owners like you and marketers an excellent foundation to track and understand key performance indicators (KPI) relevant specifically to your business goals. 

For example, if set up correctly, it allows you to peek into your website and see who's visiting and what activities visitors undertake within the website.

How does GA4 differ from universal analytics?
Currently, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is an improvement on Universal Analytics. However, until it becomes a standalone app, you will still need to use it in conjunction with UA.

The main differences between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 are these three new main properties introduced by GA4:
• machine learning
• a revitalised focus on customer lifecycle
• the ability to function with or without the use of cookies

For Google Analytics 4 to fulfil these priorities, it has four more properties:
• A more streamlined user interface
• New reports and visualisations
• Tracking customer activity on both web and mobile applications
• Fundamentally changing how data is stored and analysed

GA4 development
GA4 improves UA with machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms in collecting, measuring, and analysing data, providing a more comprehensive picture of your data. It will soon replace Universal Analytics once fully developed.

Since its launch in 2020, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has updated Google's data collection and analysis software. It works as mentioned above, but better. 

Google Analytics 4 addresses matters like shifting policies regarding user privacy and smartphone applications, which are the significant trends that affect your search engine optimisation, or SEO.

What can GA4 do for your business?
Both Universal and Google Analytics 4 can help your business through:

• Gathering and analysing vital information about customer behaviour, demographics, web traffic, goal conversion, and other valuable metrics. 
• Taking your business to the next level while keeping the simplicity and accessibility of the user interface. 
• Adding to the existing functionality by presenting a new event-based measurement method, new report types, advanced predictive analytics, and integration of web and mobile app tracking. 

Start improving your website through GA4
There are many tools and resources to help you grow your business, and if you are a small business owner with a website, Google Analytics is the best for you. Apart from being a free-for-all tool, it can help you track valuable web data. 

Having a simple and reliable tool that aids in understanding your audience better is what you need to help you to make the right decisions in your SEO strategy.

Whether you are using Universal Analytics or not, you should install Google Analytics 4 for your website while it isn't fully developed yet. You want to begin gathering data to optimise your site to provide value to your customers.

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