URGENT! Change THIS or Your Analytics Will STOP Working

on July 1st Google's Universal analytics will stop recording data if you're watching this after July 1st 2023 you're already too late you need to stop what you're doing right now well watch this video and make sure your websites are using Google analytics for ga4 the universal analytics system that Google has been using since it acquired urchin in 2005 is being shuttered at the end of this month shutdown that means at the time of posting this video you only have nine days left to make sure your analytics keep working [Music] hey everybody I'm Kevin Patrick Robbins a professional photographer based in Canada and I've also been designing websites for 30 years ga4 promises to be the next generation of analytics which collects data from both websites and apps since I'm a professional photographer and I'm not building apps I just want to make sure that all of my websites are using ga4 in this video I'm going to give you a brief overview of analytics and why you should be measuring your website traffic how to start using Google analytics if you don't already use it and show you how to convert your Universal analytics properties to ga4 properties Google analytics uses a small piece of code inserted into your website to monitor how many people are visiting your website where they are located geographically what pages they are visiting how long they are staying on your website or how quickly they are bouncing away from your website what actions they are taking while they're there the flow or the path they're following through your website track conversions test your funnels and and a whole lot more analytics give you data about your website which allow you to gain insight into how people are actually using your website so if your leads have dropped off a cliff but the number of visitors to your website has increased you can investigate and try to find the problem which you know it could be an issue with your copy your pricing model or something else entirely however if you don't have analytics to give you actual data you're just making guesses and assumptions and when you're running a business your decision should be informed by hard data not assumptions about the state of your industry if you're not already using Google analytics that's okay there's nothing we can do about the past Google analytics is 100 free to use all you need is a Google account if you don't have a Google account go to google.com click the blue sign in button in the upper right corner of the screen click create account on the drop down select for my personal use you'll likely end up using this account for a lot more things in the future so don't restrict it to work or business also Google might funnel you into a Google workspace account which is a subscription service you don't need it so select for my personal use enter your name and birth date and you'll arrive at a screen where you can choose your Gmail address every Google account comes with a Gmail address and this is how you sign in to Google and use all of Google services like Google analytics select create your own Gmail address and the Box will appear for you to create your own unique Gmail address do not select use your existing email at the bottom ignore that and click next now that you have a Google account go to analytics.google.com and click Start measuring from here Google will guide you through the process of setting up your analytics account and getting you started just follow the prompts and you'll be able to set that up you'll create an account create a website property and then you'll be given a property ID a property is just a general term Google uses that refers to a single website or app converting an existing website from Universal analytics to ga4 is it's as easy as clicking the like button for this video in fact if you're watching this video Google has likely already done it for you go to analytics.google.com and sign in if you're not already signed in if you see a countdown timer in the middle of the screen click on go to ga4 setup assistant if not click on admin in the bottom left corner of your screen then click ga4 setup assistant under your property options you'll see a box labeled I want to create a new Google Analytics for property at the bottom of the page you'll also see a box labeled automatically set up a basic Google analytics for property it should be checked by default but just make sure that the toggle is on in blue then click the get started button once you click get started you'll see a dialog box that allows you to include existing analytics tags but if you understand what that means you probably wouldn't be watching this video If you do understand what that means and the implications it brings then do what's best for you otherwise just click create and continue click confirm on this screen and click the button that says go to your ga4 property Google will open a new tab and take you to the setup assistant for your new ga4 property the only thing you need to worry about on this screen is the data collection section under data collection click the actions arrow and select manage data streams you should see your property listed there click on the action arrow and you'll see your web stream details this is where you'll find your measurement ID under events you'll see enhanced measurement by default ga4 is only tracking page views click on the cogwheel icon to access the enhanced measurement settings toggle everything on turn everything on under page views click show advanced settings and select page changes based on browser history events this will allow you to track if someone is moving through your website using the back or forward buttons on the browser instead of only tracking link clicks click save and you'll see your changes reflected in your web stream details your ga4 property is now set up and ready for action now there your ga4 property is created you need to add it to your website click the view tag instructions button select install with a website builder or CMS Google will detect your platform based on your url if it properly detects your platform follow the instructions outlined on that page to install your Google Tags if it doesn't you may need to install your Google tag manually unfortunately I can't show you how to do that on your website you'll have to use Google to search and see if you can get the answers since I use Squarespace Google analytics has provided me with clear instructions on how to do this in Squarespace so let's run through that now first copy your tag ID then open another Tab and navigate to your Squarespace account click on your website and then click on settings depending on when you're watching this video select either Advanced or developer tools at the time I'm making this video Squarespace is in the process of moving all its settings to a single page so that might be different depending on whether you are using Squarespace version 7.0 or 7.1 and before or after this update has occurred either way one of those should have a link at the top for external API Keys click on that and then paste the tag ID you just copied into the box that says Google analytics click save and you're done the only thing left to do now is to make sure you're subscribed to this Channel and you have the notifications turned on so you don't miss any future videos from me let me know in the comments if you found this video helpful and if there are similar topics you'd like to see from me if you don't have a Squarespace website you can watch this video right here to see why I highly recommend Squarespace for photographers over every other platform out there thank you take care