Google Sets the Universal Analytics Shutdown Date: Time to Move to GA4

If your website still runs on Universal Analytics, the clock is now ticking. On March 16, 2022, Google confirmed the Universal Analytics shutdown: standard properties will stop processing new data on July 1, 2023, and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the replacement.

That sounds far away. It isn’t. If you want a full year of GA4 data to compare against when Universal Analytics goes dark, you need GA4 collecting data by around June 2022. My advice is simple: set up GA4 this month and let it run alongside your current setup.

Below, I explain what Google announced, what happens to your old data, how GA4 is different, and the exact steps I’d follow to start the move.

What Google Announced on March 16, 2022

Google published the news on its blog and in an Analytics Help article. The message was clear: Universal Analytics, the version most sites have used for about a decade, is being retired. GA4 is now the only version Google is building for.

Here are the main points from the announcement:

• Standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits on July 1, 2023.
• Universal Analytics 360 properties (the paid enterprise version) get a little longer and stop processing new hits on October 1, 2023.
• After those dates, you will still be able to see previously processed data in Universal Analytics for at least six months.
• Google strongly recommends exporting your historical reports during that time.
• GA4 is the recommended way forward for all websites and apps.

Google’s own help page, Universal Analytics is going away, is the place to check for any updates to these dates.

The Key Dates at a Glance

Why Google Is Ending Universal Analytics

Universal Analytics was built for a web where people mostly visited sites on a desktop computer, in one session, with cookies doing most of the tracking work. That is not how people browse anymore.

Today one person might find you on their phone, come back on a laptop, and buy through an app. Privacy rules and browser changes are also limiting cookies. Google says the older way of measuring is becoming outdated, and GA4 is designed for this new reality.

A few reasons Google gives for GA4:

• It measures websites and apps together in one property, instead of treating them as separate worlds.
• It is built around privacy. Google says GA4 does not log or store IP addresses.
• It can fill gaps with modelling when cookies or consent are missing, so reports are less broken.
• It has predictive features, such as purchase probability, for sites with enough data.

In my opinion, the privacy side is the real driver. Many businesses in Europe were already worried about whether Universal Analytics fit local rules. GA4 is Google’s answer to that pressure.

What the Universal Analytics Shutdown Means for Your Data

This is the part most people ask me about first. The short version: your old data stays where it is, and it does not come with you.

Your Old Data Won’t Move to GA4

There is no tool to copy historical Universal Analytics data into GA4. The two products use different data models, so the numbers can’t simply be moved across.

That means GA4 only has data from the day you install it. If you set it up in May 2023, you will have about six weeks of history when Universal Analytics stops. Your year-on-year reports will be empty for a long time.

You Can Still View Reports for a While

After July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics will stop collecting new visits, but you can still log in and look at old reports for at least six months. After that, Google says access will end.

So you have two jobs: start collecting fresh data in GA4 now, and plan how you will save the Universal Analytics data you care about before access ends.

Why You Should Set Up GA4 This Month, Not Next Year

I see a lot of site owners thinking, “I have until July 2023, I’ll deal with it later.” I think that is a mistake, for three reasons.

1. You need history. Comparing this June to last June only works if GA4 was running last June. Every month you wait is a month of comparison data you will never get back.
2. You need time to learn. GA4 looks and works differently. Most teams need a few months before they trust its numbers and know where to find things.
3. You need time to fix tracking. Goals, ecommerce and custom events do not carry over. Rebuilding them properly, and testing them, takes longer than people expect.

Running both tools side by side costs nothing extra for most sites. The free versions of both work together without any problem.

How GA4 Is Different From Universal Analytics

If you open GA4 expecting the old reports in new colours, you will be confused. These are the differences I’d make sure everyone on your team understands.

• Everything is an event. In Universal Analytics, a hit could be a pageview, an event, a transaction and so on. In GA4, every action is an event, including page views. Events can carry extra details called parameters (small pieces of extra information, like the page title or the button text).
• No views. Universal Analytics let you create several views of one property, often with filters. GA4 has no views. Instead, you have data streams (one for your website, and one for each app).
• Goals become conversions. You don’t set up goals by URL any more. You mark an event as a conversion with a simple switch.
• New engagement metrics. GA4 focuses on engaged sessions and engagement rate, rather than bounce rate. An engaged session is one that lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a conversion, or has at least two page views.
• Fewer ready-made reports. GA4 gives you a smaller set of standard reports. Deeper analysis happens in Explorations, where you build your own reports.
• Shorter default data retention. Data in Explorations is kept for two months by default on the free version. You can change this to 14 months in the settings, and I recommend doing it on day one.
• Free BigQuery export. GA4 lets standard (free) properties send raw data to BigQuery, Google’s data warehouse. In Universal Analytics, this was only for 360 customers.

Because the models are different, numbers like users and sessions will not match exactly between the two tools. Small differences are normal. Big gaps usually point to a tracking problem worth checking.

How to Start Your Move to GA4: A Step-by-Step Plan

This is the order I follow when setting up GA4 next to an existing Universal Analytics property. It works for most small and medium sites.

1. Check what you have. Open Universal Analytics and write down your goals, ecommerce setup, custom events, filters, linked accounts (like Google Ads) and any reports your team uses every week.
2. Create the GA4 property. In Universal Analytics, go to Admin, and in the Property column choose GA4 Setup Assistant. It creates a new GA4 property and a web data stream without changing your Universal Analytics property.
3. Add the GA4 tag to your site. If your site uses the global site tag (gtag.js), the assistant may offer to reuse it. If you use Google Tag Manager, add a GA4 Configuration tag with your new Measurement ID (it starts with “G-“). If you use a CMS plugin, check that it supports GA4.
4. Turn on enhanced measurement. This automatically tracks page views, scrolls, outbound clicks, site search, video engagement and file downloads, with no extra code.
5. Change data retention to 14 months. Go to Admin, then Data Settings, then Data Retention. The default two months is too short for most analysis.
6. Rebuild your key conversions. Create events for your important actions, like form submissions or sign-ups, and mark them as conversions.
7. Link Google Ads and test. Link your Google Ads account if you run ads. Then use the Realtime report and DebugView to confirm events are coming through correctly.

When I set this up, I always do a test conversion myself and check it appears in DebugView before calling the job done. It saves a lot of trouble later.

What to Map Before You Switch

The Setup Assistant gets basic data flowing, but it does not rebuild your custom tracking. These are the areas I’d review one by one.

Goals Become Conversions

In Universal Analytics, many goals were based on a “thank you” page URL. In GA4, you can recreate this by creating an event when someone views that page, then marking it as a conversion.

For example, if your contact form sends people to /thank-you/, you can create an event called generate_lead that fires on that page. Using Google’s recommended event names makes your reports easier to read later.

Ecommerce Tracking Needs New Events

This is where I usually see the most work. GA4 ecommerce uses new event names, such as view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout and purchase, with a different data format.

If you run a store on a platform like Shopify or WooCommerce, check whether your platform or plugin already supports GA4 ecommerce. If your setup is custom, your developer will need to update the data layer (the code that passes product and order details to your tags).

Filters, Views and Segments

Since GA4 has no views, filters that lived in a view need a new home. GA4 lets you filter out internal traffic by defining your office IP addresses in the data stream settings.

Segments you used every day will need to be rebuilt in Explorations or as comparisons in the standard reports.

Dashboards, Data Studio and Linked Tools

Any Data Studio dashboards connected to Universal Analytics will stop getting new numbers after July 2023. List them now and plan to rebuild the important ones on GA4 data.

The same goes for tools that pull data through the Universal Analytics API, like reporting software or spreadsheets. Check whether each tool already supports GA4.

How to Save Your Universal Analytics Data

You don’t need to export anything today. But it is smart to plan it now, so it is not a rush in late 2023.

The options available right now are:

• Export reports from the interface. Most reports can be downloaded as CSV, Excel, PDF or Google Sheets. This is the easiest option for small sites.
• Use the Google Analytics Sheets add-on. It pulls report data into Google Sheets on a schedule, which is useful for monthly totals.
• Use the Reporting API. A developer can pull larger amounts of data into your own database or warehouse.
• BigQuery export for 360 customers. If you pay for Universal Analytics 360, you can already export raw data to BigQuery.

My rule of thumb: save the reports you actually use to make decisions. For most businesses, that means monthly traffic by channel, top landing pages, conversions by source and ecommerce revenue. You won’t need every report from the past ten years.

Mistakes I’d Avoid During the Move

• Removing the Universal Analytics tag too early. Keep both running until July 2023. You lose nothing by doing so.
• Leaving data retention at two months. It’s a one-minute fix that people forget for months.
• Expecting the numbers to match. They won’t, because the tools count differently. Look at trends, not exact totals.
• Copying every old goal. The move is a good time to drop tracking nobody looks at. I’d keep only the conversions that matter to the business.
• Forgetting consent banners. If your site uses a cookie consent tool, make sure the GA4 tag follows the same rules as your old tag.
• Not telling the team. Anyone who reads reports should know a new tool is coming and that some metrics have new names.

What This Means for SEO Reporting

For SEO work, the biggest impact is on year-on-year comparisons. If GA4 starts collecting data now, you will have a clean year of organic traffic by spring 2023, before Universal Analytics stops.

You will also find organic traffic in GA4 under the Acquisition reports, grouped by default channel group. Landing page reports exist too, but they look different, so it’s worth learning where they live early on.

Keep in mind that Google Search Console is still your main source for queries, clicks and impressions from Google Search. Analytics tells you what visitors do after they arrive. I use both together and I don’t expect that to change. If you’re planning your wider SEO work for the year, my SEO checklist for 2022 covers the other big areas to focus on.

It also matters if you are tracking the effect of Google changes. For example, if you want to measure how page experience coming to desktop affects your engagement, you need stable data in the tool you will be using next year.

Final Thoughts on the Universal Analytics Shutdown

The Universal Analytics shutdown is not a reason to panic, but it is a reason to act early. July 1, 2023 is the date new data stops, and the only way to have useful GA4 history by then is to start collecting it now.

Your next step: open Universal Analytics today, run the GA4 Setup Assistant, add the tag, and set data retention to 14 months. Then spend the next few months rebuilding your conversions and getting comfortable with the new reports, while both tools run side by side.