Migration to Google Analytics 4

[JessicaLucindaCheng]

Overview

Since Google's Universal Analytics (UA) will stop processing hits on July 1, 2023, we need to migrate from UA to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) so that our website will continue to gather site usage data.

Important

We need to export our Universal Analytics (UA) data by December 31, 2023 in order to have that record for the future.
From Universal Analytics is going away

• After July 1, 2023, you'll be able to access your previously processed data in your Universal Analytics property for at least six months. We know your data is important to you, and we strongly encourage you to export your historical reports during this time.

Details

• From [UA→GA4] Automatically created Google Analytics 4 properties,

We strongly recommend you manually migrate your Universal Analytics settings to GA4. If you do nothing, a new GA4 property will automatically be created for you, and your Universal Analytics configurations will be copied to the new GA4 property. Not all UA configurations have an obvious GA4 counterpart, and the automated process might not make the same choices as you would.

Action Items

• You must be a Technical Lead or Merge Team member to self-assign this issue
• You will need access to
  • 1) Hack for LA's 1Password and
  • 2) the webadmin@hackforla.org account sign-in information within Hack for LA's 1Password.
  • 3) HfLA Website Admin Google Drive
  • If you do not have access to any of the above, you will need to ask a Product Manager on the Website Team for access.
• Depending on when you work on this issue, Google may have already automatically migrated us to GA4. Check if the migration has happened and do the appropriate set of Action Items below.

If migration from UA to GA4 has not happened yet

• Research what needs to be done to migrate to GA4, including (but not limited to):
  • What changes may happen with the migration?
  • With the migration from UA to GA4, are any features deprecated?
• In a new comment below, write up your research findings
• Discuss your findings with other dev leads (Merge Team members and Technical Leads) and the Product Managers at a meeting
• Get approval from a Product Manager to proceed with the migration
• After receiving approval from a Product Manager, migrate from UA to GA4
• Make sure the website's analytics work properly after the migration. According to Google's documentation,

  It can take up to 30 minutes for data to begin appearing in your new GA4 property.

  To verify that data is being collected, browse your website, then select Realtime from the report navigation. You should see activity in the Realtime report

• After GA4 has been set up properly, export all UA analytics data in every format described in Ways to export Google Analytics data and place it in the Google Universal Analytics Data folder in the HfLA Website Admin Google Drive.

If the migration from UA to GA4 already happened

• You'll need to see what configurations and properties we had before in UA and make sure the GA4 is set up to function the same way the UA did in terms of the analytics we gather.
• Research:
  • What changes happened with the automatic migration?
  • With the migration from UA to GA4, were any features deprecated?
  • What changes (if any) to the configurations and properties need to happen to the GA4 so it functions the same way the UA did in terms of the analytics we gather?
• In a new comment below, write up your research.
• Discuss your findings with other dev leads (Merge Team members and Technical Leads) and the Product Managers at a meeting
• Get approval from a Product Manager to proceed with changing configuration and properties for the GA4 (if changes are needed)
• After receiving approval from a Product Manager, proceed with changing the configuration and properties for the GA4 (if changes are needed)
• Make sure the website's analytics work properly after making changes to GA4. According to Google's documentation,

  It can take up to 30 minutes for data to begin appearing in your new GA4 property described in Ways to export Google Analytics data

  To verify that data is being collected, browse your website, then select Realtime from the report navigation. You should see activity in the Realtime report

• After GA4 has been set up properly, export all UA analytics data in every format and place it in the Google Universal Analytics Data folder in the HfLA Website Admin Google Drive.

Resources/Instructions

• Here is a starting point for your research: [GA4] Make the switch to Google Analytics 4
• Google Universal Analytics Data folder in HfLA Website Admin Google Drive
• This is where our current GA code lives https://github.com/hackforla/website/blob/gh-pages/_includes/head.html
• https://github.com/hackforla/website/blob/gh-pages/_layouts/redirect.html
• search for googletagmanager https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Ahackforla%2Fwebsite+googletagmanager&type=code

[JessicaLucindaCheng]

• Ask how Bonnie wants historical data to be saved and used
• Add Action Item to export data from Google Analytics
• Add info about this email: Hack for LA Mail - We’ll soon configure Google Analytics 4 for you.pdf

[JessicaLucindaCheng]

@ExperimentsInHonesty I know you want data to be preserved when we migrate from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.

1. How do you want this data to be preserved? Ans: Export all the data in every method after Google automatically migrates us over
   • Notes:

     • After July 1, 2023, you'll be able to access your previously processed data in your Universal Analytics property for at least six months. We know your data is important to you, and we strongly encourage you to export your historical reports during this time.

     • Ways to export Google Analytics data
2. How is this data going to be used? Ans: To be able to do a comparison with the new homepage when launched and the previous one.