As the largest search engine in the world, Google processes billions of search queries every day.
Because Google handles so much information, it’s a valuable resource for businesses and advertisers who want to understand their audiences better. However, as the world moves toward a more private internet experience, the rules are changing.
As a result, Google is adapting how it gathers information. Instead of relying on cookies, its new system will log event-based data. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is poised to take over in July 2023. However, given the pervasiveness of its predecessor, Universal Analytics, many people aren’t sure how to feel about the change.
Fortunately, we’re here to help. Let’s look at the differences between these two programs and see what the new best practices for GA4 for SEO will be moving forward.
Google Analytics 4 vs. Universal Analytics
There are a few primary alterations between phone number list UA and GA4 that businesses need to know. Also, based on preliminary usage, it looks like GA4 is a much better analytical tool than UA overall.
Here are some of the broader strokes to pay attention to:
Cookieless Monitoring
Internet cookies have been around since pretty much the beginning, and they’ve always allowed sites to keep track of your behavior, even if you go to another webpage.
Now that legislation like GDPR allows users to turn off cookies, sites like Google had to find a workaround. GA4 works with or without cookies enabled, meaning businesses can keep track of a user’s behavior regardless.
Cross-Device Tracking
Source: Google Support
So, if someone searched for something on their phone and then again on their laptop, GA4 can keep track of that movement seamlessly. This data can tell brands how users interact with their site and which devices are the most popular for specific searches.
Using machine learning and event-based data capture, GA4 can monitor a user’s actions across different devices.
Automatic Tracking
With UA, users had to manually toggle tracking for certain elements like page scrolling. Now, many of these elements are tracked automatically, including outbound clicks, viewed search results pages, video engagement for embedded videos, and more.
Overall, it seems that GA4 offers a more comprehensive and seamless experience for those who want to track user behavior and data. As the next generation in analytics, users can dive deeper and understand their audience far better than before, all while maintaining user privacy and regulatory oversight.
How to Measure SEO on GA4
While GA4 offers a ton of analytical tools, you content of the explanatory note need to know what to do with all of that information. At the end of the day, your primary goal should be search engine optimization (SEO) for all of your pages and content.
Fortunately, GA4 will make it even easier to see if your SEO marketing strategy is working or not. Best of all, you can gather insights to see whether your organic SEO tactics are getting the traction you want. From there, it’s much easier to course-correct or maintain your current momentum.
Here are some of the best ways to measure SEO on the GA4 platform:
Sync Google Search Console
When trying to measure the success of your SEO contact lists efforts, Google Search Console can provide a ton of details, including which queries are generating traffic and a site’s rankings for different search terms.
Now, you can integrate GA4 with Google Search Console to see both sides of the coin. For example, GSC can show you how well you’re ranking for a local search query. Then, you can use GA4 to determine how many people from that geographic area are searching for that specific result.
With this information, you can determine whether you need to invest more in local SEO marketing or if most of your traffic is coming from elsewhere. Best of all, as you implement new strategies, you can see how well they’re working in real-time.
Verify conversions of organic SEO traffic
Getting more traffic to your website is great, but only if those people are converting into customers or qualified leads. If someone comes to your site and doesn’t do anything (i.e., buy a product or sign up for an email list), their visit won’t improve your bottom line.