Universal Analytics Is Out of Beta

Out of beta as of yesterday

Yesterday Google announced that Universal Analytics, the newer version of its tracking code, is out of beta. New properties now start on it by default.

Google also said new features will be built for Universal Analytics. The classic code keeps collecting data for now, but it is not where new reports and settings will arrive.

Most small business sites still run the classic code, and some still carry the even older urchin code pasted in years ago. Nothing breaks today, but the direction is set.

What changes and what stays

The reports look much the same. Traffic, sources, pages and goals appear where they always did, and a transferred property keeps all of its history.

What changes is the code on the site and where some settings live. A few things once set in the code, such as how long a visit lasts and which sites count as referrals, move to the admin screens.

Anything added to the old code over the years, such as event tracking on buttons, custom variables or ecommerce tracking, has to be rewritten for the new code.

Taking stock before the switch

Before touching anything, list what the current setup does:

• Which code each page carries: classic, urchin or a mix.
• Where it lives: the theme's header, hand-made pages, a booking system.
• Events already tracked, such as taps on a phone number.
• Ecommerce tracking on any online payment.
• Goals, filters and views set up in the admin.
• Who has access to the Analytics account, and who owns it.

Write the list down. It becomes the checklist for after the switch, and it often turns up a page or two nobody remembered.

Who owns the account

The transfer needs someone with full rights to the account. If it was opened years ago by a former designer or employee, sort out ownership first.

The business should hold the account under its own login, with others added as users. The history, and the goals added now, then stay with the business whoever does its work.

The two parts of the switch

First the property is transferred in the admin screens. That takes a day or two and changes nothing on the site, and the property keeps accepting data from the classic code meanwhile.

Once the transfer is complete, the old code on every page comes out and the new analytics.js code goes in, with each item on the list rewritten to match.

Two sets of code on one page count every view twice, so take the old one out as the new one goes in.

After the switch

Open the Real-Time report and browse the site from a phone. Each page you open should appear within seconds, with the right page name and source.

The next day, compare the day's traffic with the same weekday a week earlier. A sudden drop usually means pages missing the new code; a sudden jump usually means pages carrying both.

Test each event and goal by doing it yourself: tap the phone number, send the booking form, buy the cheapest item. Then check that the reports recorded each one.

Settings that moved to the admin

Under the property's tracking information, a few settings deserve a look once the transfer is complete.

The referral exclusion list should include the site's own domain and any payment page buyers leave to and return from. Otherwise a sale is credited to the payment page rather than to whatever brought the buyer.

Most small sites can leave the visit timeout and the list of search engines as they are. Note any change in the same written record as the inventory.

Goals nobody set up

Many small sites have run Analytics for years without a single goal. The reports show how many people came and from where, but not how many did what the site is for.

A goal records a completed action: reaching the thank-you page after a booking request, sending a contact form, buying a gift certificate. With goals in place, every report can show which sources and pages lead to them.

The switch already means opening the admin screens and testing the site, so it is the natural moment to add them.

A worked example

A snowmobile tour company near a mountain resort town runs guided tours from December to late March. Bookings come through a request form on its website, and gift certificates are sold online.

Its Analytics code had been pasted into the site's template years ago, and a few later pages added by hand carried the even older urchin code. No goals had ever been set up.

The owner watched the traffic graph each month but could not say which listings or advertising led to bookings.

As the season wound down in late March, the property was transferred and the new code went into the template and the hand-made pages.

The tap-to-call event was rewritten, and two goals were added: booking request sent and gift certificate bought. The payment processor's domain went on the referral exclusion list, so returning buyers stay credited to the source that brought them.

Each booking and sale is now recorded against the pages and sources that led to it, ready to read when planning for next season begins.

The counter-case

There is no deadline today. The classic code still collects data, and a small site whose owner glances at the traffic once a month will see no difference this spring.

If a redesign is planned for the coming months, it can make sense to switch as part of it, rather than editing pages that are about to be rebuilt.

But the transfer itself is quick, and goals do not need to wait for anything. A season of bookings recorded without goals is a season that cannot be read back later.

Switching the code and setting goals

1. List what the current code does, page by page.
2. Confirm who owns the Analytics account.
3. Transfer the property in the admin screens.
4. Put the new code in and take the old code out.
5. Rewrite events and ecommerce for the new code.
6. Set goals for the actions the site exists for.
7. Check the reports the next day and the next week.

Step six is where the value lies. The new code records the same traffic as the old, but goals turn that traffic into an answer about which pages and sources lead to bookings.

Adding a funnel to a goal, so that each step of a long form shows where people leave, is what the registration form where parents give up walks through.

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West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.