[Caleb]

As Google transitions from Universal Analytics (UA) to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), the data from UA will eventually no longer be collected and processed. Google has stated that as of July 2023, UA will no longer be supported, and it is not clear how long the UA data will be accessible after that. Therefore, it’s advisable to start transitioning your data to GA4 as soon as possible. You might need to export your historical UA data elsewhere for future needs or to use it in Looker Studio. Ensuring your data is secure in a new location before the end of UA support will help avoid any potential data loss. It’s also recommended to begin familiarizing yourself with GA4 and implementing its tracking codes into your website or application to continue having comprehensive data for your analytics and reports.

[Caleb]

No problem, I got you! Here’s a way you could solve this using a conditional loading of the GA4 library:

If I have this right, you only want your GA4 snippet to run on domainB if visitors initially landed on domainA, correct? No sweat! Assuming that you have your analytics setup without GTM, here are a couple of pointers you can follow:

1. Since your domains are different TLDs and you have cross-domain linking enabled between domainA and domainB, when the page loads on domainB, you could check if the URL carries the ?_ga parameter with your measurement id, or if a special cookie flag is set.

2. Now if either of those are true, you can then recreate the special cookie flag and load the library as usual. If neither is true, then don’t do anything – essentially leaving those alone who jumped straight into domainB.

If your domains aren’t TLDs and you don’t need cross-domain tracking, you could use the document.referrer to check who landed on domainB from domainA. This way, you can handle the scenario you want without adding too much load to domainB. Neat, right?

Basically, you’re on the right track with your data streams, but you just need a little tweak. Give it a try, fingers crossed it helps!

[Caleb]

Sure, let me try to help you out with this. In GA Universal, All Pages under Behavior was straightforward and user-friendly while in GA4, it can indeed seem cluttered in the Engagement > Pages and Screens section.

To create something similar to the old Page Views chart in GA4, follow these steps:
1. In your GA4 interface, go to Engagement > Pages and Screens.
2. Click on Add metric in the top right corner and add “Pageviews”. This will edit your chart to display a total pageviews count.
3. Now, to break down this data by each page, as it was in GA Universal, click Add dimension and select both “Page path and screen class” and “Page title”. This will add a sorted table beneath your chart, showing you pageviews for each page.

Please note that while this may not give you exactly the same view as GA Universal, it should help you get similar insights. GA4 is structured differently from GA Universal, hence some things are viewed differently. GA4 provides a more user-centered approach rather than session-based, like in Universal.

[Caleb]

Sure thing! Essentially what you want to do definitely can be done in GA4. In Google’s web analysis tool, you have two basic dimensions, dl (short for “document location”) and dp (“document page”). These can be modified in the interface to your preference.

Specifically in your case, you’ll want to use two dimensions – ‘page_location’ and ‘page_page’. It’s worth noting the dimension names may seem a bit off, but don’t stress – the hurried release process of GA4 is most likely the cause of this.

Most people – us included – tend to just remove the query parameters from the page dimension as a simple way to lessen cardinality. However, from what you’re saying, it sounds like you might want to do a more significant culling.

This can still be done, specifically if you use gtag.js to track your site metrics. You can manage these dimensions via the gtag configure call.

Taking a similar approach – but using unique names for event properties – gives you the option to put in place custom properties for your tracking goal.

Just keep in mind, if you’re introducing custom properties, you’ll need to create corresponding custom dimensions in the GA4 interface. This is necessary for your new properties to be recognized and usable.

[Caleb]

Yeah, GA4 can be a bit funky at times, mate. The total you see at the top, it’s de-duplicated, meaning it won’t count the same user visiting twice on separate days as two sessions. But when you add the individual days, it’s counting every visit, even if it’s from the same user. Hope that clears up a bit!