Google Analytics

Google Analytics is for keeping track of how people use your site. You can use this data to make more informed decisions about website design, email campaigns, or your target audiences.

Data examples:

• How many people visit and when
• How they got to your site
• Where they’re located
• Which device they’re using

This is just the beginning—Google Analytics offers a lot of options to answer your questions about your site. 

WordPress

The university-wide Google Analytics accounts runs on some of the WordPress blogs produced by https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/. It will be updated for GA4 for only the OSU branded themes, Branch, Sapling, Magazine, Pine, OSU Standard. If you opt to use a non-branded theme, you need to manage your own Google Analytics.

If you want your own analytics account for a blog, you have 2 options:

1. JetPack plugin for analytics data. It isn’t Google Analytics, but it still collects similar data.
   1. You need to create your own WordPress account. The setup guide will walk you through all the steps required.
2. Create your own Google Analytics account and use Google’s Site Kit Plugin for WordPress. Google has written up documentation on how to setup Site Kit (skip the section about installing. We have already installed the plug in for you).

To configure either of these options, you need to be an administrator of the blog.

If you are using the existing Google Analytics plugin, you need to update to GA4 and enter your new GA4 analytics into the Site Kit Plugin. The existing Google Analytics plugin doesn’t accept GA4 tracking IDs.

How to check if you are using the old Google Analytics plugin

1. Log into your WordPress site at https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/ with your ONID username and password.
2. The Google Analytics plugin is located in the left-hand sidebar menu under Settings > Google Analytics.
3. Find the field for Site Tracking Code.
   1. If you have a tracking ID in that field that starts with UA, you are using the old version of Google Analytics and need to update to Google Analytics 4.
   2. You also want to use the Site Kit Plugin to add Google Analytics to your site. It will walk you through all the necessary steps and can add both your UA and GA4 analytics.

Updating to Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

You need at least an editor role in the Google Analytics account to update a property to GA4.

Updating to Google Analytics 4 means that you create another property based on settings and configurations of your existing Universal Analytics (UA) property.

Google has written up some extensive documentation on updating to GA4. There is a setup assistant to walk you through each step of the process to update. It should only take a few minutes and you can follow the video tutorial or written instructions to update. Both of these tutorials use Google Tag Manager to install your GA4 on your website. Stop at that point and follow the instructions below. You don't need to use Google Tag or Google Tag Manager to update to Google Analytics 4. All you need is the measurement ID that follows the format: G-xxxxxxxx.

Automatically created Google Analytics 4 Properties

In March 2023, Google will create an automatic Google Analytics 4 property for any Universal Analytics property that hasn't been yet updated.

Google has written documentation about the automatically created properties that provide the full details of how they work.

This doesn't mean that the GA4 property will start collecting data. You still need to follow the instructions below to add the measurement ID to the your Drupal 7 website.

Adding the GA4 Measurement ID to a Drupal 7 Website

After you have created a GA4 property you need to add the measure ID to your Drupal website. You need to be an architect in the site to update. Contact Digital Experience if you need more permissions to your site.

The Universal Analytics tracking ID can be entered in the website via Appearance > Settings > Doug Fir. If you have it in the Google Analytics module, move it to this setting location. This field only accepts the UA tracking ID and a GA4 tracking ID won't work in this field.

Google advises you to run your older version of GA (tracking ID that starts with UA-) alongside the GA4 measurement ID. This is to ensure that there are no gaps in the data.