Nowadays, people use a number of platforms to surf the web, and this variation in platform use make it a challenge for businesses and website owners to keep track of their site’s performance and interact with consumers. In an effort to make things more manageable, Google recently opened up its Universal Analytics to all Google Analytics Users.
Simply put, the public beta of Universal Analytics aims to help website owners better track their website performance across multiple platforms. This is believed to be more accurate than the original Google Analytics since it covers different channels that consumers use to access the Internet when they search for information, products and services, utilize social media, and interact with other users.
What Makes Universal Analytics Distinct from Google Analytics
According to Google, Universal Analytics make use of a data collection method that is different from the one Google Analytics used. As such, businesses need to set up a new code snippet called analytics.js on their websites to be able to take advantage of the new system and use it to better understand how their target market interact with their websites using different platforms. Google added that the new JavaScript code snippet is more flexible, giving its users the ability to better customize their data. Aside from incorporating the new code snippet, businesses also have to create a new web property on their Analytics account to use the full features of Universal Analytics.
Unlike Google Analytics that uses cookies, this new tracking system uses universal tracking IDs. Businesses can utilize this to follow their customers’ activities from the first time they visit the website to the point they make their first purchase and beyond. Also, as Universal Analytics makes use of a new Measurement Protocol, Analytics users can sync their customers’ data coming from various platforms, such as phones, laptops, tablets and other Internet-enabled devices.
How Universal Analytics Can Help Your Business
Whether you are a business owner, a website manager or an SEO expert, Universal Analytics is a viable tool that will help you get a true picture of how effective your efforts are when it comes to marketing, sales, support, product usage as well as costumer retention.
As trends are continuously shifting and with more and more consumers using a wide variety of platforms to access websites, Universal Analytics will not only enable you to keep up with those trends but will also let you analyze the activities of your target market and use the data you have collected to make effective decisions. That is, you can create specific marketing campaigns and use them on channels that deliver the best results. This, in turn, will help improve your site’s search rankings, generate more traffic, improve conversion rates and boost business profits.
Basically, Universal Analytics provides you a number of opportunities to improve the way you market your products and services online and for you to better engage with your target market. However, if you are currently using Google Analytics and you would like to switch to Universal Analytics to get ahead of the game, you will have to wait a little longer as Google noted that they are yet to release a migration guide to make the transition easier. If you cannot wait, though, Google recommends that you make a new property in your Google Analytics account following the analytics.js development guide they have provided.