Options for Migrating from Google Universal Analytics

As you may know, Google will be retiring the Universal Analytics version of their Google Analytics product mid-2023. This product is used to track and report on visitors to websites. Google offers this product free of charge, but makes use of the data it collects in exchange.

For clients whose software we host which have Universal Analytics tracking code, we offer a few options:

• You can upgrade your Universal Analytics site to Google Analytics version 4 and provide us with the new tracking code to place on the site(s) we host for you.
• If we have access to your Google Analytics account already, we can upgrade your account and obtain the new tracking code for you.
• You can switch to any other tracking service you choose and provide us with the new tracking code to place on the site(s) we host for you.
• You can switch to a new tracking service offered by Andornot exclusively for our hosted clients that uses the popular Matomo open source software.

In our work with Google Analytics version 4, we've found that it will continue to give you the same basic information as from Universal Analytics, such as the number of visitors to your site. However, in working with Google Analytics version 4, we’ve found it difficult to obtain any more statistics than this, so we are not recommending or supporting use of this new version. It’s for this reason that Andornot is offering our new Matomo statistics and tracking service.

Matomo offers similar features and benefits to Google’s Universal Analytics. Basic tracking will provide information on users, as well as words used for searching, searches with no results, and basic information on media accessed in search results (e.g. images and PDFs viewed or downloaded).

There is no charge for our hosted clients to use our Matomo service, and in most cases, the necessary tracking code can be added to your site with minimal effort. Data will be retained for up to three years, allowing you to compare current to previous years.

Should you desire more advanced tracking of some sort, that is likely possible with Matomo, but may involve a fee for the configuration work. A fee may also apply for long-term data storage, depending on the size of that data.

Please feel free to get in touch with questions or to use our Matomo service on sites we host for you.