The Working Methodology

Tracking Websites

With the evolution from Google Analytics, Universal Analytics has the ability to track devices and mobile apps. For this, the basic thing that you will need is a tracking code which you can get by going to the admin section, and then to tracking info section. After the code is copied, you will have to paste this in the head section of your website. You will start receiving reports after every 4 or so hours, which will provide you with the following  data:

• Device information
• Visitor’s geographic location
• Number of visits
• Page views
• Referral information
• Visitor count

Page Tag

JavaScript page tag is used for tracking any website and each website will have a different tag. There are two parts to a page tag. The first is the request to Google Analytics and the second part will consist of the list of actions.

Tracking Cookies

Similar to the previous Google Analytics, Universal Analytics makes use of a first party cookie for tracking website users. However, one major difference between the two is that only a single cookie is used by Universal Analytics whereas four to five cookies are used by the previous version. Such a cookie reduction will make your site faster.

Benefits Offered

While it may take a lot of time to upgrade to Universal Analytics, there are many benefits to it, which are as follows:

User ID

This benefit works greatly for the sites that assign identifiers to specific users. After this, a specific user ID can be assigned to the login in this tool. This helps in keeping track of how and when a visitor will come to your site again with the inclusion of specific devices.

Cross Device Reporting

The user ID is one of the possibilities for cross device reporting. This new code offers three ways for measurement, i.e. mobile app tracking, Measurement Protocol in order to track digital device, and website tracking. The protocol allows communication in any environment whatsoever.

Custom Variables Deluxe

This is now known as custom dimensions, and while the essence of this is the same, there is no longer a limitation of 5 dimensions as you will have a limit of 20. With this, custom metrics can also be added to the dimensions, which allow the data to be quantified.

Demographics and Interests

This feature provides great insights of your website visitors, and this is done with the help of data that Google has already collected about these users.

You can easily upgrade to Universal Analytics. However, keep in mind that the upgrading will take around two days to finish and there is no going back once you have upgraded it. There are many advantages to Universal Analytics, and it is definitely a thing of the future. Soon everyone will be using this tool and Google Analytics will become a thing of the past.