What your Law Firm needs to know about the new Google Analytics
As of October of 2020 Google announced they would phase out what’s known as ‘Universal Analytics’ by July of 2023. The current Google Analytics platform, known as Universal Analytics (UA) has been the standard way of tracking website traffic for over 10 years. As of July of 2023, it will be obsolete and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) will be the new form of tracking metrics on your law firm’s website.
What does this change mean for your law firm? Should you be worried? Most certainly not! Digital marketing and digital technologies are constantly changing and evolving. Your job is to ensure your law firm’s website stays relevant and maintains organic ranking amongst your competitors.
The Basics of Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Google Analytics 4 is not an upgrade to Universal Analytics. It’s essentially a new product. The new Google product tracks different metrics, collects data differently, and you as the user will also analyze it differently. Although technical in nature, here’s a simple breakdown of what you can expect and the differences between UA and GA4.
- Universal Analytics and GA4 both collect data through ‘hits.’ Hits are user interactions on your website.
- UA divides hits into categories like pageviews and transactions (which is important for eCommerce pages). GA4 changes these categorizations.
- All hits on GA4 are simply categorized into ‘events.’ Google consolidated all the different hits into four (4) different event types.
- Through Automatically Collected events you can see pageviews and the start of a user’s session. Enhanced Measurement events allows you to see if a user scrolls, engages, or leaves through an outbound link. You also have Recommended Events which you can turn on and you can also create your own custom events.
While Universal Analytics will stop receiving data in July of 2023 that doesn’t mean the data will be gone forever. Google will most likely allow you to view the data for a period of time. We recommend you implement GA4 sooner rather than later to avoid any lost data or downtime in terms of tracking.
What is Google Business Profile?
Google My Business (GMB) is what millions of small businesses all over the United States have used to manage their online presence and help in their local SEO efforts. This Google product allows your business to show users where you’re located, what services you provide, your business’s contact information, as well as how others have reviewed your firm. Recently, Google announced that their platform would be renamed to Google Business Profile. While this might seem slightly unimportant, it underpins major changes in Google’s local SEO product. First off, the Google My Business app is no longer functional. Google is now encouraging business owners to manage their profile through Google Search or Google Maps. If a person is logged in to their Google account associated with a business, they can type the business name on Search or Maps and they’ll be able to manage it through each platform.
A few other changes from Google My Business to Google Business Profile would be the claiming process, call history option, messaging option and performance planner.
Why these changes from Google matter to your law firm
It’s easy to see these changes and be overwhelmed or uninterested. After all, you have clients that need your help and little time to invest in what seems like the minutiae of Google. We get it. But a focus on your firm’s digital marketing presence can drastically increase your law firm’s organic SEO presence. Both changes from Google should be taken into consideration as you prepare and plan your firm’s marketing strategy. Whether we like it or not, we must abide by Google’s rules. Their algorithm is sophisticated and complex in nature; however, your law firm will reap the rewards by doing so.
Why Green Cardigan Marketing
We can take the guesswork out of your law firm’s digital marketing. Green Cardigan Marketing focuses exclusively on helping law firms of all sizes manage their online presence and grow.
If you want to learn more about our services, give us a call or get a Free SEO Audit on your law firms website.
