Google Analytics is a potent tool for tracking your website traffic. It can tell you where your visitors are coming from, what pages they visit, and how long they stay on your site. In this writing, we will present to you how to update Google Analytics 4 so that you can continue to track your website’s traffic accurately.

App + Web: Your GA4 Property

If you have the App + Web property, you already have access to the GA4 property!

App + Web was originally a beta version of Google Analytics 4. GA4 properties are now available for all App + Web properties.

Open the property in your Google Analytics account. The new GA4 interface will replace the old Universal Analytics interface. As long as your App + Web property has been successfully tracking data before, you’re ready to go.

You do not need to set up new parallel tracking, and you do not need to make any changes to this property to continue tracking. You have a fully functional GA4 property, though keep your eyes open for the upcoming updates and new features.

Install Google Analytics 4 on Your Website

If you don’t install Google Analytics on your site, none of these options will work. First, you’ll need to configure a data stream from your website to your GA4 property.

Data Stream Connects GA4 to Your Website

You must complete another step to begin collecting data on your GA4 property. Each GA4 property can contain up to fifty different data streams, which can come from mobile apps or websites.

• To configure a data stream, go to Admin → Data Stream and click the Add Stream button.
• Here, you will have the opportunity to choose what kind of chain you want to create.
• Add stream options include iOS App, Android app, and Web.
• Then, enter your data stream source information. For a website, this is just a URL (except for whatever you want to name the thread).
• You also have the option to measure certain interactions without having to configure them yourself automatically. These include page views, scrolling, outbound clicks, site search, video engagement, and file downloads.
• Then, click Create Stream.

Install GA4 with Gtag

Using Gtag, you can install Google Analytics 4 directly on your website.

• Add the tag to your website code once you open your data stream and scroll down to the tagging instructions.
• Now you can edit the code of your website in the backend. In WordPress, you can do this by going to Appearance → Theme Editor.
• Here, visit your website theme (we strongly recommend using a child theme for this). Select the header.php file, where you add Gtag.
• Select WordPress theme editor with a child theme and header file.
• Paste the Gtag immediately after the *head> tag in your theme code.
• The WordPress theme editor is pasted with the Gtag code after the head tag.
• Then, click the Update File button to install Google Analytics 4 on your website.
• You should now be able to collect data with your GA4 property!

Conclusion

We hope this guide will help you a lot to update Google Analytics 4. While you can’t “upgrade” the Universal Analytics property, you can upgrade your entire tracking system by adding Google Analytics 4. By configuring the GA4 property, you can track parallel to your existing Universal Analytics properties.

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