Overview

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Google Analytics is available on CMS sites. We have developed basic instructions to help with your initial review of Google Analytics. We encourage you to learn more about analytics possibilities by exploring GA4 Documentation.

Transition to Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

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Universal Analytics (UA, 2012-2023) will stop collecting new data on July 1, 2023. Data will still be available to view for 6 months after this date. If you want to keep your legacy data, follow Google's instructions for exporting your Universal Analytics data.

GA4 has replaced UA as Google's default program for digital analytics measurement. All CMS sites are currently collecting data with GA4.

Working in GA4 is a change from UA, so we suggest users request access now to get used to the interface before UA stops collecting data.

 

Steps to Take

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1. Request access

1. You will need an email linked to a Google account. Many @ucsd.edu accounts have this by default. School of Medicine users will need to set up their own Google account.
2. Email wts@ucsd.edu and tell us which CMS site(s) you need analytics access to. Unless otherwise specified, we will provide access to the GA4 account.

2. Choose the site property and profile you want to view

1. Go to Google Analytics.
2. Click Sign in and enter your account information
3. Click on All accounts at top left, just to the right of the Google Analytics logo
4. In the pop-up window, click on an Analytics Account (in the first column) to see the available Properties (in the second column, the sites you have access to)
5. Select property: from the list of properties (websites) you have access to, choose the analytics set you would like to review.
   
   Note: Universal Analytics properties are marked by 'UA' before the property number. If you don't have access to the GA4 property for your site, contact us at wts@ucsd.edu.
   
   In the screen-shot example below, the user has access to both UA (second line: UA-#) and GA4 (third line: #) for the Blink website:

 

Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

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GA4 has replaced Universal Analytics (UA) as Google's default program for digital analytics measurement. 

Below is a brief description of both Page Views and Events, which provide insight on how many people are visiting your page and what links and downloads they are viewing. We encourage you to explore GA4 features.

Page Views

Page Views can be an indicator of how good or useful your content is to visitors. (Bullet numbers reflect the number in the image.)

Page view video overview: https://youtu.be/bx7I7zMOv04

1. GA4 identifies page views through the Engagement section, subsection Pages and Screens.
   
   
   
2. This section automatically sorts data by the "Page Title and Screen Class" option.
   1. Until you get familiar with the various program options, changing the sort to Page path and screen class will allow you to see the folder structure and therefore more easily search the paths to find your page.
   2. Additionally, you can type a path into the search bar at the top of this section and see a list of only results that contain that path. For example, typing "/technology/email/" would provide you with all pages and subfolder pages within the technology/email/ folder.
3. You can also increase the number of returns per page from the automatically default setting of 10 up to 250.
4. Click the date range and you will be able to change the start and end dates of data records.

Download data for further review

To sort views by folder (what was called Content Drilldown in the earlier UA version) you currently have to download the list as a PDF or .csv (Excel spreadsheet compatible) extension and sort manually.

To download the list:  

• Select the top right icon that looks like a sideways V. A column will display on the right side of the page. 
• Choose Download File.
• Choose which type of file best suits your purposes. The CSV will provide a full list of your search results at the end of the file, after a general list of page views.