Most businesses use Google Analytics to measure their website traffic, and I hope most have by now got the message that the old “Universal Analytics” is being withdrawn in just one month’s time, at the end of June 2023. I also hope everyone has got its replacement (“Google Analytics 4”) in place.
The question is: what will happen to the data in the old system? According to this article from Google, the ‘sunset’ period begins on 1 July 2023 and ‘turndown’ is on 1 July 2024. I’m assuming ‘turndown’ means that everything disappears and all our old data will be gone forever.
Between the two dates, users will have Viewer (but not Editor) Access level to historical data and reports in the user interface. Data can be exported, so it’s a very good idea to work out what we need, and to get it downloaded as soon as possible. There are some decent articles online with tips on exporting data directly into Google Sheets, but the important thing is to start thinking about what we might want straight away, and to get started.