Old Version of Google Analytics – Too Late!

So Google have removed the old version of Analytics today. The footer link to the old version has gone and anyone who had a shortcut to the old version will find it 404s when you click on it. Google Announced this in on their blog yesterday after a year’s worth of testing of the new version. This isn’t bad as last year Google announced the old version would be retired in January 2012, so we’ve had nearly another 7 full months with the old version to become accustomed!

I hope that the last few Google Analytics unravelled blogs have helped you to get used to the new version and find your way around, there will be more of these in the coming weeks and months.

For those of you who haven’t been using the new version of Analytics until today don’t worry, once you get over the fact that it looks different, it’s actually better. The new version offers more functionality and better reporting, so you have more control and visibility of your data than ever before.

Below I’ve outlined some of my favourite bits from the new version of Google Analytics but there’s more to it than this, as there are all the old reports too.

Multi Channel Funnels – I’ll be covering this in a future Google Analytics Unravelled but Multichannel funnels help you to see the routes people took to finally make the decision to convert on your site. For example someone might visit your site via your PPC campaign, one of your Twitter posts and your organic rankings before finally purchasing from you via your email newsletter. This information helps you to see how all your marketing activities interact and how your customers find your site. This is one of my favourite new functions in Google Analytics.

Site Speed Reports – allow you to see which pages might be slowing your site down, which could impact your SEO and your visitors are they might be put off

Real Time – this allows you to see what’s going on with your site RIGHT NOW, meaning you can see if the campaign you have just launched is working.

Social Media – these new reports are also one of my favourites as they allow you to see how your social media activity is improving your traffic on your site as well as how this social traffic is converting on the site.

Mobile Reporting – this has been beefed up in recent months as more and more people are using their mobile phone or tablet to view websites rather than a desktop PC or laptop. With this increase it’s more and more important to be able to see how people using mobiles are viewing your site and these new reports enable you to do this.

So, as the title of this blog says, it’s too late to learn the new version of Google Analytics slowly as they’ve taken this down. However, as you can’t look at the old one any more, it won’t take long before you get used to the new version and wonder why you were resisting it.

Happy Analysing