Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Setup and Migration

With Google sunsetting Universal Analytics on 1st July, now is the time to get your website migrated across to GA4. Our expert developers will handle the migration for you and ensure it’s set up and running correctly for you. We can also provide additional training and support and if required, update your cookie policy and consent opt-ins to ensure your website is GDPR compliant with the new analytics tracking cookies.

Google Analytics 4 and GDPR

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) includes many features to help with GDPR compliance, but nonetheless, still needs to be carefully configured on your website. There is still a lot of ambiguity with different EU member states taking different positions in regards to Google Analytics compliance. For this reason, careful setup needs to be done on both your website and in the Google Analytics dashboard to help give you the best chance of staying compliant.

Cookie Policy

If you use Google Analytics, you need to obtain consent from your website visitors before storing cookies in their browser. It’s simply not enough to have a notice implying that their use of the site implies consent. Under GDPR law, your website must:

• Receive users’ consent before you use any cookies except strictly necessary cookies.
• Provide accurate and specific information about the data each cookie tracks and its purpose in plain language before consent is received.
• Document and store consent received from users.
• Allow users to access your service even if they refuse to allow the use of certain cookies
• Make it as easy for users to withdraw their consent as it was for them to give their consent in the first place.

We recommend CookieYes for our clients and as part of our migration service can install and set this up (an annual service subscription may fee apply if you have a large or high-traffic website)

GA4 Cookies and privacy

When it comes to GDPR, you must also inform your visitors about the information collected by Google Analytics along with details of the cookies involved. In your website privacy policy, you need to explain how users can disable these cookies and their data from being collected by Google. As part of our migration service, we will review and update your privacy policy to include the required information about GA4.  The service we use for managing cookie compliance keeps consent logs as required. As part of the service, we will set up an account for you and provide logins where you can access these.

Ugh, this seems like far too much hassle, do I have another option here?

Sure! If you prefer, we can hook you up with a cookie-free analytics service. If your website doesn’t set cookies or have a contact form, you might not even need a privacy policy. If you’d like to talk about this option, simply drop us a line.