A frequent question that our Analytics and Data Solutions team receives is “Should I keep the current Google Analytics account on my new site or start fresh with a new account?”
While we recommend working with an experienced data analyst to evaluate the pros and cons for your business, we generally recommend that you keep the same account. Changes in functionality, hierarchy and page URLs may require modifications to the User Interface regardless of whether you keep the same account or proceed with a new one, however keeping the same account has the following important advantages:
Monitoring Impact of Redesign on Performance
The impact of the redesign on user behavior, ROI and specific sources of traffic is easy to assess via the date comparison tool in the User Interface. This empowers all users with access to your Google Analytics with the ability to keep an eye on performance and fluctuations. A new account would require that these comparisons are completed via API exports and spreadsheets.
Measuring Marketing Performance Overtime
Historical comparisons can provide insights on performance (especially for businesses affected by seasonality). By creating a new Google Analytics account, those comparisons would require manual aggregation of data and could be affected by human error.
Integrations/Connections
While the set-up and basic installation of a new Google Analytics account can be straightforward (especially when fired via a tag management tool like Google Tag Manager), it is important to consider and take inventory of existing connections and/or integrations with other tools like:
- Google AdWords
- Google Search Console
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Applications
- Custom Reporting Solutions (i.e. Domo, Tableau, etc.)
These tools are configured to feed and/or receive data from a specific account and will need to be revisited in order to avoid gaps in data collection.
While there can be valid concerns about the integrity or lack of data collected prior to a redesign, these should not be the driving factors for the creation of a new account.
