How to Continue Using Your Google Analytics Account When Switching Domains

By dtcrebrand

What happens to your Google Analytics data if your business is building a new website on a new domain? Do you need to set up a new Google Analytics account? Or, are you able to keep your old data and continue tracking visitor data as if your site never moved?  The answer is ‘Yes, you can keep your old data!’

Add the Analytics Tracking Code

First, you need to add the Google Analytics code that’s being used on your current site to the new site. Here’s how to find it:

  1. When logged into Analytics, click on the gear icon that’s in the right corner of every screen
  2. Click on the ‘Tracking Code’ tab
  3. Your site’s code appears in the box below ‘Paste this code on your site.’ Just like when you implemented Analytics on your old site, this code needs to be added to the code of every page of your new site, just before the end of the head section.
paste code for analytics set up instructions.

Change the Property Name

Next, you’ll have to change the Google Analytics property name. To do this, just go to the ‘Property Settings’ tab of the same account settings screen. Now, just change the ‘Property name’ and the ‘Default URL’ fields to your site’s new address.

Change the Website URL in Each of Your Profiles

Finally, if you have multiple profiles in your Analytics account, you’ll need to change the website URL within each profile.

To do this, click on the ‘Profiles’ tab in the Analytics settings screen. The existing profiles for your account appear in the drop-down menu.

add the domain url - analytics set up instructions

Select a profile. In its settings area, you need to change the ‘Website URL’ field to the URL of your new site. If you’d like, you can also change the ‘Profile Name’ so that it reflects your new address.

Repeat this for each of your profiles. One thing to keep in mind is that if your profile use filters based on pages on your old site, you’ll still need to update the filters to reflect the addresses of the pages on your new site.

edit profile information - analytics set up instructions

That’s it! Now your Google Analytics will keep up-to-date with your changed domain. All of the visitor data from your new website domain will be collected and tracked while maintaining continuity and preserving data from your previous domain.

This is an excellent way to manage your data collection and keep your analytics reporting consistent between sites.

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