Switching from Google Analytics to Matomo

8 Jun 2023

Dear users,

Some of you may have already received information that Google is planning to shut down Universal Analytics (UA) and will only keep Google Analytics 4 (GA4) active. As a result, it is necessary for us to transition to this new version.

How does this affect users at our faculty?

If you manage any of the data analytics accounts that track traffic on MU Faculty of Arts websites, you will need to transition to GA4 or another data analytics platform. Unfortunately, GA4 does not support the conversion of data from UA, so you will only be able to read data based on the exported data from the old version. The old UA will remain available for approximately 2 months after the service is shut down. After that, you will only be able to work with the new GA4, which you can start using now or will be switched to automatically at the end of June.

The University provides its own analytical service - Matomo.

In light of these changes, we would like to inform you about a possible alternative. The MU Web Centre has implemented Matomo analytics into the Umbraco system. While Matomo is a different system, it offers a similar service to the existing Google Analytics for most basic analyses. The advantage of Matomo is that basic statistics are already available directly in Umbraco, and if you need more detailed information, you can easily access it through Matomo. Additionally, the data is stored on MU servers, eliminating concerns about third-party data storage.

CIT FF recommends Matomo.

We recommend using Matomo to maintain uniformity among university systems, but both Matomo and Google Analytics can be used if necessary. So, if for any reason you prefer to continue using Google Analytics, you may do so, but please note that it is no longer the University's preferred option.

Thank you for your understanding.