How to configure GA4 permissions and setup SEO reports including GA4 analytics and event data automatically using the Authoritas platform.
Google is sunsetting Universal Analytics (sometimes referred to as Google Analytics 3) on July 1st 2023, which hopefully means you have already configured a GA4 property and are collecting data in the new version of Google Analytics.
You can now integrate a GA4 API data feed into the Authoritas platform to replace your current Universal Analytics integration. This will allow you to create dashboard analytics widgets in the platform and since we also sync this data to Google Big Query you will also be able to add GA4 website analytics reporting to your SEO reports in Looker Data Studio.
How to configure GA4 integration in 3 Steps
There are 3 Steps to this Process
Step 1 - Create your Google Service Key JSON file and enable APIs
Step 2 - Add your Google Service Key to Google Analytics
Step 3 - Configure GA4 integration on the Authoritas Platform
Step 1 - Create and retrieve your Google Service Key JSON file and enable APIs
You need to get this JSON key from your Google API console account.
Google has step-by-step instructions how to do this here. Or, you can follow the simpler instructions kindly provided below from one of our community, Naz Haque SEO consultant. (Thanks Naz 😍)
1) You need to create a Google Service Account. To do this go to https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/serviceaccounts/create
Choose a name related to the purpose of this project in the "service account name" field. e.g. 'Authoritas_GA4_project_name'.
Enter a relevant description name for the "Service account description", e.g. 'Authoritas GA4 integration', then press "CREATE AND CONTINUE"
2) Press the "DONE" button on the second page. You do not need to amend anything else.
3) You'll now be taken to the Service Accounts page. If you get lost, use
https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/serviceaccounts?project="[your-project-name]"
Or
Select Service Accounts from the left menu (you may need to scroll up or down)
You will see the email ID for this service account. Save this record, you will use this later in GA4.
On the far right of this page (where the project is displayed), click the three vertical buttons under "Actions" and choose "Manage Keys"
4) Press "ADD KEY" and then "Create new key"
Select JSON, press "CREATE". Save and store this file securely as guided in the screenshot below.
5) In a SEPARATE TAB, go to:https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/service-accounts-create
Press "Enable the API"
6) On the following page, you'll see:
"You are going to make changes to project 'YOUR PROJECT NAME'. If this is not the project you intended to use, you can select or create a different project using the project selector above."
If the correct project is displayed, press the Next button.
Then "Enable"
7) Close this tab to go back to your previous tab or go to
https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/serviceaccounts?project=[project-name].
Alternatively, go to the "Service accounts option" on the side menu, as shown in step 3 of this guide.
8) From here, go to:
https://console.cloud.google.com/apis/dashboard?project=[your-project-name]
Or
Press the Hamburger menu on the top left and choose "API & Services"
9) Press +ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES
10) Once you have done this then head over to your Google Analytics account. You will need to go into the Admin section and add your Google Service Key as a user with view permissions.
Step 2 - Add your Google Service Key to Google Analytics
1) Go to Google Analytics - Admin > Account Access Management.
Enter your service key email address and give it 'Viewer' permissions. It will look something like:
ga4-companyname-text@moretext.iam.gserviceaccount.com
N/B: You can use the same Google IAM project email address as a viewer on GA4 for all the properties/projects you use in Authoritas.
You then need to go to the Google API Console to the 'Enabled APIs and services' page and ensure that permissions have been granted for the Google Analytics Admin API and the Google Analytics Data API.
Click on ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES
3) Type "google analytics admin api" and wait for the results.
Click on Google Analytics Admin API…
Click on ENABLE
Click on ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES
4) Type "google analytics data api".
Click on Google Analytics Data API…
Click on ENABLE.
You should now see both the Google Analytics Admin API and the Google Analytics Data API in the list of services.
Once you have done all this, then login to the Authoritas platform.
Step 3 - Configure GA4 integration on the Authoritas Platform
1) Go to Settings > Integrations and find the Google Analytics V4 section
2) Agree to the terms and conditions and click 'Authorize now'. This will open the following modal window.
3) Upload your Google JSON key. If successful, then you should see a confirmation message and a set of profiles to select.
Please double check and ensure you pick the correct profile for the project you are on!
The page will now reload to pick up the new integration.
5) This should complete the setup.
Once this is properly configured the platform will automatically request an initial analytics data load (this can take a few hours for large sites and date ranges). After the initial load, a daily recurring job will be created to load this data into the platform.
Viewing GA4 Data in the Platform
There are currently two main places where you can see analytics data in the platform. In the Dashboards section and in the crawler Content 360 module.
The sections will display 'collecting data' or show 0 values until the data has been collected.
You can currently create 2 dashboard widgets; Traffic by Channel and Traffic by Search Engine.
We plan to add more soon, please do let us know what you would like.
Content360 mashes up website crawl data with the ranking keywords for each page, external and internal links and Google Analytics 4 traffic and user acquisition data as well as engagement data.
Integrating Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 data in platform reports
Although, there are some important differences between the schema between versions, the current data integration and schema is simple enough to allow a degree of continuity between the versions.
This means if you already have Universal Analytics configured and have now configured Google Analytics 4 then we will store data from UA up to July 1st 2023 and then automatically switch to using GA4 in your reports.
N/B: If you delete your Universal Analytics integration, then we will delete your historic analytics data and load fresh historic data from GA4 and use this on an ongoing basis. We do not recommend doing this now.
If you have not configured Universal Analytics before and only configured GA4; then we will load as much historic data as we can and will use this GA4 data in the platform.
Integrating Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 data in Big Query exports and Looker Data Studio reports
If you have configured the platform to sync your account data to Google Big Query, then you will be pleased to hear that we will also now start synchronising GA4 data too in addition to the current Universal Analytics integration.
We will be producing a combined set of tables which store Universal Analytics data up to the switch over data on July 1st 2023, and then GA4 data thereafter.
For the foreseeable future, we will also be storing separate Universal Analytics and GA4 tables, so this data can be interrogated and validated separately.
We will shortly be updating our standard Looker Data Studio SEO report templates to include GA4 data. Please do share your ideas for the reports you would like us to see.
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