At a redesign of a website, we often get asked whether it is useful to include in a new Google Analytics property start collecting your data, or whether it would be better to continue with your old setup. As with many questions, the answer here is: it depends.

New set-up at a redesign

A new property and thus a new view has a number of advantages. For example, it gives you the chance to start with a clean slate. Especially if the website is going to look completely different and, for example, the goals of your website are completely different, this is a good option. You can also think all over again about filters and other goals, without having to take old settings into account.

In addition, a hybrid form is also possible. Here you send data from the new website temporarily to a new property. For example, during the period that you are testing and not everyone sees the website yet. Or you can agree on a transition period in advance, during which you send data to both your old and new website. property. Then when you find that the old data is no longer being used, you phase it out.

Continuing with existing Google Analytics setup

But in many cases, it is more convenient to use your existing property through. The benefits of this are namely:

• You collect all your data in one location, so it's possible to do analysis on historical data. Visualizations are also more convenient if the data is in one view to be found.
• You don't need to set new goals, and your funnels will also work broadly the same. 
• User management remains the same, no need to reset user rights. 
• Links to other tools also continue to work automatically, such as your link to Google Ads.
• Many settings on view level remain the same: custom dimensions and metrics, site search, query parameters, bots etc. But also your content grouping, filters, segments, annotations and alerts remain the same. 
• You can continue to use the same pageview and event tracking in your tag manager. 

If you choose to continue using the same property you will have to do some checks. Before you go live with the new website you will have to adjust the goals and funnels to the new structure. It is not possible to adjust these retroactively. So check in advance that you include both the old and the new website in your settings. It is also useful to include the exact moment of going live in your annotations. So that future users also know when the changes have taken place. Also check carefully whether you can measure everything you want to measure on the new website and whether your measurements are coming in well in Google Analytics. Always do this before you go live, otherwise you will be stuck with an interim period where your data quality is not in order. 

As you note, in most cases I prefer to continue with the existing property, but carefully weigh the pros and cons myself. 

Want to know more about performing a redesign? We recently validated a redesign for Drukwerkdeal. Read now our customer case!

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