Photo courtesy of Christin Hume.
Google Analytics can become a business and website owner’s best friend, but there are still many aspects that confuse users. Much like how your desktop or Macbook works, Google has its own properties that mirror that of your devices. Are you still confused about how to delete and add properties on Google Analytics? This article is the right place for you!
When you log into your Google Analytics account, it’s comprised of three main parts. These are accounts, views, and properties.
Google Analytics stores the data into what is called properties. An account can have a multitude of properties stored and each property has different views. Google didn’t always allow you to delete properties, rather it only allowed you to delete accounts and views.
When you delete a property, it deletes all the views that are underneath that property. There is also a way to look at properties that have no views in the UI, which avoids accidentally deleting a property or missing properties. Google Analytics has pretty well-thought-out instructions on how to delete properties, it doesn’t show you where to find the menu items.
In order to add a new website to your Google Analytics account, you must create a new property for your website. Once you have added the website as a property, it’ll be easier to manage multiple websites under one Google Analytics account.
Google Analytics allows you to have a maximum of 100 properties within a single account.
Log into your Google Analytics account by visiting their website: Google Analytics
Once you have logged into your account, choose the appropriate account for your website. Once you have selected your website account, you will be able to add a property within the account.
Once you have clicked on the administrator button, you will look towards the right of the toolbar and click on create a new property in the property column.
Once you have selected to create a property, it’s time to begin to add the details of your website. You will begin by entering the full name of the website, selecting the correct time zone, and choosing your desired currency.
There are three property types to choose from that are available within Google Analytics. It depends on which type you personally would like to choose.
There will be options to add business information like business size, industry category, and how you intend to use Google Analytics in regard to your business.
The first few steps of deleting a property on Google Analytics are similar to the first few steps when you add a property to your account.
You can delete major elements within your Google Analytics account by clicking on the administrator button. From there, you can select the desired property that you want to delete. A good note is that you can recover deleted properties 35 days after the initial deletion of the property.
Why exactly would you want to delete a property in Google Analytics? The question varies between business owners but it is likely that if you’re researching the topic of whether or not to delete a property, it’s good to think about it before actually doing it. There is always the option to do a data deletion request. Essentially this can be an alternative to completely deleting a property.
Keep in mind that when you delete a property, views and data streams will also be deleted along with it. This a reminder that after 35 days after moving it to the Google Analytics trash bin, it will be permanently deleted. If you want to undo the deletion before 35 days, all you have to do is click on the trash bin and retrieve the property back.
To delete a property follows these steps:
Log into your Google Analytics account by visiting their website: Google Analytics
Once you have selected the property you want to delete, click on it and it’ll take you to an option where you can look at your properties settings.
It’s worth noting again that just like a desktop or Macbook, your Google Analytics account also has a trash can. Move the property to the trash can and save your changes.
It’s easy enough to delete a property so if you did it by accident, remember you have 35 days to retrieve it from the trash bin. It’s a great responsibility to delete major properties, so remember that you can always request a data deletion request which isn’t as permanent as deleting an entire property.
If you’re unsure about deleting a property, think about it and talk about it with peers and colleagues to see what their opinion may be. At the end of the day, you have the power to make the decision, but take your time when it comes to deciding.
Let us know about your experience when adding and deleting properties on Google Analytics.
