Google Analytics Tip – How to Delete Profiles and Web Properties

We recently had a client that wanted to do some cleanup on their Google Analytics account and get rid of several web properties that either had never been used or were no longer needed.  Google provides some pretty clear guidance on how to create or edit a web property and add or remove profiles within that property, but nothing on how to delete the web property itself.

Fortunately, we had a test GA account with which we could try some things, and were able to figure out the answer.  To delete a web property, you simply need to delete every profile within the property.  Once the last profile has been deleted, the web property with cease to exist in the GA account.  That’s all there is to it!

Now, before you go deleting profiles and Web Properties in GA, there are some important things to consider first:

  1. Is there data in this profile that I might need later on?  If so, you may not want to delete the profile.  Once a profile is deleted, all data associated with that profile is also deleted.  Also, a deleted profile will no longer collect incoming data, so make sure all active GA code on your site(s) is going into a profile that you plan to keep active.
  2. Do I have the proper access to delete a profile?  If you are an administrator for the account, then the answer is yes.  If not, you’ll need to either work with an administrator to gain access or have them delete the profiles/web properties for you.
  3. What if I don’t want to lose the data in an older profile, but I want to keep my users from accessing it for reports?  For non-Administrators, you can adjust which profiles they can see or access through the “Users” tab under the account or profile settings.  For administrators, consider renaming the profile in the “Profile Settings” tab to something like “Archived – [Old Profile Name]” so users know this is not an active profile.

Deleting profiles and web properties should not be done casually, but it can be a good way to clean up an older analytics account with lots of unused or irrelevant profiles and properties cluttering it up.  Just make sure you understand the implications and have the proper access.

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