SiteAud!tLint Support

Warning Tracking & Analytics

Universal Analytics code still present

Severity
Warning
Impact
Low
Effort to fix
Low
Issue code
track_ua_legacy

Why it matters

Universal Analytics stopped processing data in 2023 (360 properties in 2024). The code only adds page weight and may send data nowhere.

How to fix it

Remove the UA-... code from the page and delete Universal Analytics tags in GTM.

What this means

Universal Analytics code is still present, either on the page (a UA- ID) or inside a Google Tag Manager container the site loads. The evidence shows the IDs or the container.

Why it matters

Google stopped processing Universal Analytics data in July 2023. The code still loads, adds requests to every page and may set cookies, but none of the data goes anywhere useful. It also clutters audits and consent declarations, and suggests the analytics setup has not been reviewed since.

Common causes

  • The old analytics.js or gtag.js snippet with a UA- ID left in the theme after GA4 was added.
  • Universal Analytics tags still in the GTM container, often paused or forgotten.
  • Plugins configured with the old property ID.
  • Third-party scripts that set up UA on their own.

How to fix it

  1. Make sure GA4 is collecting data before removing anything, so you do not lose tracking.
  2. Remove UA- snippets from the page code and plugin settings.
  3. In GTM, delete or pause the Universal Analytics tags and their unused variables, then publish the container.
  4. Update the cookie list in your consent tool if it still declares _gat or UA-specific cookies.

Verify the fix

Recrawl. Improve > Tracking & Pixels and the Google Tag Manager audit should no longer list UA tags.

How it affects your score

Tracking issues have their own Tracking score and never lower the SEO site health score. They still appear in the Action Plan, the issues CSV, Slack messages and Linear tickets. Weakens rankings, crawling or measurement. Fix after critical issues.

Find the affected URLs

Open Crawl > Issues and pick Universal Analytics code still present. Each affected URL is listed with its evidence, and Copy URLs or Export URLs hands the list to a developer. The issue also appears in the Action Plan, ranked by impact (low) and effort (low), and in the issues CSV under the code track_ua_legacy. After fixing, run a new audit and use Compare to confirm the URLs moved to fixed.

Guides that cover this issue