Will Google Analytics maintain the data history for pages if I change my URL pattern?

Question

I am considering simplifying the URL pattern for my website from:

example.com/journal/posts/42-article-title

to:

example.com/posts/42-article-title

But, I am concerned that the history of activity on the old URL will be presented separately from the new URL even though the pages are the same. Will this activity history be tracked separately in GA?

Or, if I do a 301 redirect on the old URLs is GA smart enough to link the two URL's histories together and track their activity as single page from both before and after the routing change?

Answer 1

If you change URLs, Google Analytics will not do what you want. It will look in GA as if you deleted the old page and created brand new page. You will not no longer be able to view metrics like visits, bounce rate, exits, etc contiguously for the page.

Here is a question from somebody who changed URLs and wants a solution for viewing metrics between the old and new URLs. It was asked 7 years ago and it has no answers yet: In Google Analytics how do you track page stats over a time period when your pages changed URLs? If continuity of stats in Google Analytics is important to you, it is better not to change URLs.