Google Analytics 4: a must for every website owner

Google Analytics is free, and it answers the questions every website owner should be asking: how many people visit, where they come from, which pages they read and whether they get in touch. If your site does not have it set up properly, you are guessing.

The older version, Universal Analytics, stopped processing data in July 2023. Its replacement is Google Analytics 4, usually shortened to GA4. If your site was set up years ago and nobody has touched it since, check that it is sending data to a GA4 property. Plenty of sites are still carrying an old tracking code that does nothing.

1. Sign in at analytics.google.com with a Google account the business controls, not a personal one that leaves with an employee.

2. Create a property for your website, and a web data stream for its address.

3. Add the tracking code to your site (see the WordPress section below).

4. Mark your key events. These are the actions that matter, such as a form being sent or a phone number being tapped. GA4 calls them key events; they used to be called conversions.

5. Link Google Search Console, so you can see which searches bring people to the site alongside what they do once they arrive.

There are several plugins, and the one we recommend for most sites is Site Kit by Google. It is Google's own official plugin. It connects Analytics, Search Console and PageSpeed Insights in one place and shows the key numbers inside your WordPress dashboard. Alternatively, Google Tag Manager suits sites that need more control over tracking.

Whichever you choose, add the code once. Two plugins adding the same tag will count every visit twice.

GA4 has a lot of screens. For most small businesses, three are enough:

• Traffic acquisition: where visitors come from: Google search, social media, other websites or typing your address directly.

• Pages and screens: which pages people actually read, and which they ignore.

• Key events: how many enquiries, calls or sales the site produced, and from which source.

Look at these monthly, compare with the month before, and ask one question: what should we do more of?

Analytics uses cookies, and in the UK the rules on cookies and consent are set out in law and explained in guidance from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Use a proper cookie banner that records each visitor's choice, and check the ICO's current guidance, because the rules on analytics cookies have been changing. If you advertise with Google, its Consent Mode lets your tags respect each visitor's choice.

Analytics only earns its keep when it changes what you do. If a service page gets visits but no enquiries, the page needs work. If most of your enquiries come from Google, invest in search. If almost nobody reaches your contact page, make it easier to find.

We set up Analytics and Search Console properly on every site we build, and our SEO plans include a plain-English monthly report on exactly these numbers. If you would rather we kept the site and its tracking in order, that is part of WordPress care. It all starts with web design built to be measured.

If this is the problem you are trying to solve, this is where we can help.

• SEO with plain monthly reporting →
• WordPress care →
• Web design →

Keep reading: How do I rank better on Google? · Website speed: how do I know how my website is performing?

All insights →

07921 826888
gareth@ioniccreativedesign.com