How to Set Up and Configure Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for Your Website

Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google that allows marketers and website owners to analyse and track website traffic, visitor behaviour, and other metrics related to your website’s performance. This assists website owners by measuring the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns like an analytics agency, understanding their audiences, and improving the user experience for their websites. 

 

Google Analytics works by collecting data and using a tracking code on the website pages  that collect information about the site's visitors including device type, location, browser type, and behaviour on the website. Most website owners can access this data through the Google Analytics dashboard that provides insights into a website's performance as well as detailed reports like pageviews, number of visitors, conversion rates, bounce rates, and so much more. 

 

Google Analytics is a powerful tool and is a must-have for businesses of any size to improve their online presence and make data-driven decisions. It is a tool used across most industries and is standardised as a website analytics tool. 

 

Setting up analytics for your website

 

Follow these basic steps to set up Google Analytics for your website: 

 

1. Create a Google Analytics account by going to the Google Analytics website and sign up for a free account

2. Once you've created an account, create a property for your website by entering basic information about your website including URL and website’s name. 

3. After the property is created, you’ll need to add a tracking code as this code will collect data by tracking and collecting data about your website's visitors then sending it to Google Analytics to be analysed.  

4. Verify tracking code: after adding the tracking code to your website pages, it's important to verify that it works correctly. This can be done using the real-time reports feature which comes inbuilt for Google Analytics, which allows you to see all data in real-time as the visitors interact with your website. 

5. Set up goals: Goals track specific actions on your website that are important to your business, such as product purchases, newsletter sign-ups, and submissions.

6. Explore and analyse data: Start analysing data by exploring to gain more insight into your website's performance. The dashboard for Google Analytics provides a wide range of metrics and reports that can be used for measuring and tracking the success of your website. 

 

 

About GA4 property

 

GA4, also known as Google Analytics 4, is the latest version of the popular web analytics tool by Google. Here are some of the properties of GA4:

 

Event-based tracking which tracks user interaction on apps and websites. This means that it tracks specific actions instead of tracking pageviews. These specific actions can be scrolls, clicks, video plays, and form submissions.

 

Enhanced machine learning capabilities were created by Google to provide advanced algorithms and deeper insights into user trends and behaviour, making predictions and smarter model attribution more accurate. 

 

User-centric measurement was designed to provide a bigger picture of user behaviour across channels and multiple devices, including mobile apps, websites, and offline interactions. It uses a user-centric approach to tracking, focusing on a user's journey rather than isolated interactions.

 

Cross-device tracking is possible with GA4 through tracking capabilities, which allow you to see how users interact with your app or website on multiple devices. This helps to understand users movements on devices and the channels that are most effective for driving conversations.

 

Simplified data modelling through a streamlined approach to data modelling makes it easier to track specific actions and events important for your business. It also comes with flexible data collection options that allow collecting and storing custom data fields.

 

Seamless integrations with Google Ads and other Google products, including Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, and Google Optimize. GA4 gives a more user-focused and flexible approach to web analytics. 

 

[GA4] Add a Google Analytics 4 Property (To a Site That Already has Analytics)

 

To set up and configure Google Analytics 4 (GA4), follow these simple steps:

 

1. Create a GA4 property by going to the Google Analytics website, signing in with your Google account, and clicking on "Admin" in the bottom left corner. From there, select "Create Property" and choose "Google Analytics 4" as the property type.

 

2. Enter property details by filling in the property details, such as the property name and time zone, and select the appropriate data-sharing settings.

 

3. Add data streams: Add data streams to your property for each platform you want to track, such as your website and mobile app. To add a data stream, click on "Data Streams" in the left-hand navigation and then click "Add Stream.” Follow the prompts to connect your website or mobile app to GA4.

 

4. Configure tracking settings: Configure your tracking settings by clicking on "Tracking Info" in the left-hand navigation and selecting "Data Collection.” Here, you can choose which events and parameters to track, set up user ID tracking, and configure cross-domain tracking.

 

5. Set up goals: Set up goals to track important actions that users take on your website or app, such as completed purchases or filling out a contact form. To set up goals, click on "Goals" in the left-hand navigation and then click "Create Goal." Follow the prompts to set up your goal.

 

6. Install tracking code: Install the GA4 tracking code on your website or app to start collecting data. To do this, click on "Tagging" in the left-hand navigation and select "Global Site Tag.” Follow the prompts to generate and install the tracking code on your website or app.

 

7. Verify tracking: Verify that your tracking is working by going to your website or app and performing a test action that you want to track. Then, check to see if the data is showing up in GA4 by going to the "Realtime" or "Reporting" sections of your property.

 

Note: 

 

It can take 30 minutes for the data to begin to appear in the new GA4 property. 

 

To verify if data is being collected, select real-time from the navigation report that should reveal all activity.

 

If you have an existing Firebase project, you can link the GA4 property to it.