How to Set Up Google Analytics 4 for Your Website

If you run a restaurant, gym, shop or estate agency, you probably know roughly how many people visit your website. What you may not know is where they come from, what they look at and which of them go on to book, buy or enquire. Google Analytics answers those questions, and it is free.

This guide walks through setting up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) properly from the start. Universal Analytics, the older version, stopped processing data in 2023, so any guide that mentions "views", "goals" or a tracking ID beginning "UA-" is out of date. Everything below applies to GA4.

What GA4 does for a small business

GA4 records events, such as page views, scrolls, clicks and form submissions, and reports on them. In practice, that tells you:

• Which channels bring visitors: Google search, Instagram, email, paid ads or other websites.
• Which pages people read and where they drop off.
• How many visitors complete the actions you care about, such as a table booking, a class sign-up, an enquiry or a purchase.
• How mobile and desktop visitors behave differently.

That lets you put your marketing budget behind the channels that produce customers, not just clicks.

Step 1: Create your account and property

Go to analytics.google.com and sign in with a Google account. Use a business account rather than a personal one, and add a second administrator so you never lose access if someone leaves.

Click "Start measuring", then:

1. Account name: your business name.
2. Property name: your website, for example "Example Studio website".
3. Time zone: United Kingdom, so reports line up with your opening hours.
4. Currency: Pound Sterling.
5. Business details and objectives: choose the options that best describe you. These shape the default reports you see.

Then create a web data stream by entering your website address. GA4 gives you a Measurement ID that starts with "G-". You will need it in the next step.

Step 2: Install the tag on your website

The GA4 tag must load on every page. How you add it depends on your platform:

• WordPress: use Google's own Site Kit plugin or a reputable analytics plugin, which adds the tag without editing theme files. Hard-coding it into a theme file works but can be lost when the theme updates.
• Shopify: connect GA4 through Shopify's Google and YouTube app, which also sends ecommerce events such as purchases.
• Wix and Squarespace: both have a built-in Google Analytics setting where you paste your Measurement ID.
• Custom sites: your developer adds the Google tag (gtag.js) to the page head, or installs Google Tag Manager.

Google Tag Manager is worth considering if you plan to track more than the basics, or run Meta, TikTok or Google Ads tags too. It keeps all your tags in one place and makes changes easier without touching the site's code. If you use it, install GA4 through Tag Manager only, not both, or you will double-count visits.

Step 3: Check the default settings

A few settings are worth changing on day one:

• Enhanced measurement. Under Admin, Data streams, open your web stream and make sure it is on. It automatically tracks scrolls, outbound clicks, site search, video engagement and file downloads, such as a PDF menu or a property brochure.
• Data retention. Under Admin, Data collection and modification, Data retention, change the setting from 2 months to 14 months. This affects how far back you can analyse detailed data in Explorations.
• Internal traffic. In your web stream's tag settings, define internal traffic using your office or venue IP address, then activate the internal traffic filter under Data filters. Otherwise your own team's visits skew the numbers.
• Unwanted referrals. If customers leave your site to pay or book, for example through a payment provider or a third-party booking engine, add those domains to the unwanted referrals list in your tag settings. Otherwise the booking can be credited to the payment or booking site instead of the channel that brought the visitor.
• Cross-domain measurement. If your booking or shop sits on a different domain that you control, configure both domains so a visit counts as one journey.

Step 4: Set up key events

In GA4, the actions that matter most are called key events (Google previously called them conversions). Decide which three to five actions really matter, then mark them as key events under Admin, Data display, Events.

Some will already exist through enhanced measurement. Others you create, often from a thank-you page view or a form submission. Examples by sector:

• Restaurants and bars: completed table bookings, private dining enquiries, menu downloads, click-to-call taps.
• Hotels: booking engine completions, availability searches, enquiry forms.
• Gyms and studios: trial class bookings, membership enquiries, timetable views.
• Beauty and wellness: appointment bookings, consultation requests, voucher purchases.
• Retail: purchases, add to basket, newsletter sign-ups.
• Property and finance: valuation requests, viewing bookings, mortgage calculator use, brochure downloads, phone and email clicks.

Phone number clicks usually need a small extra step, such as a click trigger on "tel:" links in Google Tag Manager. They are worth the effort, as many local customers prefer to call.

Ecommerce tracking

GA4 does not have an "enable ecommerce" switch. Instead, your site sends standard ecommerce events such as view_item, add_to_cart, begin_checkout and purchase, with product and revenue details. Shopify, WooCommerce and most major platforms can send these through their official integrations. Check that the purchase value in GA4 roughly matches your platform's sales report.

Step 5: Handle cookie consent properly

GA4 uses cookies, so UK privacy law applies. Under PECR and UK GDPR, you have generally needed visitors' consent before setting non-essential cookies such as analytics, using a banner that makes accepting and rejecting equally easy. The rules are being updated, and some low-risk analytics uses may be treated differently in future, so check the ICO's current guidance before deciding your approach.

Practical steps:

• Use a proper consent banner or consent management platform that blocks GA4 and advertising tags until the visitor chooses.
• Set up Google Consent Mode. It passes the visitor's choice to Google tags. With it, GA4 adjusts what it collects and can model some of the gaps left by people who decline. If you run Google Ads to UK visitors, Google expects consent signals to be sent.
• Update your privacy notice to explain that you use Google Analytics, what it collects and how people can change their choice.

Expect your GA4 numbers to be lower than your true visitor count once consent is in place. That is normal. Look at trends and proportions rather than treating every number as exact. GA4 does not log or store visitors' IP addresses, so the old "anonymise IP" setting from Universal Analytics no longer applies.

Step 6: Link your other Google tools

Under Admin, Product links:

• Google Search Console shows which search terms bring visitors to your site, which helps with SEO decisions.
• Google Ads lets you see what ad visitors do after they click and import GA4 key events into your campaigns. Our Google search ads team uses this link on every account.

For social, email and other campaigns, add UTM parameters to your links, for example utm_source=instagram and utm_medium=social. Without them, traffic from apps such as Instagram can be lumped together or reported as direct.

Step 7: Test before you trust it

• Open the Realtime report and visit your site from your phone. You should see yourself appear.
• Use DebugView with Google's Tag Assistant to watch events fire as you click, scroll and submit forms.
• Submit a test enquiry or booking and confirm the key event records.
• Accept and decline the cookie banner in turn to check tags behave correctly in both cases.

The reports worth checking

GA4 has a lot of reports. These are the ones most owners need:

• Acquisition, Traffic acquisition: which channels bring visitors and which produce key events.
• Engagement, Pages and screens: your most visited pages and how engaged visitors are.
• Key events: how many bookings, enquiries or sales you recorded, and from where.
• Monetisation: for online shops, revenue, top products and purchase journeys.
• Tech, by device: compare mobile and desktop. A big gap in key event rates usually points to a mobile problem. Our guide on how to optimise your website for mobile users can help.

Review them weekly or monthly rather than daily. Trends tell you more than day-to-day noise. For turning this into a regular habit, see our guide to measuring marketing ROI with analytics and reporting.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Installing the tag twice, for example through a plugin and Tag Manager, which doubles page views.
• Leaving data retention at 2 months.
• Not marking any key events, so you can see traffic but not results.
• Firing GA4 before consent where consent is required.
• Ignoring booking engines and payment pages that take credit away from your real marketing channels.
• Sharing one login. Give each person their own access with the right role, and remove people who leave.

FAQ

Is Google Analytics 4 free?

Yes. The standard version of GA4 is free and is more than enough for most small and medium-sized businesses.

Do I need a cookie banner for Google Analytics?

In most cases, yes. UK rules have generally required consent before analytics cookies are set. Check the ICO's latest guidance, as the rules are being updated.

What happened to goals in Google Analytics?

Goals belonged to Universal Analytics, which has been retired. In GA4 you mark important events as key events instead.

How long before I see useful data?

Realtime data appears within seconds, and standard reports usually fill within a day or two. Allow a few weeks to see reliable patterns.

Next steps

Set up your property, install the tag once, switch on the right settings, define a handful of key events and get consent right. Then test, and review your reports regularly. Done properly, GA4 shows you which marketing is earning its keep.

If you would like help with tracking, consent or reporting, get in touch with Byter Digital and we will check your setup.