A Beginner’s Guide to Using Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for Your Website

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is an essential tool for understanding user behaviour, tracking conversions, and improving your website’s performance. Whether you’re running a small blog or managing a large e-commerce store, GA4 provides valuable insights that help you make informed decisions.

This guide walks you through setting up GA4, understanding key metrics, analysing user behaviour, creating custom explorations, and tracking conversions.

1. Setting Up and Configuring Google Analytics 4

GA4 setup is different from previous versions. The process is designed to be straightforward, though there are some new steps to be aware of.

How to Set Up Google Analytics 4

1. Create a Google Analytics Account: Go to the GA4 website and sign up using your Google account. If you don’t have one, you’ll need to create a Google account first.
2. Set Up a Property for Your Website: In GA4, properties represent data streams from your website. Set up a property for your site, providing the name and URL. GA4 automatically sets up a “data stream” for each property.
3. Get Your Measurement ID: GA4 generates a unique Measurement ID for each data stream (similar to the old tracking ID), which lets GA4 collect data for your website.
4. Install the Measurement ID on Your Website: Add the Measurement ID to your site’s code. For platforms like WordPress, plugins like MonsterInsights or Site Kit by Google can simplify this.

Configuring Basic Settings

1. Exclude Internal Traffic: To prevent data skew from internal visits, use filters to exclude your IP address.
2. Enable Site Search Tracking: GA4 includes automatic tracking for search if configured in your site’s internal search settings.
3. Link with Google Ads: Connecting GA4 with Google Ads allows you to track performance data from your campaigns directly within Analytics.

Proper configuration in GA4 ensures more accurate, actionable data for analysis.

2. Understanding Key Metrics in GA4

GA4 introduces new event-based metrics and drops some older metrics, streamlining data to better reflect user interactions.

Important Metrics in GA4

• Users: The number of unique visitors to your site. GA4 tracks both total users and active users (those who are actively engaging with your site).
• Sessions: Defined as a group of user interactions within a specific period (30 minutes by default). GA4 considers each session as a new “event.”
• Engaged Sessions: These sessions last longer than 10 seconds, involve more than one page view, or include a conversion event.
• Engagement Rate: This replaces bounce rate, showing the percentage of engaged sessions out of the total sessions.
• Events: GA4 tracks everything as an event, including actions like page views, clicks, and video plays.
• Conversions: GA4 lets you flag specific events as conversions, such as form submissions or purchases.

Interpreting GA4 Metrics

• Low Engagement Rate: May indicate a lack of engaging content. Try adding interactive features to boost engagement.
• Increase in Active Users: Shows that your marketing efforts are attracting new visitors. Analyse where these users are coming from.
• High Engaged Sessions: Indicates valuable content. Examine which content holds user interest and try to replicate its success.

Understanding these key metrics in GA4 helps you assess your website’s performance and make informed improvements.

3. Analysing User Behaviour on Your Website

GA4 includes robust behaviour tracking, with reports on user paths, engagement, and content performance.

Key Behaviour Reports in GA4

• Engagement Overview: Provides insights into how users interact with your site, showing metrics like engagement rate, engaged sessions per user, and average engagement time.
• Path Exploration: This new feature lets you visualise how users navigate through your site, from landing to exit pages, identifying common paths and drop-off points.
• Events Report: Lists all tracked events, including page views, scrolls, and clicks, so you can see how users interact with specific site elements.
• Page and Screen Report: Displays data on individual page views, engagement time, and exit percentages, allowing you to identify high-performing content and pages needing optimisation.

Using Behaviour Data for Optimisation

• Improve Navigation: Use path exploration to identify drop-off points. Simplify the navigation or add CTAs to encourage users to explore further.
• Focus on High-Engagement Pages: Optimise pages that get the most engagement to maintain or increase visitor interest.
• Optimise Slow-Loading Pages: Speed up pages that take too long to load, as this can impact engagement rates and user satisfaction.

GA4’s behaviour reports provide valuable insights into user interactions, helping you optimise your site’s user experience.

4. Creating Custom Explorations and Events

GA4’s Explorations feature (similar to custom reports) allows you to dig deeper into specific data and gain insights tailored to your goals.

How to Create a Custom Exploration

1. Go to the Explore Section: In GA4, navigate to the “Explore” tab to access custom explorations.
2. Select a Template or Start from Scratch: Choose from pre-built templates like Funnel Exploration or Segment Overlap, or build your own.
3. Define Variables: Choose dimensions (e.g., user location, device type) and metrics (e.g., sessions, conversions) that align with your goals.
4. Add Segments and Filters: Narrow your focus by segmenting the data, such as mobile-only users or users from a specific region.

Setting Up Custom Events and Conversions

1. Mark Events as Conversions: In GA4, you can mark any event as a conversion, like a form submission or a purchase, without additional configuration.
2. Create New Events: If a standard event doesn’t cover a particular interaction you want to track, you can set up custom events in GA4. For example, create an event for users who scroll through 75% of a page.

Custom explorations and events provide a focused view of user behaviour, allowing you to track performance metrics tailored to your goals.

5. Using GA4 for Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking in GA4 helps you measure actions that contribute to your site’s success, such as purchases, sign-ups, or form submissions.

Setting Up Conversion Tracking

1. Define Conversions: Choose key events to track as conversions, like completing a purchase or reaching a thank-you page.
2. Use UTM Parameters: Apply UTM codes to track traffic from specific campaigns (e.g., email, social media) and assess which sources drive the most conversions.
3. Link Google Ads: Connecting GA4 with Google Ads allows you to see the impact of paid campaigns on conversions directly within Analytics.

Using Data to Optimise Conversions

• Identify High-Converting Sources: Use the Acquisition report to determine which channels generate the most conversions and focus on those sources.
• Improve Landing Pages: Use behaviour flow reports to find landing pages with low engagement rates and make adjustments to encourage conversions.
• Retarget High-Intent Users: Create remarketing lists based on GA4 data to target users who didn’t complete the desired action, like abandoned cart visitors.

Conversion tracking provides the insights you need to optimise campaigns, improve ROI, and maximise the impact of your website.

Take Your Website Analytics to the Next Level with Belmore Digital

GA4 offers an in-depth look at how users engage with your website, allowing you to optimise for better results. While GA4 can be complex, Belmore Digital specialises in setting up and customising GA4 to help businesses unlock meaningful insights.

Book a free strategy call with us today, and let’s discuss how we can help you make the most of your GA4 data to grow your online presence.