Is your business getting enquiries from your website? Are you attracting visitors and successfully converting them into paying clients? If you are uncertain how to answer these questions, perhaps this is your sign to start tracking your website performance using Google Analytics 4 (GA4).
GA4 is a powerful analytics tool that generates figures and objective reports, helping you to make data-driven business decisions.
Specifically, it provides insights into how users interact with your website, including which pages they visit, how long they stay on each page, and what actions they take.
In this blog post, we will give you a basic overview of GA4, so as a business owner, you can use it to make a business decision based on the website data.
We will cover everything from knowing GA4, setting it up to understanding its standard reports and dashboards.
What is Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a next-generation analytics platform that helps you measure traffic and engagement across your websites and apps.
This powerful tool provides insights into how users interact with your content and products and helps you measure the impact of your marketing campaigns.
It works like a CCTV camera that records user behaviour and activity. However, it also processes these actions into reports and metrics that you can use to improve your business operations.
How does this work exactly? The flow starts when you add a tracking code to your website HTML, allowing the GA4 tool to collect visitor data.
The tool sends the collected data to Google servers for processing and analysis. Once done, Google sends the data back in report form, which you can access through the GA4 dashboard.
Let’s move on to the next section and learn how to set it up.
Setting Up Google Analytics 4
There are two vital steps before you can track your website performance using Google Analytics 4.
One is to create a Google Analytics account (if you are a new user), and the other is to add a tracking code to your website.
Here’s a quick step-by-step guide you can follow.
Create a New Google Analytics Account
If you want to link GA4 to your website, log in to your Google account, then:
- Go to the Google Analytics homepage, click Start measuring, and complete the Create Account form. The form has five steps in total.
- Add an account name, configure your data sharing settings, then click Next.
- Create a property name, choose the time zone and currency, then click Next.
- Select all relevant options for the business details and objectives forms.
- Next, select web, then add your website URL and stream name. Configure the Enhanced Measurement settings, then click Create Stream.
(Please note that Google always changes the layouts and steps so the instructions above may be slightly different when you do it yourself)
Once done, you’ll land on a Web Stream Details window. Here, you will see your Measurement ID. It is a unique code you need to tag your website.
Tagging should allow Google Analytics 4 to track your website performance, user activity, and more.
On top of the Web Stream Details window, click on View Tag Instructions. You’ll see various options to install your Google tag or tracking code.
Your technical team should be able to do this easily if you prefer manual installation. The process should be quicker if you do it with the appropriate CMS plugin and follow the indicated steps.
Either option should now let you view your data in your GA4 account.
Link Existing Google Analytics Account to GA4
If you want to upgrade your old system, log in to your Google Analytics account then:
- Go to Admin, and click on GA4 Setup Assistant.
- Create a new GA4 property. Doing this should automatically copy the basic settings from your old Analytics property.
- Afterwards, the Setup Assistant will provide further instructions on tasks you have to do manually. You can also check this list of migration guides from Google.
- Once done, remember to replace your tracking code with a new Google tag through manual or plugin integration.
Now that your Google Analytics 4 is all set up, it’s time to look at some of the reports and dashboards you can use to track your website performance.
If you set it up for the first time, you may want to wait for a few days for the data to populate.
Key Reports and Dashboards
Google Analytics 4 offers a variety of reports and dashboards that you can use to track your website performance. Some of the most important reports include:
- Reports Snapshot. This section provides a high-level overview of your website traffic, including the number of visitors, sessions, and pageviews. The data shown here are dependent on the individual reports that GA4 generates.
- Acquisition. This report contains data about your website traffic sources. Its primary components are the user and traffic acquisition reports.
- Engagement. This report contains data about how users interact with your website, including which pages they visit, how long they stay on each page, and what actions they take. You can check this section if you want to determine whether a page or content is effective or not.
- Conversions. This sub-report under the Engagement section shows how many users performed positive actions on your site. These actions could be calling your office, signing up for a newsletter, or making an online booking. This crucial section tracks the success of your campaigns and identifies areas for improving your conversion rates. To set up a conversion tracking, you may need to get in touch with an SEO specialist like us to configure it.
Understanding all the GA4 reports and dashboards can take some figuring out. Learn them gradually so you can eventually make strategic, more data-driven decisions.
Let’s go to the next section to learn how these Google Analytics 4 reports can help you track your website performance.
How to Use GA4 to Track Your Website Performance
Here are important reports you can use GA4 to track your website performance:
- Track the number of visitors to your website over time: Go to Life Cycle > Acquisition > User/Traffic Acquisition. User acquisition data is about your new visitors: their number and the initial traffic channel they used to find your website. On the other hand, traffic acquisition data is about your new and old visitors and the traffic channels they used the last time they visited your website.
- Identify your most popular pages and content: Go to Life Cycle > Engagement > Pages and Screens. This report gives you a list of page paths or titles from your website with the corresponding number of views, engagement time, and conversions. The data should provide clues on what pages to focus on or content to produce more.
- Track conversions on your website: Go to Life Cycle > Engagement > Conversions. This is the most important report from your website (if configured correctly). It tells you how many people called your business, submitted a contact form, made an online booking, etc. for a certain period of time. You can then analyse the numbers and decide whether you should invest more in sales and marketing or not.
- See where your website traffic is coming from: Go to Life Cycle > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition. The Traffic Acquisition report should give valuable insights about your traffic sources or channels. For example, data may show that your visitors usually come from organic searches. If that’s the case, your efforts should centre on website optimisation.
- Track how long users are staying on your website: Go to Life Cycle > Acquisition > User Acquisition. The table at the bottom of the User Acquisition report contains the engagement rate and average engagement time data. Both are valuable behavioural metrics that show how interested or invested your visitors are in your website.
Google Analytics 4 is undeniably a powerful tool that can help you track your website performance and make data-driven decisions about your business. So, try to master every report and the info it gives.
Conclusion
In this blog post, we gave you an overview of GA4 and how to use it to track your website performance. We covered everything from setting up GA4 to understanding its standard reports and dashboards.
GA4 is a powerhouse that can help you understand your visitors and make informed decisions to improve user experience, website performance, and your sales/marketing.
Contact us if you are a business owner in Australia and are unsure how GA4 can help you track your website performance and improve your SEO results.
Call 03 9043 4444 or email us at hello@infiniteace.com.
