Why GA4, and Why It's Worth Doing Properly
Google Analytics 4 is free, and it's the standard tool for understanding who visits your site, where they came from, and what they do once they arrive. The catch is that GA4's event-based model is less intuitive than the old Universal Analytics, and a large share of small business installs are set up once, left on defaults, and never actually used for decisions. Done properly, it takes under an hour and pays for itself the first time it tells you which marketing channel is actually bringing in customers.
Creating Your Free GA4 Property
At analytics.google.com, create an account (your business name), then a property (your website). Set the correct timezone (GMT/BST) and currency (GBP) at this step — both are awkward to change cleanly later. Choose 'Web' as the platform and enter your site URL. This generates a Measurement ID starting with 'G-' — that's the only piece of information you need for the technical setup.
Installing the Tracking Code
The Measurement ID needs to be added to every page of the site, typically via a small script in the site's global template — most modern site builds already have a defined place for this. Once added and deployed, GA4's Realtime report should show your own visit within a minute or two. If it doesn't appear, the most common cause is the script loading on a cached page or being blocked by a cookie consent tool that hasn't granted analytics permission yet.
Setting Up Key Events That Actually Matter
Out of the box, GA4 tracks page views automatically, but the events that matter for a business — a submitted contact form, a phone number click, a completed booking — need to be marked as 'key events' (GA4's term for conversions) inside Admin → Events. Without this step, you'll have traffic data but no way to see which pages, channels or campaigns are actually producing enquiries, which is usually the entire point of tracking in the first place.
Link Search Console for the Full Picture
Connecting Google Search Console to GA4 (Admin → Product links) adds search query and impression data alongside your analytics — showing not just what people did on your site, but what they searched to find it. This combination is what makes SEO decisions data-driven rather than guesswork, and it's a five-minute setup once both accounts exist.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Filter out your own visits (Admin → Data Filters → internal traffic) so you're not skewing your own numbers every time you check the site. Watch for inflated referral traffic from payment or booking providers that redirect through their own domain — this needs excluding under referral exclusions. And check the Realtime report after any major site change; a broken tracking script fails silently, and it's common for businesses to discover months of missing data only when they go looking for it.