GA4

What GA4 tells you

GA4, Google Analytics 4, is Google's analytics product for measuring how people use your website, where they come from and what they do. It replaced Universal Analytics, which stopped processing data in July 2023. GA4 is built around events and uses "key events" for the actions that matter to your business, such as form submissions and calls. Google's GA4 help centre explains the basics.

Where to find it

Log in to GA4 and look at the traffic acquisition report, filtered to Organic Search. Check whether key events are set up and recording. Test them yourself: submit a test enquiry and confirm it appears in the realtime report. Make sure your cookie consent setup is working as intended.

Reading it in practice

A roofer sees plenty of organic traffic in GA4 but no idea which pages lead to calls. He sets up key events for clicks on his phone number and for quote form submissions. Within a month he can see that his storm damage page generates most calls, so it gets priority in his updates.

Misreadings to avoid

• Installing GA4 and never configuring key events.
• Counting page views as success.
• Ignoring consent requirements for analytics cookies.
• Expecting GA4 numbers to match Search Console exactly.

Why it’s worth tracking

Search Console tells you about search visibility. GA4 tells you what visitors do after they arrive, including whether search visits lead to enquiries. Without key events set up, you can see traffic but can't tell which pages earn you business.

It's also where you'll set up consent-aware tracking, which matters under UK data protection rules. Getting the basics right once means your reports can be trusted from then on.

Terms you’ll see alongside it

• Engagement metrics: Measures of how people engage with a page. In GA4, bounce rate is the opposite of engagement rate.
• Conversion rate: Share of visits that complete a goal such as an enquiry.
• Organic traffic: Visits from unpaid search results.