Google Analytics

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics (GA) is the most widely used web analytics platform in the world, installed on more than 55 million sites. The tool is free and shows you in detail who visits your site, where those visitors come from, what they do once they are there, and whether they complete the actions you care about (conversions).

Since July 2023, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has replaced Universal Analytics. GA4 is built on an event model (every interaction is an event) and uses machine learning to fill the data gaps left by cookie blockers and privacy regulation.

The metrics that matter in GA4

Users counts the number of unique people who visit your site. Sessions counts visits (the same user can have several sessions). Pageviews counts the total number of pages viewed. The engagement rate replaces the old bounce rate: it measures the percentage of sessions with meaningful interaction (longer than 10s, 2 or more pageviews, or a conversion).

Average engagement time tells you how long visitors spend actively on your site. Conversions (formerly "goals") measure the actions that have value: form submission, purchase, phone call. Revenue tracks the money generated (for online shops).

The most useful reports

The Acquisition report shows where your visitors come from: organic search (SEO), paid search (SEA), direct (typed URL), social media, email, referral (links from other sites). You can see which channel brings the most traffic and, more importantly, the most conversions. A channel that brings plenty of traffic and zero conversions is a channel to fix or to drop.

The Engagement report (Pages and screens) shows which pages get the most visits, how long people spend on each one, and how they move around the site. Use it to spot your best-performing pages (worth reinforcing) and your problem pages (high bounce rate, low time on page).

The Conversion report shows the number and rate of conversions by goal, by traffic source and by page. This is the report that measures the return your site and your campaigns actually deliver.

The Demographics and Technology report reveals the age, gender, interests, country, device (mobile or desktop) and browser of your visitors. That data helps you sharpen your ad targeting and adapt your content.

Setting Google Analytics up properly

The basic install (copy and paste the tracking code) is not enough. To get the most out of GA4 you need to set up custom events (CTA clicks, form submissions, phone calls), conversions (marking the events that have value), and user properties (customer category, segment).

UTM parameters are essential for identifying the exact source of each visit from your campaigns. Add utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign parameters to all your marketing links (emails, ads, social posts). Without UTMs, GA4 files that traffic under "direct" or "unassigned".

GA4 versus Universal Analytics: what changed

The move to GA4 threw a lot of people who were used to Universal Analytics. The fundamental difference: Universal Analytics counted sessions and pageviews, whereas GA4 is built entirely on events. Every click, scroll or video play becomes a measurable event, which gives a far finer picture of what people actually do.

The other major change: the classic bounce rate has gone, replaced by the engagement rate, which says more about the quality of a visit. GA4 also tracks web and mobile apps together out of the box, and adds predictions based on artificial intelligence (purchase probability, churn risk). For a small business, the thing to remember is that GA4 asks for a more rigorous initial setup, but gives you data that is more usable and holds its value over time in return.

Pairing GA4 with Google Search Console

Google Analytics tells you what visitors do once they have arrived on your site. Google Search Console (GSC), also free, tells you how they get there from Google search: the queries they type, average position, click-through rate, impressions. The two tools complement each other and connect in a few clicks.

Linking GSC to GA4 answers questions that really matter: which keywords bring traffic that actually converts, which pages get plenty of impressions but few clicks (a title worth rewriting), and which queries put you on page 2 (opportunities to seize). For a tradesperson or a local shop, this pairing often reveals untapped location-based keywords that cost nothing in advertising.

GDPR compliance and the alternatives

In Europe, GA4 requires the user's consent before it collects any data (cookie banner). The French data protection authority, the CNIL, has raised concerns about data transfers to the United States. GDPR-compliant alternatives include Matomo (open-source, hosted in France), Plausible (lightweight, cookie-free) and Fathom (simple and privacy-first).

Mistakes to avoid

Not setting up conversion tracking (you measure traffic, not results). Not filtering internal traffic (your own visits distort the data). Not using UTMs on your campaigns. Not analysing the data by segment (mobile versus desktop, new versus returning). Installing GA4 and never looking at the data.

Turning data into decisions

The classic small business trap is to pile up dashboards and never act on them. Google Analytics is only worth anything if it leads to decisions. Get into a simple habit: once a week, spend fifteen minutes on three questions. How many conversions did I get? Which source brought them? Which page loses the most visitors?

That habit quickly surfaces obvious moves. If your newsletter brings little traffic but converts strongly, do more of it. If a page gets plenty of visits but converts badly, rework its headline or its call to action. A tradesperson who sees that 70% of visitors come from mobile but convert half as well knows exactly where to invest: the mobile experience. Data is not there to decorate a report, it is there to help you decide what to tackle next.

At ConvertiLab we set up Google Analytics 4 on every site with full conversion tracking, a GDPR-compliant cookie banner, a connection to Google Search Console, and custom dashboards so our clients can read the numbers that matter at a glance.