What Is Google Analytics (GA4)
What Is Google Analytics (GA4)?
- What Is GA4 Used For?
- Analyze User Behavior Across Different Devices and Platforms
- Inform SEO Strategy
- Improve Marketing Campaign Performance
- Create Accurate Customer Personas
- Analyze Ecommerce Performance
- Improve User Experience
GA4 Setup Guide: How to Get Started With GA4
- How to Set Up Google Analytics 4: Step-by-Step Guide
- Step 1: Create an Account
- Step 2: Add Account Name and Edit Settings
- Step 3: Set Up Your Property
- Step 4: Set Up a Data Stream
- How to Add a Web Data Stream
- Step 5: Add the GA4 Tracking Code to Your Website
How to Add GA4 to a Pre-generated GA4 Property
- Access Setup Assistant
How to Know If GA4 Is Working
- Troubleshooting Tips
Connecting GA4 With Other Google Products
- Universal Analytics (UA) vs. GA4
- Data Models
- Metrics and Measurement
- Device Tracking Capabilities
- Privacy and User Data Control
- Customer Journey Analysis
- Conversion Tracking
- Data Setup and Integration
- Reporting and Customization
The GA4 Interface (+ Key Metrics)
- The Main Navigation
- Home
- Reports
- Real-time
- Life Cycle
- Acquisition
- Overview
- User Acquisition
- Traffic Acquisition
Engagement
- Events
- Conversions
- Pages & Screens
- Landing Page
- Monetization
The Search Console
- Explore
- Advertising
GA4 for SEO: Three Practical Tips
- Keyword Performance Insights
- Customizable Reporting
- Search Function Insights
What Is Google Analytics (GA4)?
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a web analytics tool that helps you understand how people use your website or app. It can track every click, scroll, purchase, and other actions across various platforms and devices.
Unlike its predecessor, Universal Analytics, which was primarily session-based, GA4 introduces an event-based model.
What does this change mean for you?
You get more precise data collection capabilities and improved user privacy measures. Event-based tracking focuses on what visitors do. Not who they are. It’s less about tracking individual visitors and more about understanding user actions. Another key aspect of GA4 is its use of AI and machine learning, which makes predictions when data is limited. All good news for your data collection efforts.
What Is GA4 Used For?
You can use GA4 to get insights into user behaviors, navigational patterns, and the customer journey.
With its data, you can optimize your content, fine-tune your marketing strategies, and build more effective marketing funnels.
Whether you’re a business owner, data analyst, SEO professional, or digital marketing strategist, GA4 can help you better understand – and better serve – your visitors.
Here are some specific ways you can use GA4.
Analyze User Behavior Across Different Devices and Platforms
It’s a fact.
The customer journey is messy.
Customers weave across devices and platforms. Jumping from your website. To social. To search. And back again.
GA4 helps you get a complete understanding of this chaos.
With its cross-device and cross-platform tracking capabilities, you get an integrated view of the entire journey.
You’ll understand how your audience engages with each channel and moves between them on their way to a conversion.
With these insights, you can optimize your marketing across the whole ecosystem of touchpoints. Instead of individual channels in isolation.
Inform SEO Strategy
GA4 links up with Google Search Console, helping you with two things:
- Discovering which keywords are bringing people to your site
- Seeing what visitors do once they arrive
Looking at your data, you can answer questions such as:
- Are visitors sticking around? Or bouncing off?
- Are they clicking on affiliate links or downloading an ebook?
This information can then inform your SEO strategy.
For example, if a piece of content gets a lot of traffic and engagement, you could create more content around that keyword.
You can also track visitor journeys to understand the path from initial visit to conversion. You can then use that knowledge to optimize internal linking structures. All good news for your SEO strategy efforts.
Improve Marketing Campaign Performance
Want to know if your marketing campaigns are a success or a dud?
GA4 can answer that.
Are you trying to figure out which influencers are bringing in engaged traffic during your campaigns?
GA4 can help you track that, too.
Want to see the real impact of your ads on conversions?
Done.
With GA4’s ability to track behavior across different channels – plus the insights of its AI assistant – you get a clear picture of the entire customer journey.
This means you’re better equipped to fine-tune and optimize every step of that journey—right down to the finest details.
Create Accurate Customer Personas
GA4 helps you gauge the intent of website visitors based on behavior data.
This means you can segment your audience with precision. And create customer personas that mirror their reality.
The result?
Targeted content and marketing campaigns that make your audience feel like you’re talking directly to them.
Analyze Ecommerce Performance
GA4 provides granular ecommerce analytics – from product views to refund rates.
These insights help ecommerce teams optimize inventory, merchandising, and site experience based on how customers shop.
For example, you may discover the blue color variation of a shirt sells 3x more than other colors.
You can use this insight to decide which items to increase stock for. And which ones may need a rethink in your inventory.
Improve User Experience
GA4 revolves around a core principle: tracking customer behavior.
Are your visitors clicking? Reading? Scrolling? Watching Videos? Buying? Bouncing off as soon as they arrive?
With this fly-on-the-wall perspective, you’ll have data to guide how you can improve user experiences on your website or app.
GA4 Setup Guide: How to Get Started With GA4
Time to set up GA4.
If you’ve had a Universal Analytics account, there’s a good chance you already have a pre-generated GA4 property.
Note: When UA was phased out, Google automatically added GA4 properties to existing accounts. Most users will find an initial, incomplete GA4 setup ready for them unless they have opted out.
Haven’t used UA before? You’ll start by creating a new GA4 account.
Either way, there’s setup work to be done.
To get started, make sure you have access to:
- The Google Marketing Platform website
- Your website’s backend
Got those? Great! Let’s proceed.
How to Set Up Google Analytics 4: Step-by-Step Guide
Never used Google Analytics before? Here’s what you need to do.
Step 1: Create an Account
Go to the Google Marketing Platform and click “Sign in to Google Marketing Platform.”
Click the “Set up” button under Analytics.
Then, click the “Start measuring” in the window that follows.
This takes you to the “Create an account” page.
Step 2: Add Account Name and Edit Settings
Type in your name in the “Account Name” box. This is typically your business or website name.
Then, tick the data you want to share with Google.
Click “Next.”
Step 3: Set Up Your Property
In the “Property name” box, type out the name of your URL. And set the “Reporting time zone” and “Currency” to match your business preferences.
When you hit “Next,” you’ll be prompted to answer a few business-related questions.
You’ll then need to state your Google Analytics objectives. Choose one.
Lastly, accept the Google Analytics 4 terms of service.
Step 4: Set Up a Data Stream
In GA4, both web and app data are incorporated through a feature known as a data stream.
Add a separate data stream for each platform you’re using.
Here’s how.
How to Add a Web Data Stream
To add your website, click the “Web” button.
Then, add your URL. And give your site a “Stream name.”
We recommend leaving “Enhanced measurement” turned on.
Click “Create stream.”
This will allow GA4 to automatically track actions like video plays, link clicks, downloads, and more.
After clicking “Create Stream,” you’ll see your Web stream details.
Click “View tag instructions” to get the installation instructions for adding the GA4 code to your website or CMS such as WordPress or Shopify.
Step 5: Add the GA4 Tracking Code to Your Website
Next, you’ll need to link your website to GA4 by installing the tracking code to your website.
This enables GA4 to collect data from your site.
You have three options to add this code to your website:
- Install manually
- Install with a CMS or a website builder
- Use Google Tag Manager
For this GA4 tutorial, we’ll focus on the manual installation.
After clicking “View tag instructions” in the previous step, you’ll see detailed instructions for the installation process.
These instructions are designed to help you smoothly integrate the GA4 code, whether using a standard web platform or a CMS like WordPress or Shopify.
Here’s how to proceed:
Click “Install manually” to access the JavaScript code.
Then, copy the code.
This code must be added to the <head> element of every page on your site.
The method varies based on the CMS or website platform you’re using.
