Google Analytics 4 is a free tool that counts the visitors to a website and records what they do there. I have set it up on sites, and the job comes down to a short list: an account, a property, a data stream, a tag on the pages, and a check that data is arriving. Then comes a second short list that most people skip, the settings that keep your own visits and anyone’s private details out of the numbers.

How to Add Google Analytics 4 to a Website | Step-by-Step Tutorial for Beginners, Easy Tech Steps on YouTube

Account, property, data stream

Person at a desk working on a laptop with a hand-drawn table on a notepad beside it

Three containers, in that order

Google’s own setup guide for Analytics goes in a fixed order. First an account, which is the top-level container and is named for your business. Then a property inside it, where you pick the reporting time zone and currency and describe the business. Then a data stream inside the property, which is the pipe between your site and the reports. For a website you choose the web stream, enter the site’s address and give the stream a name.

Setting these up is a matter of ten minutes and a few dropdowns. The one decision worth slowing down for is the time zone. The reporting day starts and ends in the time zone you pick, so a restaurant open past midnight wants to know which day a late order belongs to. Choose it to match how the business thinks about a day.

Roles

The guide says the Editor role is needed to add a property. If someone else built the website and owns the Google login, ask for Editor access under your own address instead of borrowing the login. That keeps the account recoverable when people change jobs.

Putting the tag on the site

Customers walking into a small shop through its glass front door

The Measurement ID

Once the stream exists, it has a Measurement ID that begins with the letter G and a dash. Google’s guide lists four ways to get it onto the pages:

  • A content management system with a field for Analytics, where you paste the ID.
  • A custom HTML feature on a platform with no such field, where you paste the whole Google tag.
  • A direct edit of the head section of every page, which may need a developer.
  • Google Tag Manager, with an Analytics configuration tag.

For a WordPress site there is a fifth route that is worth knowing. Site Kit by Google is described on WordPress.org as the official WordPress plugin from Google for insights about how people find and use a site. It connects Search Console, Analytics, AdSense, PageSpeed Insights, Tag Manager and other Google services to the WordPress dashboard. It requires a live, publicly reachable site, and each admin connects their own Google account. The listing also warns that new connections can take a few days before data shows up in the dashboard. Whichever route you take, the tag should be on once. A tag installed by hand and again by a plugin can send every visit twice.

Waiting and checking

Google says it can take up to 30 minutes for data to appear. The way to confirm the tag works is to visit your own site and then open the Realtime report. Google’s page on the Realtime report says that if the tag is working you should see activity there, and that a new property may need time before data shows up. Do this check from a phone on mobile data as well as a computer, so you know the pages count visitors from outside your own network.

If nothing shows after a reasonable wait, the usual suspects are a pasted ID with a typo, a cache that is still serving the old page without the tag and a tag placed on only some pages. Look at the page source for the tag before you blame Google.

What it collects without being told

Blank weekly calendar page with pen and ruler on a desk beside a lamp and cup of tea

Enhanced measurement

When enhanced measurement is on for a web stream, Analytics collects several events without any code changes. Google’s documentation lists them: page views, scrolls (the first time someone reaches 90 percent of a page), outbound clicks, site search, video engagement on embedded YouTube videos, file downloads, and form interactions. Each can be switched off in the stream settings.

For a small business that is a good deal of free information. Outbound clicks show which links people use to leave. File downloads show whether the menu PDF gets opened. Form events show how many people start a contact form and how many send it. The help page also says that to use the parameters from form events in reports you have to create custom dimensions, so the raw event exists before the report does.

The page carries a warning to take seriously: you must make sure no personally identifiable information is collected. The next section is about that.

Keeping private details out

Email addresses in URLs

Google’s policy page on this is firm. No data should be passed to Google that it could use or recognize as personally identifiable information, and email addresses are the first example it names. The page adds that this information is often sent by accident in page URLs and titles. An address in a web address, such as a confirmation page that puts an email into the link, is a violation.

For a small shop the places to look are the checkout confirmation page, a “thanks for subscribing” page with the address in the link, and the site’s own search box if people type their names into it. The Analytics policy page on PII says that data redaction in the Admin area can remove email addresses on a best-effort basis and can strip query parameters you name, and that it applies to web data streams. It also tells site owners to keep personal details out of campaign parameters and custom dimensions. Google notes that laws vary and suggests asking an attorney if you are unsure what counts.

I do not know what your site collects. I do know that a form on the site is the first thing to check, because a form collects names and numbers and the page that follows it may repeat them.

Counting your own visits out

Internal traffic

A small site gets small numbers, and the owner clicking around the site is a large share of them. Google’s instructions for internal traffic are in two steps. First you define the traffic: a rule that marks visits from an IP address or range as internal, with a name such as “internal.” Second you create a data filter that excludes events carrying that name.

The filter has three states. Testing labels the matching data so you can check it in reports without removing anything. Active applies the filter. Inactive turns it off. Google is plain about the cost of the active state: once it is on, the effect on the data is permanent, and excluded data cannot be recovered. It says a filter can take 24 to 36 hours to start working. The sensible order is testing first, a day or two of looking, then active.

There are limits. The page says the filter works for web data and not for app users, that you need the Editor role, and that a property can have up to 10 data filters. An address that changes, as most home internet addresses do, makes a fixed rule leaky. If your own visits matter that much to the numbers, the filter is a patch and not a cure.

Deciding what counts as a result

Key events

By default Analytics records activity. It does not know which activity matters to you. Google defines a key event as an event that measures an action that is “particularly important to the success of your business.” Any event you collect can be marked as one. After that, reports such as landing pages and user acquisition get a column showing key events.

For a restaurant the action might be a click on the phone number or the online ordering link. For a shop it is a purchase or a checkout start. For a service business it is the contact form. Pick one or two. A long list of key events makes every report look busy and none of it useful.

How long the data stays

The data retention setting decides how long user-level and event-level data stays available for explorations. Google’s retention page says it affects explorations and funnel reports, not the standard reports, and that the options for a standard property are two months or fourteen months. Longer periods are available only for the paid 360 tier. Google changes defaults and limits from time to time, so check the live page before relying on those figures. The point stands that the retention period is worth setting once instead of leaving to chance.

Reading it later

Look on a schedule

Setting up the tool is the easy half. The harder half is looking at it on some regular day, with a short list of questions: where did people come from, which pages did they land on, did anyone do the one thing that matters. A site with a weekly look and three questions will learn more than a site with a dashboard no one opens.

For informational purposes only. Privacy law differs by place and by what a site collects; consult a licensed attorney about what your site must disclose or avoid sending to analytics tools.

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