GA4
Google Analytics 4: Google's free tool for measuring website visitors, where they come from, what they do, and which visits turn into leads.
GA4, or Google Analytics 4, is the current version of Google’s free website analytics tool. A small piece of tracking code on your site records visits and actions, and GA4 turns them into reports. It took over from the older Universal Analytics, which stopped processing data in July 2023.
GA4 is built around events: page views, scrolls, clicks, form submissions and so on. Events that matter most to your business, like a form submission or a phone tap, can be marked as key events, GA4’s name for conversions.
Why it matters to a small business
GA4 helps answer practical questions:
- How many people visit, and is it growing?
- Where do they come from: Google, social media, other sites, ads?
- Which pages do they look at?
- Most importantly, how many become leads, and from which sources?
Without lead tracking set up, GA4 can only tell you about visits, not business. That’s the most common gap.
GA4 shows what happens on your site. Google Search Console shows how people found you in Google Search. Linking the two gives a fuller picture.
Visitors who decline tracking or use blockers aren’t counted, so treat the numbers as trends rather than exact totals. Your privacy policy should mention analytics.
Example
A painting contractor sets up GA4 key events for quote form submissions and phone taps. After three months, the reports show most leads come from Google search and the Google Business Profile, while social media brings visits but few leads. He shifts his time accordingly.
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