How to use Google Analytics 4 for your business

Google Search Console tells you how people find you on Google. Google Analytics 4 (GA4) tells you what happens next: how many people reach your site, where they come from, which pages they view and, most importantly, how many message you, call you or buy from you.

It's free, and you don't need to be technical to use the basics. This guide explains how to set it up and what to look at.

How to set it up

1. Go to analytics.google.com with your company's Google account.
2. Create a property with your site's name, the Costa Rica time zone and your currency (colones or US dollars).
3. Create a web data stream with your site's address. Google gives you a Measurement ID (it starts with "G-").
4. Install the tag on your site: many platforms (WordPress, Shopify, Wix) only ask you to paste that ID; on a custom site, your developer adds it.
5. Open your site and check the Realtime report: you should see yourself as a visitor.

Two settings worth changing from the start:

• Data retention: by default, detailed data is kept for 2 months. Change it to 14 months in the property settings.
• Link Search Console so you can see the searches that bring visitors inside Analytics (see how to use Google Search Console).

The basic concepts

• Users: the (approximate) people who visited your site.
• Sessions: each visit. One person can have several.
• Views: how many pages were viewed.
• Engaged sessions: visits where the person stayed more than a few seconds, viewed more than one page or took an important action.
• Events: everything that's measured (viewing a page, clicking, submitting a form).
• Key events: the events you mark as important for your business (previously called "conversions").

Measure what matters: key events

GA4 automatically measures page views, scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicks to other sites. But what matters most to a business has to be set up:

• Contact form submissions.
• WhatsApp button clicks.
• Phone number clicks.
• Bookings or appointments.
• Purchases, if you have an online store.

Mark those actions as key events. Every report will then show how many enquiries or sales each source and each page generated. If you're not sure how, your developer or agency can set it up quickly.

The reports to check

Acquisition: where visitors come from

Under Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition you'll see visits by channel:

• Organic Search: from Google and other search engines (the result of SEO).
• Direct: they typed your address or used a saved link.
• Referral: from other websites.
• Organic Social / Paid Social: from social media.
• Paid Search: from Google ads.

Compare not just how many visits each channel brings, but how many key events it generates.

Engagement: what they do

Under Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens you'll see which pages get the most visits and how long people stay. Pages with lots of visits and few enquiries are opportunities: maybe they're missing a clear contact button or pricing information.

Realtime

Useful for checking everything works: open your site, submit a test form and confirm the event appears.

A 10-minute monthly routine

1. Acquisition: are organic search visits growing compared with last month?
2. Key events: how many enquiries, calls or sales were there, and from which channel?
3. Pages: which bring the most visits? Which generate enquiries?
4. Devices: do most people arrive on mobile? Make sure your site works well there.

We combine it with Search Console in how to measure SEO results.

Privacy

State in your privacy policy that you use Google Analytics and why. Avoid sending personal data (names, emails, phone numbers) to Analytics, for example in the URLs of confirmation pages.

Common mistakes

• Installing the tag twice (visits get counted double).
• Not setting up key events, so you never know how many enquiries each channel brings.
• Leaving data retention at 2 months.
• Counting your own and your team's visits as if they were customers.
• Only looking at visit counts.

Frequently asked questions

Does Google Analytics cost anything?

No. The standard version is free and enough for most businesses.

What's the difference between Analytics and Search Console?

Search Console shows how people find you on Google, before the click. Analytics shows what people do on your site after they arrive, from any source.

Why do Analytics and Search Console show different numbers?

They measure different things: Search Console counts clicks on Google; Analytics counts visits that loaded the tag. Ad blockers, browsers and very short visits cause normal differences.

Want help measuring?

We set up Analytics, Search Console and your site's key events, and give you a clear monthly report. See our prices or get in touch.