GA4 Guide: Google Analytics 4 for Small Businesses

GA4 (Google Analytics 4) is Google’s free tool for measuring what people do on your website and app: where they come from, which pages they read and whether they call, book or buy. It replaced Universal Analytics in 2023. This GA4 guide shows small business owners how to set it up properly and find the numbers that matter.

What is Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?

What is Google Analytics 4? It’s the current version of Google Analytics, built around events rather than page hits. Every action a visitor takes (opening a page, scrolling, clicking a phone number, submitting a form) is recorded as an event, so one property can measure a website and an app together.

Google’s older version, Universal Analytics, stopped collecting data in July 2023, and Google says access to its historical data ended from July 2024 (Google Analytics Help). If your website still has an old “UA-” tracking code and nothing else, it hasn’t recorded a visit since then.

What are the benefits of Google Analytics 4?

The main benefits of Google Analytics 4 for a small business are:

• It’s free. The standard version costs nothing; only the enterprise version (Analytics 360) is paid.
• It tracks actions, not just visits. You can see how many people clicked “call now” or sent an enquiry, not only how many arrived.
• It connects to your other Google tools. Link it to Google Ads to see which ads bring enquiries, and to Google Search Console to see the searches that bring people in.
• It points out changes for you. Google Analytics 4 insights are automatic notes on unusual rises or drops, and you can set up custom insights that email you when something changes.
• Web and app in one place. If you have both, one property covers them.

So why Google Analytics 4 rather than a paid analytics tool? For most local businesses it does everything you need, it connects directly to Google Ads, and your web developer or marketing team will already know it.

How do you set up GA4 and find your measurement ID?

Setting up GA4 is a short job if you can edit your website. You need a Google account and access to your site’s settings or code.

1. Go to analytics.google.com, open Admin and create a property. Choose Australia as the reporting time zone and Australian dollars as the currency.
2. Add a Web data stream with your website address. Leave enhanced measurement switched on.
3. Copy your Google Analytics 4 measurement ID. It starts with “G-” and is shown in the web stream’s details (Admin, then Data streams).
4. Add the tag to your site: paste the measurement ID into your website platform’s Google Analytics setting (WordPress plug-ins, Shopify and Wix all have one), add it through Google Tag Manager, or paste Google’s tag code into every page.
5. Open the Realtime report and visit your own site on your phone. If you appear, the tag is working.
6. In Admin, under Data retention, change event data retention from 2 months to 14 months, the longest a standard property allows (Google’s data retention guide).

Standard reports can take a day or two to fill in after setup, so don’t worry if they look empty at first. Under the Privacy Act 1988, your privacy policy should say that your site uses analytics (the Australian Privacy Principles set out what to tell people). Your business stays responsible for its own compliance.

How do Google Analytics 4 events work?

Google Analytics 4 events come in four kinds (Google’s guide to events):

• Automatically collected events such as page_view, session_start and first_visit.
• Enhanced measurement events you switch on in the data stream: scrolls, outbound clicks, site search, file downloads, video views and form interactions.
• Recommended events with names Google suggests, such as generate_lead or purchase.
• Custom events you create for anything else, such as a click on your phone number.

The events that matter most to your business should be marked as key events (Google renamed “conversions” to key events in 2024). For most service businesses, those are enquiry form submissions, phone clicks and bookings. Our conversion tracking work sets these up and checks they fire once, not twice.

How do you find the numbers you need in GA4?

Most owners only need six numbers. Here’s where each one lives in the left-hand menu under Reports.

How to see page views

Go to Reports, then Engagement, then Pages and screens. The Views column is your page views for each page. Change the date range at the top right to compare months.

How to find bounce rate

Bounce rate isn’t shown by default. Open a report such as Pages and screens, click the pencil icon (Customise report), choose Metrics, add Bounce rate, then apply and save. A bounce is a session that wasn’t “engaged”: it lasted under 10 seconds, had no key event and only one page view (Google’s definition).

How to see referral traffic

Go to Acquisition, then Traffic acquisition. Change the table’s first column to Session source / medium and look for rows ending in “/ referral”: those are the other websites sending you visitors, such as a local directory or a supplier’s site.

How to find returning users

Open Retention. The first chart splits new users from returning users over time. For more detail, build an exploration (below) with the New / established dimension.

How to see UTM parameters

UTM parameters are the tags you add to a link (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign) so your reports show it came from, say, your newsletter or a Facebook post. In Traffic acquisition, change the first column to Session campaign for utm_campaign, or Session source / medium for the other two.

How to create a custom report

Click Explore in the left menu and start a Blank (free form) exploration. Add the dimensions (such as page title or city) and metrics (such as views or key events) you want, then drag them into rows and values. Explorations are saved to your account, and anyone you share them with can open them.

How do you keep spam and your own visits out of GA4?

How to exclude an IP address

1. In Admin, open Data streams, choose your web stream, then Configure tag settings.
2. Choose Define internal traffic and create a rule with your office’s public IP address.
3. In Admin, open Data filters. The Internal Traffic filter starts in Testing: change it to Active when you’re happy it works.

Once a filter is active, the change is permanent for new data, so test first (Google’s internal traffic guide).

How to block bot traffic

Google already excludes traffic from known bots and spiders, and says this can’t be switched off (known bot-traffic exclusion). If you still see junk visits from one source, leave that source out of your reports with a filter or comparison, and ask your web host about blocking it at the firewall.

How do you give someone access to GA4?

In Admin, open Property access management, click the plus button and choose Add users. Enter the person’s email address, pick a role and click Add (Google’s access guide). Give your marketing agency or developer the role they need: Viewer or Analyst to read reports, Editor to change settings. Keep Administrator for yourself, so the property stays in your business’s name.

What we check first in a client’s GA4 property

When a business gives us access to its analytics, we work through the same short list before we read a single number:

1. Is the tag on every page, including booking or checkout pages on another domain? A Mildura accommodation business taking bookings through a separate booking engine, for example, needs cross-domain measurement (in Configure tag settings) or every sale looks like a referral from the booking site.
2. Is event data retention set to 14 months?
3. Is the office’s own traffic filtered out?
4. Are enquiries, phone clicks and bookings marked as key events?
5. Is the property linked to Google Ads and to Google Search Console?
6. Does the privacy policy mention analytics?

Fixing those first is what makes the monthly numbers worth reading. It’s also how our SEO reporting ties rankings to real enquiries.

Frequently asked questions

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is Google’s free website and app measurement service. It shows how many people visit, where they come from, what they look at and what they do. Its current version is GA4. You add a small tag to your site, and the reports fill in within a day or two.

Is GA4 free?

Yes, the standard version is free for any business. Google sells an enterprise version, Analytics 360, with higher limits and longer data retention, but a small or medium business doesn’t need it. The only cost is the time to set it up properly, or paying someone to do it.

How long does GA4 keep my data?

It keeps detailed event data for 2 months unless you change it to 14 months in Admin, under Data retention. Standard reports (traffic, pages, acquisition) aren’t affected by this setting, but explorations are, so change it on day one.

Why does GA4 show different numbers from my website platform?

Each tool counts differently, so small gaps are normal. Analytics doesn’t count visitors who decline cookies where a consent banner blocks tracking, it excludes known bots, and it may filter your own office visits. A large gap often means the tag is missing from some pages.

How much does it cost to have GA4 set up for me?

Rock Solid Marketing sets up Google’s measurement tools (Analytics, Search Console and Tag Manager) for $800 + GST. Extra conversion tracking, such as call or booking events, is priced to the job. If you’re happy following the steps above yourself, you may not need us.

The short version

GA4 is free, it’s the only version of Google Analytics that still records data, and a correct setup takes less time than most people think. Set retention to 14 months, filter your own traffic, mark your enquiries as key events and check your numbers monthly.

If you’d rather have it set up and reported for you, our marketing partnerships cover reporting and a monthly meeting, or contact our Mildura team for a one-off setup.