What is Google Analytics 4 and how do you use it?
Google Analytics 4, usually shortened to GA4, is Google's current analytics platform. It measures what people do on your website by tracking events, such as page views, clicks, scrolls and form submissions, rather than counting page loads the way the old Universal Analytics did. GA4 is the version every new Google Analytics property uses, and it is the tool we use to measure and report on organic traffic for client work.
What changed with GA4
Universal Analytics counted sessions and pageviews. GA4 works on an event-based model, which means every meaningful action a visitor takes is recorded as an event. That changes what you can measure. Instead of asking how many people visited, you can ask how many people scrolled to the bottom of a page, clicked a phone number or submitted an enquiry form.
GA4 also made some reporting terms friendlier. Bounce rate, the old measure of people leaving after one page, has been replaced by engagement rate, which counts a session as engaged when it lasts longer than ten seconds, records a conversion or involves two or more page views. The change sounds small, but it gives you a truer picture of whether visitors actually found what they came for.
The reports that matter
The default reports cover four areas: acquisition (where your traffic comes from), engagement (what people do on your site), monetisation (what generates revenue) and retention (how often people come back). For a small business, three of these matter most.
Acquisition shows whether your traffic comes from organic search, paid search, social or referrals. This is the report that tells you if your SEO is working, because you can compare the same period a year ago and see organic sessions growing month on month.
Engagement shows which pages get viewed, how long people stay and which events fire. If you have set up a contact form, you can track form submissions as events and see exactly which pages generate enquiries.
Monetisation and conversions show the actions you have defined as valuable. Setting up conversion events is the single most useful thing you can do in GA4, because it turns traffic data into something that looks like business results.
How Victory Digital uses GA4
We use GA4 for every SEO client. The acquisition report tells us whether organic visibility is improving, the engagement report shows which pages earn their place, and conversion events show whether that traffic turns into enquiries. It is the data behind the results we report, such as Home Instead's organic traffic rising 251% while we managed its marketing. Clients can see the same numbers in their dashboard at https://victory.digital/client-dashboard.
You can also get a picture of your own site without setting up GA4 from scratch. Our free SEO report at https://victory.digital/free-seo-report checks your site and shows the search visibility and technical issues that matter most, and we track AI search visibility separately with Metrona, our in-house platform.
Getting started with GA4
If you have not set up GA4 yet, the first step is adding the measurement code to your site. Most website platforms have a plugin or a simple field for your GA4 measurement ID, which you find in the admin area of your property. From there, define the events that count as conversions, such as form submissions, phone calls and purchases, and connect Google Search Console so GA4 can show you the search queries behind your traffic.
If you would rather have us set it up and read it for you, our SEO packages start at GBP 980 per month and include analytics configuration, reporting and the fixes that turn data into rankings. Run the free SEO report at https://victory.digital/free-seo-report to see what your site needs first.
What are your Feelings?
Share your reaction
Click a reaction to share how useful this article was.