Google Analytics 4 for Small Businesses: The Reports That Matter

By PDS Team

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google’s current analytics platform. When you use Google Analytics 4 for small business reporting, the most useful parts are a handful of reports: where visitors come from, which pages they view and which actions (now called key events) they complete. You do not need to master every GA4 feature. You need the right set-up and a short routine for checking the reports that relate to enquiries and sales.

This guide covers the GA4 basics a small business should get right, the reports worth checking each month and what the end of Universal Analytics in July 2024 means for you.

What is Google Analytics 4 and why does it matter now?

GA4 is the version of Google Analytics that replaced Universal Analytics, measuring websites and apps using events rather than sessions and pageviews alone.

Standard Universal Analytics properties stopped processing data on 1 July 2023. Google’s help centre says the remaining Universal Analytics 360 properties stop processing on 1 July 2024, and that from the week of 1 July 2024 users will lose access to the Universal Analytics interface and API. After that, data in old Universal Analytics properties will no longer be available, so if you still have historic reports you want to keep, export them before then.

If your website only ever had Universal Analytics, it has not been recording data for almost a year. Setting up GA4 should be your first step.

How should a small business set up GA4?

Create a GA4 property and web data stream, add the tag to your site, mark your important actions as key events and link Google Search Console and Google Ads.

1. Create the property: in Google Analytics, create a GA4 property with your business name, the Indian time zone and INR currency.
2. Add a web data stream: enter your website URL and keep Enhanced measurement on. It tracks scrolls, outbound clicks, site search, file downloads and some form interactions automatically.
3. Install the tag: add the Google tag to every page directly, through Google Tag Manager or with your website platform’s built-in integration.
4. Mark key events: decide which actions matter, such as form submissions, phone clicks, WhatsApp clicks and purchases, and mark them as key events.
5. Link products: link Search Console to see search queries in GA4, and link Google Ads if you advertise.
6. Set data retention: in data settings, you can choose how long user-level data is kept for explorations. The default for standard properties is two months; many businesses increase it to the longer option available.

What are key events in GA4?

Key events are the actions you mark as most important to your business, and in March 2024 Google renamed GA4 “conversions” to “key events”.

Google made the change so GA4 and Google Ads use clearer, separate terms. In GA4, you now mark important events as key events. In Google Ads, “conversions” refers to the actions used for ad measurement and bidding, which can be imported from GA4 key events. If you see older guides talking about GA4 conversions, they mean what GA4 now calls key events.

Google Analytics 4 for small business: which reports should you check?

Focus on four reports: traffic acquisition, pages and screens, key events and, if you sell online, ecommerce purchases.

1. Traffic acquisition

Go to Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition. This shows sessions by channel, such as Organic Search, Direct, Paid Search, Organic Social and Referral. Add key events to the view to see which channels bring enquiries, not just visits.

2. Pages and screens

Go to Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens. This shows which pages get the most views and engagement. Check whether your main service pages are being seen, and which blog posts bring visitors.

3. Key events

Go to Reports → Engagement → Events (or the key events report) to see how many times each important action happened, and compare month to month.

4. Ecommerce purchases (online stores)

Go to Reports → Monetisation → Ecommerce purchases to see which products are viewed, added to cart and bought. This needs ecommerce events set up correctly, which most major store platforms support.

How do you understand what GA4 is telling you?

Compare periods, look at key events by channel and page, and use engagement rate rather than bounce rate alone.

• Engaged sessions: GA4 counts a session as engaged if it lasts longer than 10 seconds, includes a key event or has at least two page or screen views.
• Engagement rate: the share of sessions that were engaged. A low rate on a service page may mean the page does not match what visitors expected.
• Compare periods: use the date comparison option to compare this month with last month or the same month last year.
• Look beyond totals: a fall in visits matters less if key events stayed steady; a rise in visits matters little if enquiries did not change.

To make sure you are attracting the right visitors in the first place, pair GA4 with keyword research. Our guide on keyword research for small businesses explains how.

A monthly GA4 routine for business owners

Spend 20 to 30 minutes a month on the same few checks, so you notice changes early.

1. Check total key events against last month and the same month last year.
2. See which channels brought those key events.
3. Review your top ten pages and whether service pages are among them.
4. Look for pages with high traffic but few key events, and improve them.
5. If you run ads, compare paid traffic and key events with your ad spend.
6. Note anything unusual, such as a sudden traffic spike from an unknown source.

If you advertise on Google, our PPC services connect GA4 key events with Google Ads so campaigns are optimised for real enquiries.

Google Analytics 4 FAQs