How to Set Up Google Analytics 4 and Actually See Your Traffic
Without analytics you are guessing about what works. Here is how to set up GA4, confirm it is tracking, and mark the actions that matter.
Reviewed by Jacob Rhinehart for Strelva's co-founder; products and operations lead responsibilities.
If you do not have analytics installed, you are running your website blind. You cannot tell which pages bring in customers, which marketing channels are worth the money, or whether a change helped or hurt. Google Analytics 4, or GA4, is free and is now the standard; the old Universal Analytics was fully retired in 2024, so GA4 is what you set up today.
What GA4 gives you
It shows where visitors come from, what they do on your site, and which actions they take. With it, you can stop guessing and start spending your time and budget where they actually pay off.
Step by step
- Create a GA4 property. Sign in at analytics.google.com and create an account and a property for your site. It is free.
- Set up a web data stream. Add your website as a data stream and leave Enhanced Measurement on, which automatically tracks scrolls, outbound clicks, file downloads, and more.
- Install the tag. Copy your Measurement ID (it looks like G-XXXXXXXXXX) and add the tracking code to every page, via your platform's analytics field, an SEO plugin, or Google Tag Manager.
- Confirm it works. Open the Realtime report, browse your own site in another tab, and check that you appear as an active user with page-view events.
- Mark conversions. Flag the actions that matter, such as form submissions and phone-number clicks, as key events so you can measure real outcomes, not just visits.
- Give it time. Standard reports populate over 24 to 48 hours; Realtime is instant for confirming the install.
Note on terminology
GA4 renamed "conversions" to "key events" in 2024, though you will still see "conversion" language in places tied to Google Ads. They refer to the same idea: the actions you have decided are worth measuring.
Frequently asked
What business owners ask next.
Is Universal Analytics still an option?
No. Universal Analytics (the old UA-XXXXX properties) stopped processing data and was fully removed in 2024. GA4, with its G-XXXXXXXXXX Measurement ID, is the only current version of Google Analytics.
My Realtime report shows zero users. What's wrong?
Confirm the tracking code is actually on the page by viewing the source and searching for 'gtag,' disable any ad blocker, and test in an incognito window. Ad blockers and a missing tag are the usual causes.
Why does my data look incomplete?
Allow 24 to 48 hours for standard reports to process, make sure the tag is on every page rather than just the homepage, and expect ad blockers to filter a portion of visits. Some gap is normal.