Google Analytics is one of the most powerful free tools available to any business owner, and one of the most neglected. Most people install it, check the visitor count once, and never look again. Used properly, it shows how people find your website, which pages they spend time on, and whether your marketing is actually working.
Setting up GA4
You need a Google account, a GA4 property, and a snippet of code on your site. Most platforms make this straightforward through a plugin or settings panel. Allow 24 to 48 hours for data to populate, and at least a month before patterns become meaningful.
Metrics worth watching
Users and sessions
Users is the number of individual people who visited your site. Sessions is the number of visits. Track Users month on month to understand your traffic level.
Engagement rate
Replaces the old bounce rate. Measures sessions where someone was genuinely engaged: over 10 seconds on site, two or more pages viewed, or a conversion completed. Above 50% is healthy.
Traffic sources
Under Reports then Acquisition: Organic Search means Google is working. Direct means people typing your URL. Referral means links on other sites. Social means your social platforms. This tells you which channels deserve your time and budget.
Top pages
Under Reports, Engagement, Pages and Screens: see which pages get the most visits. Pages not getting traffic likely need better content or more internal links.
Conversions
Set up conversion tracking in GA4 Admin for contact form submissions, phone clicks, or downloads. This turns Analytics from a traffic counter into a proper business tool.
Using the data
A simple monthly habit: check whether traffic grew, see which source drove the most visits, review your top pages, identify your weakest pages. Half an hour a month, done consistently, puts you ahead of most small businesses.
eHull helps businesses in Hull and East Yorkshire set up Analytics and turn data into strategy. Find out more about our audience analytics service.