What is Google Analytics? How Does It Work? What Is It Used For?

Do you want to know about Google Analytics and how to use it? You’ve come to the right page.

Google Analytics is a free web analytics platform from Google that helps site owners understand how people find and use their sites. It collects data about traffic, page views, user interactions, engagement and important actions, like purchases or form submissions.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the current version of Google Analytics. It uses an event-based measurement model to record interactions across websites and apps.

You can use its reports to analyze traffic sources, identify popular pages, measure marketing performance and understand how visitors interact with your content.

In this guide, you’ll learn what Google Analytics is, how it works, how to set it up, which metrics to monitor and how to use GA4 reports to improve your website’s performance.

What is Google Analytics?

Every activity on the internet leaves a mark in today’s digital world. That includes interactions on your website.

Google Analytics is a tool generously offered by Google to use that mark to your advantage. It’s an analytics tool that tracks everything that happens on your website. How does this help, you ask?

Google Analytics allows you to keep track of your website like never before. But, before we tell you more, you must understand what web analytics is. That’s because Google Analytics revolves around that topic.

Web analytics might sound like a small term, but its presence is huge for website owners. Web analytics is basically a technology that keeps track of who does what on your website and gives you that information.

If you have ads on social media for your website, people will visit your website at some point. And if you have an analytics tool installed on your site, then it’ll track the visitors and their interaction when they come to your website. It’ll also measure how many of your products or services get what level of attention.

From the measured data that will be available to you, you can work on what needs improvement, what’s not getting much attention, and even set up your future products to gain more attention.

Now, what Google Analytics does is pretty much the same but better. It’s the most popular and best web and app analytics tool on the market that collects information about user activity and organizes it into reports.

It helps your website soar higher with advanced tracking that measures and helps improve your digital presence. On top of that, it’s free. Plus, Google Analytics 360 provides paid enterprise features.

Imagine having the best analytics service available for free.

It’s so good that 29.3 million websites use Google Analytics to boost their digital presence. Google Analytics also has over 348 million websites tracked in its database. Now, let’s see why it’s so important and why so many websites use this specific tool.

Why is Google Analytics Important? What Can You Do with the Data Available?

We can’t stress enough how important web analytics is for your website. Be it a business website or a blog, with analytics you’re always one step ahead. Now, if you’re wondering why we love Google Analytics so much and what a game-changer it is, hear us out.

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Nothing great comes free”. Google Analytics proves this wrong. And this is one of the main reasons why we absolutely love Google Analytics. You don’t get charged a dime for this tool.

You might ask, “Why is it so important for me?” There are a number of reasons why it’s important for your website. The first one is that it collects data from your website automatically. That is, once you install it on your website.

This means that you can focus on your website instead of worrying about your traffic. You can also ask it to put all that data in a spreadsheet if you want to look at it later. By default, you can view your daily report from the Google Analytics tab.

If you thought that would make your life easier, Google Analytics also generates custom reports. This way, you can look at the data you want to and ask Google Analytics to make a customized report with your preferences.

Like most Google services, Google Analytics is minimalist and has an easy-to-use dashboard. Moreover, you can monitor your website’s traffic from wherever you are. Simply download the app from Google Play Store and monitor your website on the go.

Now, what can you do with the available data? Here’s what you can do:

• Google Analytics is easily integrated with Google Ads. And if you have Google ads on your website, this helps you immensely boost your website because you’ll have even more data to work with.
• This analytics tool has amazing advanced features as well. One of those features is the “Site Search” feature. It basically gives you insight into what visitors on your website want from your website. If you can, you should look into adding those products or services on your website.
• Next is the bounce rate. The bounce rate is how fast people click away from your website after visiting only one page. So, if your website’s bounce rate is high, it means you should look into making that specific page more attractive.
• It could also be because your website isn’t easy to navigate for your visitors or they didn’t find what they came for. Bounce rate is one of the most important metrics you should be measuring. We’ll get into more of that during the course of this article.
• Google Analytics also shows your visitors’ age, gender, location, and device if they have logged into their Google account. This gives you an idea of what type of people you should be targeting the most and in which region. Some meaningful insight indeed.
• You can also view where those visitors came from. If you have a strong social media presence, you should be looking into this. This way, you can promote your website where it’s necessary instead of promoting it everywhere, every time.

With all this data, you now have an idea of what kind of content your audience wants to see. This is one of the most important parts of increasing your digital presence.

Giving people what they’re looking for. Of course, like everything else, Google Analytics isn’t the perfect tool yet but it’s definitely the best and our points above prove it even more.

How Does Google Analytics Work?

Google Analytics is an analytics tool provided by Google for free to website owners like us. It’s the dominant tool as no other analytics tool offers as many metrics and customizations as Google Analytics. So, how does this analytics giant really work?

Google Analytics 4 uses an event-based measurement model to collect information about interactions on websites and apps. It organizes this information into reports that help website owners understand traffic, engagement and user activity.

The process has three main stages. Let’s see how all three of these work in detail.

1. Collecting data

When you install the Google tag or configure a supported integration, GA4 can collect information about interactions on your website. These interactions are recorded as events. Examples include:

• page_view when a user views a page.
• scroll when a user reaches the configured scroll threshold, provided enhanced measurement is enabled.
• click when a user clicks an eligible outbound link, provided enhanced measurement is enabled.
• form_submit when the corresponding event is implemented or collected through a suitable configuration.
• purchase when ecommerce tracking sends the required purchase event.

GA4 automatically collects certain events, while enhanced measurement collects selected interactions when enabled. Other actions require custom tracking or additional configuration.

The data collected depends on the website implementation, consent choices, available identifiers and measurement settings.

2. Processing acquired data

GA4 processes incoming events and associates relevant information with dimensions and metrics. Dimensions describe characteristics, such as page title, country, source or event name. Metrics measure quantities, such as users, sessions, event counts and revenue.

For example, GA4 can group sessions by their traffic source and compare how users from organic search interact with users from paid campaigns.

Processing, reporting identity and attribution settings affect how the data appears in reports. Some reporting features may use modelling or aggregated data when applicable.

3. Generating reports

GA4 organises processed data into reports and explorations. You can review traffic acquisition, page performance, engagement, ecommerce activity and key events.

For example, if a landing page attracts many users but generates few enquiries, you can compare its acquisition sources, engagement metrics and key event performance. You can then investigate whether the page content, calls to action or enquiry process needs improvement.

Google Analytics provides measurement data, not automatic explanations for every user action. Use the reports to identify patterns and guide further analysis.

How to Use Google Analytics? (Set-Up)

Google Analytics may sound like a pretty difficult tool to set up and use for first-timers. If you’re using Google Analytics for the first time, this is where we’ll show you how to set it up on your website regardless of your website type. This won’t take a lot of time so let’s get started.

To make the setup process even easier, let’s go through it one step at a time.

Step 1: Create a Google Analytics 4 Property

Google Analytics is completely free. To create an account, go to https://analytics.google.com and sign in with your Google account. If you have an account linked to your browser, it’ll sign you in automatically.

Then, click the ‘Start Measuring‘ button.

Now, enter your account name to display on GA. Next, configure the Account Data Sharing Settings. Lastly, hit ‘Next.’

After that, create a property. For that, enter the name, time zone, and currency. Then, click ‘Next.’

Following that, describe your business. Select the industry and business size. Similarly, select the business objectives. This involves generating leads, driving sales, understanding web/app traffic, user engagement analytics, or others.

Lastly, click the ‘Create‘ button. This involves accepting Google Analytics Terms of Service Agreement.

Once you accept the agreement, you’ve to choose how to collect data. This involves the web or any app. You can configure data stream based on your choice, or skip the process for now. Here, we’ll go with ‘Web.’

For the web data stream, enter the website URL and stream name, then review the enhanced measurement settings.

Moving forward, GA4 will provide a Google tag or installation instructions for the web stream. You need to install the tag correctly before Analytics can collect website activity.

If you already have a GA4 property for the website, check the existing setup before creating another property or installing another tag. Duplicate implementations can lead to duplicate events and inaccurate reporting.

Google Tag is some lines of code written in JavaScript. This is the code we were talking about before. That’s right! The code that helps you track interactions on your website.

You don’t have to worry about what the code says, just copy all of it for now. Let’s go to the second step.

Step 2: Install the Google Analytics Plugin to WordPress

This step can be somewhat difficult because it depends on your type of website. But fear not, we’ve made it as easy as possible for you.

Let’s start with WordPress websites as they are the easiest to install with a Google Analytics plugin. Check out our complete guide on how to set up Google Analytics on WordPress using a plugin.

We recommend MonsterInsights, but you can go with any WordPress analytics plugin. Otherwise, use a suitable Google tag integration or Google Tag Manager. While using a plugin, verify that it installs the tag correctly.

The process differs for other website builder platforms, including Shopify and Wix. Just follow the platform’s current Google Analytics integration instructions. Available settings and installation methods vary by platform.

We should also mention self-created websites. If you’ve coded your own website, congratulations! You’ve skipped almost every hassle. All you’ll need to do is paste the tracking code inside your <head>…</head> section on every page.

That’s it. Really easy and convenient. Let’s jump into the last step right away, shall we?

Step 3: Make Sure That Google Analytics is Working

After installing GA4, open the Realtime report to check whether your website activity appears. Visit your website and interact with its pages to test tracking. You can use DebugView to verify events in more detail.

Standard reports may take 24–48 hours to process data. Check again later to confirm that your data appears correctly.

Once tracking works, you can start exploring the most important Google Analytics metrics to measure your website’s performance.

Most Important Metrics in Google Analytics

Metrics are the measurements by which you can find out what’s going on in your website. Google Analytics provides you a lot of metrics to keep track of your website. Metrics are a good way of converting your visitors to your customers.

“How?”, you ask? Well, simply put, metrics are data on your website interactions. When a new visitor comes to your website and performs an action, it’s recorded. That can help you identify what you need to do to convert that visitor into your customer.

There are a lot of metrics in Google Analytics from which you can collect data on almost everything going on in your website. Here are some of the original metrics:

The table below points out some recent metrics you can find:

That was all for the most important metrics you need to constantly monitor in order to make your website better. Next up, let’s look into the types of reports that Google Analytics offers.

Reports in Google Analytics

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) provides several reports that help you understand website traffic, user behaviour, engagement and conversions. Each report focuses on a different aspect of website performance.

Overall, these reports help you identify traffic sources, popular pages, audience characteristics and opportunities for improvement. Let’s look at the main reports available in GA4 and how you can use them.

Let’s talk about the standard reports in order.

1. Reports Snapshot

The Reports snapshot provides an overview of your website’s performance. It brings together key metrics from different GA4 reports, helping you monitor website activity without opening each report individually.

Depending on your property’s configuration, the snapshot may include total users, new users, sessions, engagement rate, event count, key events and revenue.

You can use this report to:

• Monitor changes in website traffic over a selected period.
• Check user engagement and important events.
• Review traffic acquisition and revenue trends.
• Identify metrics that need further investigation.

For example, if your website receives more users than the previous month but records fewer key events, you can open the relevant acquisition and engagement reports to investigate the change.

2. Realtime Report

The Realtime report shows activity from users who have visited your website during the last 30 minutes. It helps you monitor recent activity and check whether your website is collecting data.

The report provides information about active users, their approximate locations, traffic sources, viewed pages and screens, and events triggered during their visits.

You can use the Realtime report to:

• Check whether Google Analytics is receiving data after installation.
• Monitor visitors arriving from a newly published campaign.
• See which pages users view during recent visits.
• Verify whether important events trigger when users interact with your website.

For example, after publishing a new blog post and sharing it on social media, you can check the Realtime report to see whether visitors are arriving from that campaign.

Keep in mind that the Realtime report focuses on recent activity. Use other GA4 reports to analyse longer periods and identify traffic trends.

3. Acquisition Reports

Acquisition reports explain how users find your website and which channels bring traffic to your pages. They help you evaluate the performance of organic search, paid advertising, referrals, social media, email campaigns and direct traffic.

GA4 provides two main acquisition reports.

User Acquisition

The User Acquisition report shows how users first arrived at your website. It uses the first-user source, medium and campaign dimensions to help you understand where new users originally discovered your website.

For example, the report may show that a user first discovered your website through Google organic search. If that user returns later through a paid advertisement, their original user acquisition source remains organic search.

You can use this report to:

• Identify channels that attract new users.
• Compare new-user acquisition across marketing campaigns.
• Understand which sources introduce users to your website.
• Evaluate the long-term value of different acquisition channels.

Traffic Acquisition

The Traffic Acquisition report focuses on sessions rather than a user’s first visit. It shows which sources, mediums and campaigns bring visits to your website.

For example, a returning user may visit your website through an email campaign, while another session may begin through organic search. Traffic Acquisition helps you compare these visits by channel.

You can use this report to:

• Measure traffic from organic search and paid campaigns.
• Compare sessions from different referral sources.
• Evaluate campaign performance using UTM parameters.
• Identify channels that generate engaged sessions and key events.

For SEO, these reports help you assess organic search traffic and compare its performance with other acquisition channels.

4. Engagement Reports

Engagement reports show how users interact with your website after arriving. They help you understand which pages attract attention, which actions users take and how effectively your content supports your website goals.

GA4 includes several engagement reports.

Events Report

The Events report records interactions that GA4 collects or that you configure through event tracking. Examples include page views, scrolls, outbound clicks, file downloads, form submissions and purchases, depending on your tracking setup.

You can use this report to:

• Identify common user interactions.
• Monitor clicks and other tracked actions.
• Check whether important events are being recorded.
• Measure interactions related to your business objectives.

For example, a service business could track form submissions to understand how frequently website visitors express interest in its services.

Pages and Screens Report

The Pages and screens report shows which web pages users view and which screens app users access. For websites, it can provide metrics such as views, users, views per active user, average engagement time and event counts.

You can use this report to:

• Identify pages that attract the most views.
• Compare engagement across blog posts and service pages.
• Find pages that attract traffic but receive limited engagement.
• Assess how users interact with important landing pages.

For example, if a blog post receives substantial organic traffic but generates few enquiries, you could review its content, internal links and calls to action.

Landing Page Report

The Landing page report shows the first page users visit during a session. It helps you assess how effectively individual landing pages attract and engage visitors.

You can use this report to:

• Compare landing pages by sessions and engagement.
• Identify pages that attract organic search traffic.
• Measure key events associated with landing pages.
• Find opportunities to improve content and calls to action.

Engagement Metrics

GA4 uses engagement metrics to help you understand how actively users interact with your website. These include engagement rate, engaged sessions and average engagement time.

An engaged session is a session that lasts longer than 10 seconds, includes a key event, or has at least two page or screen views.

Engagement rate represents the percentage of sessions that qualify as engaged sessions. Bounce rate is the percentage of sessions that were not engaged sessions.

These metrics help you evaluate user interaction, but they should be interpreted alongside the website’s purpose and business objectives.

5. Monetization Reports

Monetization reports help you analyze purchases, revenue and product performance on websites, and apps that collect the relevant ecommerce data.

Depending on your implementation and reporting configuration, these reports may show purchase revenue, items purchased, product performance and other revenue-related metrics.

Use them to compare sales over time, identify products that generate revenue and investigate how marketing channels contribute to purchases.

For accurate reporting, configure the required ecommerce events and parameters, including transaction details, item information, value and currency. Installing GA4 alone does not guarantee that every purchase or product interaction will be tracked.

Therefore, you can use Monetization reports to:

• Track ecommerce revenue and purchases.
• Identify products that generate the most sales.
• Compare purchase activity across marketing channels.
• Evaluate revenue trends over time.
• Understand how users interact with products before purchasing.

For example, an online store can analyse which products generate the most revenue and compare purchasing activity across organic search, paid advertising and email campaigns.

Accurate ecommerce reporting requires the relevant events and parameters to be implemented correctly. Simply installing GA4 does not guarantee that every purchase or product interaction will be tracked.

6. Retention Reports

Retention reports help you understand whether users return to your website after their first visit. They provide information about user retention and engagement over time.

These reports are useful for websites that aim to build repeat visits, such as blogs, membership websites, online stores and subscription services.

You can use Retention reports to:

• Compare new and returning user activity.
• Understand how frequently users return.
• Monitor user retention over time.
• Assess whether content or marketing campaigns encourage repeat visits.

For example, a blog may use retention data to understand whether readers return after their first visit. An ecommerce website may review repeat-user activity to assess whether customers continue visiting after their initial purchase.

Retention metrics do not explain why users return or leave. You may need to combine them with acquisition, engagement and key event data to understand changes in user behaviour.

7. User Attributes Reports

User attributes reports provide information about the characteristics of your website audience. Depending on available data and reporting configuration, they may include country, city, language, age, gender and interests.

These reports help you understand which audience groups visit your website and how their activity differs.

You can use User attributes reports to:

• Review traffic by country and city.
• Understand the languages used by your audience.
• Compare engagement across available demographic groups.
• Identify audience segments that contribute to important events.

For example, if most of your website traffic comes from Australia but a significant share of enquiries comes from another country, you could investigate differences in traffic sources, landing pages and user engagement.

Demographic and interest data are subject to Google’s data collection, privacy and eligibility requirements. GA4 does not provide complete demographic information for every visitor, so avoid treating these reports as a full picture of your audience.

8. Tech Reports

Tech reports explain how users access and interact with your website across different devices and technologies. They may include device categories, browsers, operating systems, screen resolutions and platform information.

You can use these reports to:

• Compare website activity on desktop, mobile and tablet devices.
• Identify browsers and operating systems used by your audience.
• Investigate differences in engagement across devices.
• Find potential technical issues affecting specific user groups.

For example, if mobile users have a lower engagement rate than desktop users, you could check the mobile layout, page speed, navigation and form usability.

Tech reports help you identify patterns that deserve further investigation. A difference in engagement does not automatically mean that a technical problem exists.

9. Search Console Reports in Google Analytics

Google Analytics can display selected Google Search Console reports when you link an eligible Search Console property to your GA4 property and meet the relevant reporting requirements.

These reports complement GA4’s acquisition and engagement data by providing information about your website’s performance in Google Search.

Search Console data includes metrics such as clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average search position. GA4, in contrast, measures activity on your website after users arrive.

You can use the combined data to:

• Review Google Search clicks and impressions.
• Compare search performance with website engagement.
• Identify landing pages that receive search traffic.
• Investigate opportunities to improve content and user experience.

For example, a page with many search impressions but a low click-through rate may need a more relevant title or meta description. A page with strong search traffic but limited engagement may need a closer review of its content and user experience.

Remember that linking Search Console does not make all search queries or Search Console metrics available inside every GA4 report. Use Search Console directly when you need a more detailed SEO analysis.

10. Advertising Reports

Advertising reports help you analyse how different marketing touchpoints contribute to important actions on your website or app. They are particularly useful when you link Google Analytics with Google Ads and configure the relevant measurement settings.

Depending on your property and available reporting features, you can use these reports to review attribution paths, compare marketing channels and understand how credit for key events is distributed across user journeys.

For example, a customer may first discover a business through organic search, return through an email campaign and later complete a purchase after clicking an advertisement. Attribution reports help you analyse the contribution of these touchpoints.

Use Advertising reports alongside acquisition and key event reports rather than relying on one report to evaluate the performance of every marketing channel.

Report availability and the data shown depend on your property configuration, linked advertising accounts and measurement setup.

Note: GA4 report names, navigation and available metrics may vary depending on your property, reporting configuration, permissions and collected data. Some reports require additional setup before they appear.

Google Analytics Major Features and Settings

In this section, we’ve made a list of some major features and settings that you should have enabled on Google Analytics.

• Ecommerce Tracking
• Events and Key Events
• Campaign Tracking with UTM Parameters
• Google Ads Integration
• Excluding Internal Traffic

1. Ecommerce Tracking

GA4 ecommerce tracking measures how users interact with products and complete purchases on an online store. It relies on ecommerce events and parameters that send the required product, transaction and revenue information to Analytics.

Common ecommerce events include:

• view_item when a user views a product.
• add_to_cart when a user adds a product to their cart.
• begin_checkout when a user begins checkout.
• purchase when a purchase is completed.

These events help you analyse the shopping journey, identify where users stop progressing and compare product performance.

For example, if many users add products to their carts but few complete purchases, review the checkout experience, shipping costs, payment options and any technical issues.

To implement ecommerce tracking, configure the appropriate events and parameters for your store platform or tracking setup. Test the events in DebugView and verify the resulting data in GA4 reports.

Remember that these reports depend on correct implementation. GA4 does not automatically know the product details, order value or transaction information for every website.

2. Events and Key Events

Events record interactions that take place on your website or app. Examples include page views, scrolls, product views, form submissions and purchases, depending on your tracking setup.

A key event is an event that measures an action that is particularly important to your business. You can designate an appropriate event as a key event in GA4.

For example, a service business might track a successful enquiry form submission, while an online store might track a completed purchase. A publisher might measure newsletter registrations.

To configure key events:

1. Identify the action you want to measure.
2. Confirm that GA4 records the corresponding event correctly.
3. Open the Events or key event management area in your GA4 property.
4. Mark the appropriate event as a key event using the available controls.
5. Test the event and check its reporting data.

The exact interface may vary as Google updates Analytics. Choose meaningful events that reflect your business objectives rather than marking every interaction as a key event.

Use key event reports to evaluate important actions alongside traffic acquisition, landing page performance and engagement metrics.

3. Campaign Tracking with UTM Parameters

UTM parameters help you identify traffic from marketing campaigns in Google Analytics. They are particularly useful for email marketing, social media promotions, newsletters and other links where campaign details may not be available automatically.

The main parameters are:

• utm_source identifies the source, such as a newsletter or social platform.
• utm_medium identifies the marketing medium, such as email or paid social.
• utm_campaign identifies the campaign name.
• utm_content can distinguish different links or creative variations.
• utm_term can identify paid search keywords when relevant.

For example, a newsletter link might use utm_source=newsletter, utm_medium=email and utm_campaign=october_update.

Use consistent naming conventions across campaigns. Inconsistent values, such as Email, email and e-mail, can split campaign reporting into separate entries.

Before adding UTM parameters, review how your existing links and advertising platforms identify campaign traffic. Do not add unnecessary parameters to every internal website link, because doing so can interfere with traffic attribution.

4. Google Ads Integration

Linking Google Analytics with Google Ads helps you analyse advertising activity alongside website engagement and important user actions.

After linking the accounts, review the available advertising reports, key event configuration, conversion settings and attribution options. This helps you understand how advertising traffic interacts with your website and contributes to your marketing objectives.

Google Analytics key events and Google Ads conversions serve related but distinct purposes. A key event measures an important action in Analytics, while a Google Ads conversion supports advertising measurement and campaign optimisation.

Check the conversion setup before importing events or using Analytics data to optimise advertising campaigns. This helps reduce inconsistencies between the two platforms.

5. Excluding Internal Traffic

Internal traffic includes visits from your own team, office network or other sources that you do not want mixed with normal customer activity.

GA4 lets you define internal traffic rules and configure a data filter to exclude matching events from your reporting data.

To configure internal traffic:

1. Open Admin in your GA4 property.
2. Under Data collection and modification, open Data streams.
3. Select your web data stream.
4. Open Configure tag settings and find Define internal traffic.
5. Create a rule that identifies your internal traffic, such as an office IP address or an applicable IP range.
6. Open Data filters and configure an Internal Traffic filter.
7. Use the testing state to check the rule before activating the exclusion filter.

Check that the rule identifies the intended traffic before applying it. Once an exclusion filter is active, the excluded data is not available in Analytics reports or BigQuery through normal processing.

For that reason, test the configuration carefully and review Google’s current instructions before activating the filter.

How to Set Measurement Objectives with Google Analytics?

Before reviewing Google Analytics reports, decide what you want your website to achieve.

Your measurement setup should reflect your business objectives, whether you want to generate leads, increase sales, grow newsletter subscriptions or improve content performance.

Use the following steps to set up and measure your website objectives in Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

Your objectives should guide which metrics you monitor. For example, if a service page receives substantial organic traffic but generates few enquiries, review the search intent, page content, calls to action and enquiry process.

Focus on meaningful events and use the resulting data to make informed decisions about your website.

FAQs on Google Analytics

Conclusion

In this article, we talked about one of the best analytics tools on the internet, Google Analytics.

We also guided you through the set-up process and talked about major things you should keep in mind while using Google Analytics. Plus, we helped you get the best settings available on Google Analytics to improve your website.

Hope you had as much fun as we did throughout the course of this article. We would love to hear your thoughts on this article so feel free to comment on any queries or suggestions below.

Further, do check out our other articles on popular types of websites you can build and the best website builder platforms.

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