In this article
You likely have Google Analytics 4 installed on your website. The question is whether you ever open it — and if you understand what you're seeing when you do.
What is GA4 — and why did Google switch?
Google Analytics 4, or GA4, is Google's free tool for understanding what's happening on your website. It measures traffic, user behaviour, and — if set up correctly — conversions.
In July 2023, Google switched off the old system, Universal Analytics (UA), forcing everyone to GA4. This caused frustration because GA4 is built on a fundamentally different logic. UA measured page views and sessions. GA4 measures events, i.e. specific actions users take on the page.
The good news: once you understand the logic, GA4 is actually more flexible and more precise than the old system. The bad news: the interface isn't particularly intuitive, and it takes some time to find what actually matters.
What you need in place before you start
GA4 is not particularly complicated to set up, but three things must be in place for the data to make sense.
1. GA4 must be correctly installed on the website.
Either via Google Tag Manager (recommended) or directly in the code. The quickest place to check: open your website in Chrome, right-click and select "Inspect", go to "Network" and reload the page. Search for "collect" in the filter. Do you see traffic to google-analytics.com? Then it's installed.
2. Google Search Console must be linked to GA4.
This allows you to see keyword data directly in GA4, not just in Search Console. Link under: Admin → Product Links → Search Console links. If you're unsure about Search Console, I've written a dedicated introduction to Google Search Console.
3. Conversion events must be defined.
A conversion is what you want visitors to do: fill out a contact form, click on an email, complete a purchase. Without this, you don't know if the website is actually performing. Set up under Admin → Events → Mark as conversion.
Where does traffic come from? — the most important report
This is the report I always open first. It tells you which channels are actually sending visitors to your website, and in what quantity.
You can find it under: Reports → Life cycle → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition.
Here are the channels you'll encounter, and what they actually mean:
Organic Search — free traffic from Google
This is traffic from people who have searched for something on Google and clicked on your website. It's the channel SEO work directly impacts. Is this growing over time? Then your content efforts are working.
Direct — but not always what you think
Direct traffic refers to visitors who type your URL directly, or have it saved as a bookmark. But Direct is also a catch-all: traffic GA4 cannot track ends up here. High direct traffic can mean your tracking is missing somewhere, for example, email campaigns without UTM parameters.
Referral — who is sending you visitors?
Referral is traffic from other websites that link to you. A partner mentioning you on their website, an online newspaper that has featured you, or a directory you're listed in. Here you can drill down and see exactly which websites are sending you traffic, and what kind of visitors they send.
Organic Social — traffic from social media
Traffic from organic posts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and similar platforms. Not paid advertising, but posts that generate clicks. For many small businesses, this is surprisingly low compared to the effort put into social media.
Paid Search and Paid Social — paid traffic
Traffic from Google Ads and paid ads on social media. Requires campaigns to be correctly tagged with UTM parameters to appear here.
How to find out who's sending you traffic: Referral step by step
You notice that the Referral channel shows traffic. But who is actually sending visitors? Here's how to drill down to the source.
Find referral sources
| Step | How to do it |
|---|---|
| 1 | Go to Reports → Life cycle → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition |
| 2 | Find "Referral" in the channel list and click on it |
| 3 | You will now see a new table where each row is a source URL, for example leads.io, finn.no, or a partner website |
| 4 | The columns show the number of sessions, engaged time, and conversions from each source |
| 5 | Click on a specific source to see which pages visitors landed on |
Filter by a specific source
Do you want to isolate traffic from one specific website, for example, leads.io?
| Step | How to do it |
|---|---|
| 1 | In the same report, click on "Add filter" at the top of the table (the small filter icon) |
| 2 | Select "Session source" as the dimension |
| 3 | Choose "contains" as the condition |
| 4 | Type in "leads.io" (or the website you want to investigate) and click "Apply" |
| 5 | You will now only see traffic from this source: how many, which pages they visited, and if they converted |
Other reports that are actually useful
Which pages are working — and which aren't?
Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens.
Here you see which pages are getting traffic, the average engaged time per page, and the number of conversions from each page. A page with a lot of traffic and low engaged time signals that the content didn't meet visitors' expectations. A page with low traffic but a high conversion rate signals that you should send more traffic there.
Who is visiting the website?
Reports → User → User attributes → Overview.
Here you see country, device (mobile vs. desktop), browser, and whether they are new or returning visitors. Is 80 percent of your traffic on mobile? Then the mobile experience is critical. Does most of your traffic come from outside the UK? That could signal that your content is attracting the wrong target audience.
Are visitors doing what you want?
Reports → Engagement → Conversions.
This assumes you have defined conversion events. Here you see the number of conversions per event, and which channel generates the most. Organic search might bring many visitors, but Referral might bring fewer but better quality ones. This report actually tells you if your traffic is valuable.
The three numbers I always look at first
When I open GA4 for a client, I always go to these three first. Everything else is context.
1. Organic Search traffic — month-over-month
Is it going up or down compared to the previous month and the same month last year? This is the most direct measure of whether SEO efforts are delivering results. Use the date picker in the top right and select "Compare to previous period".
2. Conversion rate per channel
Which channel sends visitors who actually do something? A referral source that sends 50 visitors with a 10 percent conversion rate is more valuable than one that sends 500 with zero conversions.
3. Which pages get traffic — and which don't
Pages you've invested time in should appear here. If they don't, it's a signal that they're not ranking or that the content isn't hitting the mark. There's a direct link between this report and what you should prioritise in your content efforts.
What I often see go wrong with GA4
Installed, but never checked
GA4 is set up by a developer at launch, and no one has opened it since. This is the most common situation I encounter. Data is collected, but no one uses it to make decisions.
No conversion events
You see traffic, but you don't know if it's doing anything useful. Without conversions, GA4 is like counting people entering a shop without knowing who buys something.
Too many numbers, no conclusion
GA4 can show you an extreme amount. It's easy to spend an hour clicking around without coming to any conclusion. The solution: always start with one question. "Where did traffic come from this month?" is a question. "Show me everything" is not.
Comparing the wrong periods
Comparing January with December won't give you useful information because traffic varies seasonally. Always compare with the same period last year, or use a longer average. Use the "Compare" function in the date picker.
Action plan: Get started with GA4 this week
- Check that GA4 is installed and collecting data. analytics.google.com → see if you have data from the last 30 days.
- Link Google Search Console. Admin → Product Links → Search Console links.
- Define one conversion event. What's the most important thing a visitor can do on your website? Contact form, purchase, email click. Admin → Events → Mark as conversion.
- Open the traffic acquisition report. Reports → Life cycle → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition. Which channel is sending you the most traffic?
- Set aside 30 minutes monthly. The same report, the same questions, month after month. That's where patterns emerge.
In summary: My opinion on GA4
GA4 isn't intuitive, and the transition from the old system was unnecessarily confusing. But it's the tool we have, and once you know which three to four reports actually matter to you, it takes no more than 30 minutes a month.
The most important thing isn't to understand everything. It's to use it regularly enough that you discover trends over time. A single month tells you little. Six months of data tells you which channels are growing, which pages are bringing traffic, and if your website is actually converting.
Here you can read more about GA4
- support.google.com/analytics — official documentation and guides for all GA4 features
- search.google.com/search-console — links to GA4 to display keyword data directly in the analytics tool
- My guide to Google Search Console — how to set up and use Search Console in combination with GA4
