Set up GA4 properly by deciding what the website is meant to achieve first, creating one property with a web data stream, reviewing the enhanced measurement settings, then marking only your few most important actions as key events and testing them before relying on the reports. Most analytics problems come from skipping the planning step, not from the tool.
Step 1: Write down the actions that matter
List three to six actions that show the site is working for the business: an enquiry form sent, a phone number tapped, a booking made, a purchase completed. Everything else is supporting information. This list drives the configuration, and it keeps you from marking every click as important. Our guide on what makes a modern business website convert helps you pick the actions that matter, and measuring creative campaign performance shows how to look beyond raw traffic.
Step 2: Create the property and web data stream
Collection is organised by data streams, which you manage under Admin, in Data collection and modification. Use one property per business or site you want reported together, and one web data stream per site. Keep access tidy: Google notes that changing enhanced measurement settings requires Editor access or higher at the property level, so give people the lowest role that lets them do their job.
Step 3: Review enhanced measurement
Enhanced measurement turns on automatic event tracking for a web stream with no code changes. According to Google’s help page, it can track:
| Event | When it fires (summarised) |
|---|---|
| Page views | Always collected, with a setting for browser history changes |
| Scrolls | When a user first reaches about 90 percent of page depth |
| Outbound clicks | Links to other domains |
| Site search | Results pages detected from common query parameters |
| Video engagement | YouTube embeds with JavaScript API support: start, progress, complete |
| File downloads | Links to common file types |
| Form interactions | form_start and form_submit |
Each type can be switched off individually. The same page warns that you must make sure no personally identifiable information is collected, so check that site search and form parameters do not capture names or emails. Form parameters also appear in reports only after you create custom dimensions for them.
Automatic events are a starting point, not a measurement plan. A form_submit event may fire for a newsletter box and a quote request alike, so check that what you track matches the actions you listed.
Step 4: Mark key events
A key event measures an action that is particularly important to the success of your business, and any event you collect can become one. In Admin, open the Key events page and mark the event. Keep the list short. If you run ads, key events are also what you will want to feed into your campaign reporting, which our guide on Google Ads conversion tracking covers.
Step 5: Name events carefully
Google documents limits that affect naming: event names can be up to 40 characters, and a key event whose name is longer will not be reported as a key event. Each event can carry 25 parameters, with parameter names up to 40 characters and values up to 100. Choose short, consistent, lower-case names and keep a shared list so developers and marketers use the same ones.
Step 6: Test before trusting
Trigger each key action yourself on the live site and confirm the event appears. Test on mobile as well as desktop. Repeat after every website change, because redesigns and new form plugins often break tracking silently.
Common pitfalls
- Marking dozens of events as key, so reports lose meaning.
- Forgetting to exclude internal traffic, which inflates numbers for small sites.
- Tracking the same action twice, once by a plugin and once by tag, doubling counts.
- Capturing personal data in event parameters or URLs.
- Never reviewing: setup is not finished until someone owns a monthly check.
- Treating automatic events as proof of intent. A scroll is not an enquiry.
What the data cannot tell you
Analytics shows what people did on your site, not why. Pair it with direct customer feedback and your own records of enquiries. If you deploy tracking through a tag manager, keep the same event list and testing routine, and check privacy and consent obligations in your markets should be checked with a qualified adviser.
Where Radiance Impact fits
Radiance Impact’s Technology division builds business websites and landing pages, and measurement planning is part of that work. To discuss a project, contact us or see Technology.
Sources
- Enhanced measurement events, Analytics Help (Google)
- Key events in Google Analytics 4, Analytics Help (Google)
- Event collection limits, Analytics Help (Google)
