Set up Google Analytics 4 properly, start to finish
The complete GA4 setup for a small site, in order: create the property, add the tag, check it, exclude yourself, track signups and sales, and fix referrals.
A good Google Analytics 4 setup for a small site takes about an hour, done in this order: create the property and add the tag, check it works, exclude your own visits, set data retention, add consent if you need it, then track signups and sales and fix payment-page referrals. Each step below links to a full guide.
The checklist
Create a GA4 property and add the tag (10 minutes). Add GA4 to your website, or use the guide for your platform below.
Check it collects data (2 minutes). Realtime, DebugView, network tab. Check GA4 works.
Exclude your own visits (5 minutes). Exclude internal traffic.
Set data retention to 14 months (1 minute). Data retention.
Add a cookie banner and Consent Mode, if your visitors need it (15 minutes). Cookie banners and GA4.
Track signups and mark them as a key event (10 minutes). Track signups · Key events.
Track purchases, if you sell (15 minutes). Track purchases, or count a thank-you page.
Stop payment pages taking the credit (2 minutes). Unwanted referrals.
Tag the links you share from now on. UTM links.
Add your site to Search Console, to see Google search too (10 minutes). Add your site to Search Console.
Add GA4 to your platform
Next.js
WordPress
Webflow
Framer
Shopify
Ghost
Lovable, Bolt and v0
Squarespace
Wix
Carrd
Astro
Plain HTML
Google Tag Manager
With an AI coding agent
Two domains?
If your app and marketing site are on different domains, set up cross-domain measurement. Subdomains don't need it.
What not to bother with yet
For a small site, you can skip these until you need them: custom dimensions, audiences, BigQuery export, Google signals and attribution settings. They add complexity without answering the questions that matter early on.
Related
Last updated
Overview
Plain-words, step-by-step guides to Google Analytics 4, Search Console and Stripe for small sites: setup, signups, sales, AI traffic and Google search.
Add GA4 to your website
Set up Google Analytics 4 in about five minutes: create an account and property, add a web stream, and put the Google tag on every page of your site.