You ask your team how many inquiries the website brought in last month, and where they came from. The answer is usually visitors and page views. Nobody knows the number of inquiries. Google Analytics is on the site because someone installed it two years ago, and nobody ever told it what an inquiry is. These are the steps to set up GA4 so it answers the question you care about.
How do you create a Google Analytics 4 account for your website?
Go to analytics.google.com with a Google account the company owns, create an account, then a property named after your website. Choose the right time zone and currency (Amman or Riyadh, dinars or riyals), because reports are calculated from them.
Then create a Web data stream and enter your website address. You'll get a measurement ID starting with G, which connects your site to the property. Leave enhanced measurement on. It automatically records events such as scrolling, outbound link clicks and file downloads.
Create the account with a company email address and add your service provider as a user with limited permissions. If the account is created with an employee's or agency's personal email, you can lose access to your data when they leave.
How do you install the Google tag on your website?
There are three ways, and you should use only one so data isn't recorded twice. The first is pasting the tag code into the head section of every page. The second is Google Tag Manager, which is the better fit if you'll be tracking many events. The third is an official plugin or integration for your platform, such as Site Kit for WordPress or the Google integration in Shopify.
After installing, open your website on your own device and look at the Realtime report in GA4. If your visit shows up within a minute or two, the tag is working.
Which conversions should a business website track?
Any action that means a visitor has become a potential customer. For most company websites, these are:
- Submitting the contact or quote request form.
- Clicking the WhatsApp button.
- Tapping the phone number on mobile.
- A purchase, if the site is a store.
- A booking or registration, if your service works by appointment.
Don't count a visit to the About page or a video view as a conversion. Those are useful for analysis, but treating them as conversions inflates your numbers and sends Google Ads the wrong signal.
How do you track forms, WhatsApp clicks and phone calls?
The simplest approach for a form is a separate thank-you page after submission. In GA4, create a new event from the events settings that fires when the thank-you page opens, and name it something like generate_lead. This is more accurate than automatic form interaction tracking, which may not catch every type of form.
For WhatsApp and call clicks, use Google Tag Manager. Create one trigger for clicks on links starting with wa.me or api.whatsapp.com and another for links starting with tel:, and send each as an event with a clear name. Then try each button yourself and confirm the event arrives in Preview mode and in DebugView.
- Property and data streamCorrect time zone and currency
- The tagOne installation method, checked in Realtime
- EventsForm, WhatsApp, call, purchase
- Key eventsDecide what counts as an inquiry
- LinkingGoogle Ads and Search Console
How do you mark key events in GA4?
Go to Admin, then Events, and switch on "Mark as key event" next to the events you chose. Google renamed "conversions" in GA4 to "key events" and kept the word "conversion" for what gets imported into Google Ads. You'll see both terms in guides, and they mean roughly the same thing.
An event must have reached GA4 at least once before it appears in the list, so trigger it before you go looking for it.
After any change to the website, such as a new form, a changed WhatsApp button or a redesign, test your key events again. Tracking often breaks this way, and nobody notices until the campaigns seem to have stopped bringing in inquiries.
Which settings complete the setup?
- Data retention: change it to the longest period available in the data collection settings, since the default is short.
- Internal traffic: define your office IP addresses so your team's visits aren't counted.
- Google Ads link: set it up under Product links, then import your key events as conversions for your campaigns.
- Search Console link: so you can see the search queries that brought in visits.
- UTM tags: add them to campaign links in email, influencer posts and social media so you know the source of each visit.
Also state in your website's privacy policy that you use analytics and advertising tools. Google's own policies require it.
With this setup in place you can answer the question we started with, compare channels by cost per inquiry as described in paying for ads and getting no leads?, and use the same data for remarketing. We set up GA4 and tracking and connect them to campaigns as part of our digital marketing service. Send us your website link, and we'll tell you what it tracks now and what's missing.
Questions our partners ask
What's the difference between a key event and a conversion in GA4?
In GA4, important actions are called key events. When you import them into Google Ads they become conversions there, and Google Ads uses them to optimize campaigns.
Do I need Google Tag Manager?
It isn't required, though it makes the work much easier when you want to track WhatsApp clicks, calls and forms without editing the website code each time.
Why can't I see data older than two months in some reports?
GA4's default data retention period is short, and it affects Explorations reports. Change it to the longest period available in the data retention settings right after you create the property.
Written by the Visual Innovate team, the people who build, host and follow up systems, websites and apps for our clients in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt.
