Setting Up Google Analytics
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a free tool that shows you how visitors find and use your website — which pages they visit, how long they stay, where they come from, and what actions they take. Installing it takes about 15 minutes and gives you data you can act on immediately.
1. Create a GA4 Property
- Go to analytics.google.com and sign in with your Google account.
- Click Admin (gear icon, bottom left) → Create Property.
- Enter your website name, select your time zone (Eastern Time for Ottawa), and choose your currency (CAD).
- Select your industry category and business size, then click Next.
- Choose Web as your platform, enter your website URL, and click Create Stream.
- Copy your Measurement ID (format: G-XXXXXXXXXX) — you will need it in the next step.
2. Install the Tracking Code
Add the GA4 snippet to every page of your site. The snippet goes inside the <head> tag, as early as possible:
<!-- Google Analytics -->
<script async
src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XXXXXXXXXX">
</script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXXXX');
</script>
Replace G-XXXXXXXXXX with your actual Measurement ID. If Isuso Works built your site, share this ID with us and we will handle the installation.
Using Google Tag Manager?
If your site already uses Google Tag Manager (GTM), add GA4 as a tag inside GTM rather than pasting the snippet directly into your HTML. This keeps all tracking code in one place and avoids loading conflicts.
3. Verify the Installation
After adding the snippet, confirm data is flowing:
- In GA4, go to Reports → Realtime.
- Open your website in a different tab or browser window and navigate a few pages.
- Within 60 seconds you should see yourself counted as an active user in the Realtime report.
- If nothing appears after 2 minutes, check that the snippet is present in your page source (Ctrl+U / Cmd+U) and your Measurement ID matches exactly.
4. Key Reports to Monitor
- Acquisition → Traffic Acquisition — shows where visitors come from: organic search, social media, direct, referral. Use this to understand which marketing channels are working.
- Engagement → Pages and Screens — shows which pages get the most views and how long visitors spend on each. High bounce on key pages signals a content or UX problem.
- Engagement → Events — GA4 automatically tracks clicks, scrolls, file downloads, and video views as events. Review this weekly.
- Reports → Realtime — useful to verify a new campaign or ad is driving traffic immediately after launch.
5. Setting Up Conversions
A conversion is an action you care about — a contact form submission, a phone number click, a quote request. To mark an event as a conversion:
- Go to Admin → Events and find the event you want to track (e.g.,
form_submit). - Toggle Mark as conversion to on.
- The event now appears under Conversions and counts toward your conversion rate.
For contact form submissions on a Netlify site, the generate_lead event fires automatically when a form is submitted — just mark it as a conversion.
6. Privacy and PIPEDA Compliance
Because GA4 collects visitor data, Canadian law (PIPEDA) requires you to:
- Disclose GA4 use in your Privacy Policy (include it under Analytics Providers).
- Provide an opt-out option — link to Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on in your Privacy Policy or cookie banner.
- Enable IP anonymization in GA4 (it is on by default in GA4 — no extra action needed).
- Do not collect personally identifiable information (PII) such as names or email addresses through GA4 custom dimensions.
7. Troubleshooting
| Issue | Fix |
|---|---|
| No data after 48 hours | Confirm the snippet is in the <head> of every page. Check your browser's ad blocker — it may be filtering GA requests. |
| Own visits inflating data | Install the GA Opt-out extension in your browser, or filter your IP under Admin → Data Filters. |
| Duplicate pageviews | The GA4 snippet is loading twice — check your <head> template for duplicate includes. |
| Events not firing | Use GA4 DebugView (Admin → DebugView) with the GA Debugger Chrome extension to see events in real time. |