Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is an extremely powerful tool that gives an accurate picture of your website’s performance. At the same time, it’s easy to get lost among the plenty of graphs, tables, and data, which frustrates most business owners rather than helps them.
The good news is that you don’t have to be a data analyst to get answers to the most important business questions. Instead of trying to understand everything at once, focus on these 3 basic metrics. These three indicators alone are enough to better understand your visitors and make more informed marketing decisions.
Metric 1: Users and Sessions – Who and How Often Do They Come?
This is the most basic question: how many people visit my site? GA4 distinguishes between two main metrics here:
- Users: The number of unique visitors in a given period. This number shows how many different people you reached.
- Sessions: One visit by a user. If someone looks at your site today, then returns tomorrow, that’s 1 user but 2 sessions.
Why is this important to you? Watch the trends! Is the number of your visitors increasing or decreasing month by month? Does the number of sessions jump after a new blog post or marketing campaign? This metric is your digital pulse. Growth indicates that your marketing efforts are working.
Where do you find it? In the GA4 left-hand menu: Reports -> Acquisition -> Traffic acquisition.
Metric 2: Traffic Channels – Where Do Visitors Come From?
It’s not enough to know how many come; you also need to know where they arrive from. GA4 breaks down traffic into channels:
- Organic Search: Those who found you from Google search, without paying. (This is the success of SEO!)
- Direct: Those who typed your website address directly. (They already know you.)
- Referral: Those who clicked over from a link placed on another website.
- Paid Search: Those who clicked on a paid Google ad.
- Organic Social: Those who arrived from your Facebook, Instagram, etc. profile, from a non-paid post.
Why is this important to you? This report shows which of your marketing channels is the most effective. If you see that most visitors arrive from organic search, then it’s worth investing even more energy into blogging and SEO. If social media doesn’t bring anyone, maybe you need to rethink your strategy there.
Where do you find it? Same place: Reports -> Acquisition -> Traffic acquisition.
Metric 3: Conversions – Is What Should Happen, Happening?
This is the most important business metric. A conversion is an important event defined by you that you want the visitor to perform. This can be:
- Filling out a contact form
- Completing a purchase
- Downloading a PDF
- A newsletter subscription
Why is this important to you? A high number of visits alone is worth nothing if visitors don’t become customers. Measuring conversions is the only way to find out if your website is actually generating money. You can set which traffic channel (e.g., organic search vs. Facebook) brings the most conversions, so you will see exactly where it is worth concentrating the marketing budget.
Where do you find it? Reports -> Engagement -> Conversions. (Conversion events must first be set up in the Admin interface, for which it is worth asking for expert help.)
Summary
Don’t let the data paralyze you! Start with these three basic metrics. Regular monitoring of user numbers, traffic sources, and conversions is enough in itself to base your company’s online growth on real data instead of guesswork.
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About the Author
Founder and lead developer of Prometheus Digital. I believe web development is not just about coding, but about creating value.