Google Analytics 4, usually shortened to GA4, is the current version of Google’s free website analytics. The previous version, Universal Analytics, stopped processing data in 2023, so if someone set up analytics on your website before then and nobody has touched it since, you may have no data at all.
GA4 can do an enormous amount, and most of it is irrelevant to a small business. This guide covers the few parts that matter for Google Analytics 4 small business use: the reports worth opening, how to count enquiries rather than just visits, and the cookie and consent questions every UK business needs to think about.
What GA4 tells you (and what it does not)
GA4 records visits to your website and what people do while they are there: which page they arrived on, where they came from, what they clicked and whether they filled in a form. It is built around “events”, so a page view is an event, a click is an event and a form submission can be an event.
What it does not tell you is who your customers are, what they said when they rang, or whether the job went ahead. It also misses people who decline cookies, use blockers or never visit your site at all, which, for a local business, includes everyone who finds you on Google Maps and phones straight from there. Treat GA4 as one view of what is happening, not the whole picture.
The reports worth checking
You can ignore almost every menu in GA4. These are the reports that answer questions a business owner actually has:
| Report | Where to find it | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Traffic acquisition | Reports › Acquisition › Traffic acquisition | Where are visitors coming from: Google, social, AI assistants, direct? |
| Landing page | Reports › Engagement › Landing page | Which pages do people arrive on first? |
| Pages and screens | Reports › Engagement › Pages and screens | Which pages get read the most? |
| Key events | Reports › Engagement › Events, or Admin › Key events | How many enquiries did the site produce, and from where? |
| Tech overview | Reports › Tech › Overview | How many visitors are on phones versus computers? |
Count enquiries, not just visits
Visitor numbers on their own tell you very little. A thousand visits and no enquiries is worse than a hundred visits and ten. What you want GA4 to count is the thing that makes you money: someone contacting you.
GA4 calls these “key events” (Google renamed them from “conversions” in 2024). You mark an event as key, and GA4 then reports how many happened and which sources produced them. For most small businesses, three are worth setting up:
- Form submission: when someone sends your contact, quote or booking form. The cleanest way is to send people to a thank-you page after submitting and count views of that page.
- Tap-to-call: when someone taps your phone number on a mobile. This needs an event on clicks to links starting “tel:”, usually set up through Google Tag Manager or by your web developer.
- Email or WhatsApp clicks: when someone taps your email address or a WhatsApp link, set up the same way.
Two settings to change on day one
Data retention: by default GA4 keeps detailed event data for only two months, which limits what you can analyse in the Explore section. Under Admin › Data collection and modification › Data retention, you can extend it to 14 months on the free version. Do it now; it does not apply to data already collected.
Internal traffic: if you, your staff or your web designer visit the site often, those visits inflate the numbers. GA4 lets you define internal traffic by IP address and filter it out. It matters most for small sites with modest traffic, where your own visits can be a large share of the total.
Cookies and consent in the UK
This is the part to take seriously, and it is not legal advice. In the UK, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) govern cookies and similar technologies. The long-standing position was that analytics cookies needed the visitor’s consent, which is why so many sites show a cookie banner.
The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 changed that. From February 2026 it added exceptions to PECR, including one for cookies used for statistical purposes to improve a website or service, provided visitors are given clear information and a free, simple way to object. On the face of it, that covers some analytics without a consent banner.
However, the ICO has been revising its guidance, and whether a particular tool qualifies depends on how it works. Google Analytics sends data to Google, and depending on your settings that data may be used for Google’s own purposes or linked to advertising, which may take it outside the exception. The safe course is to check the ICO’s current guidance, configure GA4 conservatively (for example, turning off Google signals and advertising features you do not use), and take advice if you are unsure. If you run Google Ads or Meta ads with tracking pixels, consent is still very likely needed for those.
Is GA4 right for you, or is something simpler better?
GA4 is free and powerful, but many small business owners find it hard to read and never open it after the first week. There are privacy-friendly analytics tools that count visits and sources without cookies or personal data, show everything on one simple page, and are easier to justify under UK consent rules. Some charge a modest monthly fee; some website platforms include basic analytics already.
- Choose GA4 if you run Google Ads (the two link together), want detailed reports, or have someone who will look at it regularly.
- Choose a simpler cookieless tool if you only want to know visits, top pages, sources and enquiries, and would rather avoid a consent banner.
- Whichever you use, pair it with Google Search Console, which shows the searches people used to find you, and with asking customers how they heard about you.
A ten-minute monthly routine
Analytics only helps if you look at it. Once a month, open the traffic acquisition report and note how many visits came from each source. Check how many key events (enquiries) there were, and from which sources. Look at the top landing pages and ask whether any important page is missing from the list. Compare with the same month last year if you have it, since seasonal swings are normal.
Write the three or four numbers in the same spreadsheet where you log enquiries. Over a few months, the combination of analytics and what customers tell you will show clearly what is working.
If Nerdsharks builds your website, we can set up GA4 or a simpler, privacy-friendly alternative as part of the build, depending on what you need. Either way, the reports and routine above apply to any website.