Google Analytics 4 for SMEs: What to Track (And What to Ignore)

Google Analytics 4 is simultaneously the most powerful free analytics tool available and one of the most confusing pieces of software ever inflicted upon small business owners.

If you’ve logged in, stared at the dashboard, felt overwhelmed, and closed the tab — you’re not alone. GA4 gives you access to an enormous amount of data. The problem isn’t too little information; it’s too much. Most small businesses would be better off tracking 5-8 metrics really well than drowning in 50 metrics they don’t understand.

This guide strips GA4 down to what actually matters for SMEs. No analytics jargon. No features you’ll never use. Just the numbers that help you make better marketing decisions.

The Metrics That Actually Matter

1. Users (How Many People Visit Your Site)

Where to find it: Reports → Life cycle → Acquisition → Overview

This is your headline number. How many unique people visited your website this week, this month, this year? Is the number growing, shrinking, or flat?

What to look for:

• Trend over time — Plot monthly users over the past 12 months. Is the trajectory up or down?
• Unusual spikes or dips — A sudden spike could mean a piece of content went viral or an ad campaign worked well. A sudden dip could mean a technical issue.

Don’t obsess over: Daily fluctuations. Website traffic varies day to day. Look at weekly and monthly trends.

2. Traffic Sources (Where They Come From)

Where to find it: Reports → Life cycle → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition

This tells you how people are finding your website:

• Organic Search: People who found you via Google
• Paid Search: Google Ads clicks
• Social: Traffic from social media platforms
• Direct: People typing your URL or using bookmarks
• Referral: Links from other websites
• Email: Clicks from your email campaigns

What to look for:

• Which sources are growing? If organic search is increasing, your SEO is working.
• Which sources drive the most value? (See conversions below)
• Are you over-dependent on one source? If 80% of your traffic comes from Google Ads, that’s a risk.

3. Conversions (What They Do)

Where to find it: Reports → Life cycle → Engagement → Conversions

This is the most important metric in GA4 for business owners. Conversions are the actions that matter to your business — form submissions, phone calls, purchases, downloads.

Setting up conversions (do this first):

1. Go to Admin → Events
2. Create events for your key actions (form_submit, phone_click, purchase)
3. Mark them as conversions

If conversions aren’t set up, GA4 is basically useless for measuring marketing effectiveness. It’s like having a speedometer in your car but no fuel gauge — interesting but not actionable.

What to look for:

• Total conversions by source — Which channels generate the most leads/sales?
• Conversion rate by source — Which channels convert the best (highest percentage of visitors take action)?
• Trend — Are conversions increasing over time?

For a more comprehensive approach to measuring results, read our marketing ROI guide.

4. Engagement Rate (Are Visitors Actually Interested?)

Where to find it: Reports → Life cycle → Engagement → Overview

GA4 replaced the old “bounce rate” with “engagement rate” — the percentage of sessions where someone either:

• Stayed on your site for 10+ seconds, OR
• Viewed 2+ pages, OR
• Completed a conversion event

What good looks like:

• 50-70% engagement rate is healthy for most business websites
• Below 40% suggests your content or site experience needs work
• Above 80% is excellent

Check engagement rate by page and by source. If your Google Ads traffic has a 30% engagement rate but your organic traffic has 65%, your ad landing pages need attention.

5. Top Pages (What Content Works)

Where to find it: Reports → Life cycle → Engagement → Pages and screens

Which pages get the most views? Which keep people engaged? This tells you what content resonates with your audience.

What to look for:

• Your top 10 pages — Are they the pages you’d expect? Are your key service pages getting traffic?
• Blog performance — Which articles drive the most traffic? Create more content like your winners.
• Pages with high views but low engagement — People are finding these pages but leaving quickly. They need improvement.

What You Can Safely Ignore

GA4 has dozens of reports and hundreds of metrics. Here’s what you don’t need:

Events (Unless You’ve Set Them Up Intentionally)

GA4 tracks a bewildering number of events automatically — scroll depth, file downloads, video plays, etc. Unless you’ve specifically configured these for your business needs, they’re noise.

Demographic Details

GA4 can tell you the age, gender, and interests of your visitors. For most SMEs, this data is too vague and too incomplete to be actionable. Focus on what people do, not who they are.

Real-Time Reporting

Watching visitors on your site in real-time is fascinating and completely useless for business decisions. It’s the analytics equivalent of watching your doorbell camera all day.

Attribution Models

GA4 has various attribution models (first click, last click, data-driven, etc.). Unless you’re spending significant money across multiple channels and need to understand the customer journey precisely, the default model is fine. Read our attribution guide when you’re ready for this level of detail.

Advanced Segments and Custom Reports

These are powerful features for analysts. For a small business owner, the standard reports with basic date and source filters give you everything you need.

Setting Up GA4 Properly (20-Minute Setup)

If you haven’t set up GA4 yet, or it’s set up but not configured, here’s the essential checklist:

Step 1: Install GA4 (5 minutes)

If you’re on WordPress, install the “Site Kit by Google” plugin. For other platforms, follow Google’s setup guide. You need the GA4 tracking code on every page.

Step 2: Configure Conversions (10 minutes)

Go to Admin → Events → Create Event. Set up events for:

• Form submissions (watch for the form_submit event or create a custom event based on your “thank you” page)
• Phone clicks (create an event for clicks on tel: links)
• Purchases (if e-commerce, enable enhanced e-commerce)

Mark each as a Key Event (conversion).

Step 3: Link Google Search Console (2 minutes)

Admin → Product Links → Search Console. This gives you keyword data inside GA4 — what Google searches are bringing people to your site.

Step 4: Link Google Ads (2 minutes)

If you run Google Ads, link the accounts. Admin → Product Links → Google Ads. This allows conversion data to flow between platforms.

Step 5: Set Your Reporting Identity (1 minute)

Admin → Data Display → Reporting Identity. Use “Blended” for the most complete picture.

That’s it. You now have a properly configured GA4 setup. Give it 2-4 weeks to collect data before drawing conclusions.

The Weekly GA4 Check (10 Minutes)

Here’s your weekly routine:

Every Monday (10 minutes):

1. Open GA4
2. Check Users — up or down vs. last week?
3. Check Traffic Sources — any significant changes in where traffic is coming from?
4. Check Conversions — how many leads/sales this week? From which sources?
5. Check Top Pages — anything unexpected performing well (or poorly)?

Note one number that needs attention and one action to take. That’s your analytics done for the week.

Every Month (20 minutes):

1. Review the monthly trend — Users, conversions, engagement rate
2. Compare to the previous month and the same month last year
3. Identify your top-performing content and traffic sources
4. Ask: Is the trend improving? If not, what needs to change?

For a full reporting framework, read our marketing reporting guide for SMEs.

The Metrics Cheat Sheet

Save this for reference:

Want Your Analytics Set Up Properly?

Most SMEs have GA4 installed but not configured correctly — which means the data is incomplete or misleading. At Black Sheep Marketing, we set up and configure analytics as part of every marketing engagement, ensuring you’re tracking what matters and ignoring what doesn’t.

If you’re not sure your analytics are right, we can audit your setup and fix it. Usually in under an hour.

Book a Free Analytics Review →

Related Reading

• Marketing Reporting for SMEs: The Complete Guide
• How to Build a Marketing Dashboard That Actually Gets Used
• ROAS Explained: Return on Ad Spend for Non-Marketers
• How to Measure Marketing ROI (Without a Data Science Degree)