Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is a powerful analytics service that offers granular data about your site’s traffic engagement. In our previous article concerning GA4, we introduced GA4 and guided readers on how to start collecting data on their own websites. Next, lets explore a few important metrics to track as you use GA4.
GA4 has a variety of reports that can help you better understand how your site is turning visitors into customers. One of the pages you may visit often is “Report Snapshot” under “Reports.” While GA4 offers multiple metrics to explore user engagement, here are some important ones to keep your eye on while using this tool.
Users
Users is a major metric on GA4, taking up the majority of the “Report Snapshot.” In GA4, each user has a tag with a special ID to differentiated it from other users, even on different devices. This allows Google to identify new users from reoccurring ones.
Knowing how many new users are visiting your site can help establish if you are attracting new faces to your business. Such information can help identify if your website and advertising methods are working. Being able to identify reoccurring visitors helps measure if your website leaves a good impression. Returning visitors may mean returning customers, after all.
Other user reports such as demographic, activity, and retention can help further granulate who your users are and how your users see your website. Overall, user metrics are essential to understanding your ecommerce traffic flow.
Sessions
Sessions are a measurement of the volume of visits to your site. Moving beyond the number of users who arrive at your site, sessions keep track of how much time a user spends on your website. Located briefly on “Report Snapshot,” sessions do not take into consideration specific users. If a user interacts with your site on desktop, and then later visits your site on their phone, those interactions are two different sessions.
The sessions metrics plays a role in other reports that can help you understand more about how your users interact with your business. Average Engagement Time reports, can identify how long users stay on your pages. For example, you can track how long users stay on your home page. Depending on the length of time, your home page may have room for further optimization.
Another report that involves sessions is the Percentage of New Sessions report. This percentage compares new visitors and returning customers to see if you are retaining users. The “Session by Default Channel Grouping” report can identify where your customers are coming from. This helps you understand where your business advertisements are most successful, such as social media
Views
Views are visits to specific pages. With views, you can see what pages receive the most attention and what pages attract less traffic. High page views can help identify what kind of content users like. On the other hand, low page views can suggest disinterest or page issues that need addressed.
Views are also a good way to see how changes to your site impact traffic. We can compare views over time. By doing so, we can correlate changes in traffic to changes you may have made to your website.
Conversions
Conversions is one of the most important metrics GA4 has to offer. This metric is defined by how many visitors become customers. Customers are defined by how many visitors reach the page your business considers the end goal. This page could be a confirmation or thank you page, suggesting that the user has bought your product or signed up for your services.
Located at the bottom of your “Report Snapshot,” conversions are a great way to measure how well your website sells your business.
Want to Learn More?
BCSE is always here to help you with your website needs. However, if you want to learn more about how you can use GA4 to further your website, join the waitlist today for Carrie Saunder’s upcoming course! During the five-week course, “The Converting Website,” Carrie will explore GA4 and other powerful tools you can use to heighten your website.
