{"id":10384,"date":"2026-05-08T16:26:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T15:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/analitica-web-google-analytics\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T16:39:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T15:39:36","slug":"web-analytics-google-analytics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/web-analytics-google-analytics\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Web Analytics and How to Connect Google Analytics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To talk to you about <a href=\"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wordpress-web-designer\/\"><strong>web analytics<\/strong><\/a> we also have to talk about <strong>Google Analytics<\/strong>, one of the best tools within our reach, and a free one. Pay attention, because a lot has changed here: the old version, <em>Universal Analytics<\/em>, stopped working in July 2023 and today <strong>Google Analytics 4 (GA4)<\/strong> is used. In this article I explain what web analytics is and how to connect Google Analytics to your website, using the current version.<\/p>\n<h2>What is web analytics and what is it used for?<\/h2>\n<p>It is about analyzing the results of different digital marketing actions on a web page so you can make decisions that <strong>optimize<\/strong> the site and, therefore, the results. It means understanding the behavior of your visitors and steering traffic toward your goals with new actions.<\/p>\n<h2>What are the steps to analyze a website?<\/h2>\n<p>First you need to link your website to an analytics tool. The most popular is <strong>Google Analytics<\/strong>, and the one I recommend to get started.<\/p>\n<h3>Installing Google Analytics 4<\/h3>\n<p>With this tool you can detect and fix flaws in your marketing strategies. The steps are:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Create a GA4 account and property<\/strong> at <a href=\"https:\/\/analytics.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">analytics.google.com<\/a> with your Google account.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Create a web data stream<\/strong> with your site URL. Google will give you a <strong>measurement ID<\/strong> in the format <em>G-XXXXXXXXXX<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Connect that ID to your website.<\/strong> If you use WordPress, the easiest and most recommended way is with a plugin rather than pasting code by hand into the theme. I use <strong>Site Kit by Google<\/strong>, the official plugin, which connects Analytics and Search Console and shows the data inside the WordPress dashboard itself.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check that it works:<\/strong> in the <em>Realtime<\/em> report you should see yourself when you visit your website.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If you prefer not to use a plugin, you can also install it through Google Tag Manager. What no longer makes sense is editing the theme template by hand: you lose it with every update.<\/p>\n<h3>Important: cookies and consent<\/h3>\n<p>In Europe, to measure with Analytics you need the user\u2019s consent through a cookie banner, and to configure Google <strong>Consent Mode<\/strong>. And remember to update your privacy and cookie policy. If in doubt, consult a data protection specialist.<\/p>\n<h2>How to analyze the data<\/h2>\n<p>Once the tool is installed, you will see the active traffic on your website in real time. In GA4 the main reports are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Acquisition:<\/strong> how users reach your website: organic search, direct, social media, email or advertising.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Engagement:<\/strong> which pages they view, how long they stay and which events they trigger.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Monetization:<\/strong> revenue, if you have an online store.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Retention:<\/strong> how many users come back to your website.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Demographics and technology:<\/strong> age, country, device, browser&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A key difference in GA4 is that <strong>everything works with events<\/strong>: page views, clicks, downloads, form submissions&#8230; &#8220;Conversions&#8221; are now called <strong>key events<\/strong>. And the old concept of &#8220;bounce rate&#8221; is complemented by the <strong>engagement rate<\/strong>, which measures sessions with real interaction.<\/p>\n<h2>Analytics goals<\/h2>\n<p>It is essential to define the <strong>KPIs<\/strong>, the performance indicators that determine what and when you want to measure. They can be sales revenue, visits, form sign-ups, calls, and so on. The most common metrics are: users, sessions, engagement rate, average engagement time, page views and key events.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Depending on the KPI you set, you can analyze returning users or the depth of visits<\/strong>, if your goal is to generate traffic and make the website known. To build loyalty and win new customers, look at the number of key events and the conversion rate. To set them up, go to <em>Admin &gt; Events<\/em> and mark the one you care about as a key event (for example, the contact form submission).<\/p>\n<p>Now you can start doing your own <strong>web analytics<\/strong>. To go one step further, also connect <strong>Google Search Console<\/strong> to see which keywords people use to find you on Google, and <strong>Looker Studio<\/strong> to build visual reports. If you have a local business, combine all of this with your <a href=\"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/google-business-profile-wordpress\/\">Google Business Profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<h3>Does Universal Analytics still work?<\/h3>\n<p>No. It stopped processing data in July 2023. Today Google Analytics 4 is used.<\/p>\n<h3>Is Google Analytics free?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes, the standard version is free and enough for the vast majority of websites.<\/p>\n<h3>Do I need to know how to code?<\/h3>\n<p>No. With Site Kit or Tag Manager you can set it up without touching code.<\/p>\n<p>If you need more information about <a href=\"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wordpress-web-designer\/\">WordPress web design services<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/\">digital marketing<\/a>, feel free to contact me.<\/p>\n<p>If you want this data to turn into visits and customers, I can help with <a href=\"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/seo-mallorca\/\">SEO services<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To talk to you about web analytics we also have to talk about Google Analytics, one of the best tools within our reach, and a free one. Pay attention, because a lot has changed here: the old version, Universal Analytics, stopped working in July 2023 and today Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is used. In this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10384"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10727,"href":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10384\/revisions\/10727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/josepgonzalez.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}