Introduction to GA4
Have you ever wondered who visits your website and what they do while they’re there? That’s where GA4, or Google Analytics 4, comes in. It’s like having a magical pair of binoculars that lets you see how people are using your website.
GA4 helps you understand things like:
- How many people visit your site.
- What pages they like to look at.
- How long they stay on your website.
- If they’re coming from Google, social media, or somewhere else.
Understanding these things is really important because it tells you what’s working well and what you might need to improve. For example:
- If lots of people visit one page, maybe you should add more content like that.
- If people leave quickly, maybe it’s time to make your site more exciting or easier to use.
- If you know where your visitors are coming from, you can focus on the places bringing you the most visitors.
Think of it like a big detective notebook that records what happens on your website. It doesn’t show you personal details like names or addresses, but it does give you helpful clues about how your visitors behave. With this information, you can make your website even better and more fun for people to visit.
In this guide, we’ll break down some of the words and numbers you might see in your GA4 reports. By the end, you’ll know how to understand your website’s story, making it even easier to spot what’s working and what might need a little fixing.
A Few Tips for Reading Your Reports…
What is ‘Direct’?
Direct visitors are people who type your website address (like faithshapers.co.uk) directly into their browser. They already know who you are, or they might have saved you in their bookmarks or favourites. These are your regulars or people who’ve heard about you and come straight to your site!
What is ‘Organic Search’?
This is when people search for something on Google (or other search engines) and find your website in the search results. So, if someone searches for something related to what you do and clicks on your link, that’s counted here.
What is ‘Organic Social’?
These visitors have come to your website from social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. It means they saw your post or page on one of these platforms and decided to click through to your website.
What is ‘Unassigned’?
Sometimes, people have tracking turned off, so we can’t see where they came from. It’s a bit like private browsing – we know they’re on your site, but we don’t know how they got there.
What is ‘Referral’?
This means someone clicked a link to your website from another website. It could be from a blog post, a partner website, or even social media like Facebook. Essentially, another website sent them your way!
What are ‘Events’?
Events show what people are doing on your website. Did they click on a button? Watch a video? Scroll to the bottom of the page? Each of these actions is tracked as an event. The same visitor can do lots of different events during their visit.
What is ‘Views by Page’?
This shows which pages people are visiting the most. Usually, your homepage will be the most popular, but you can see which other pages or posts are drawing attention.
What is ‘Engaged Sessions’?
These are the visits where people stick around and interact with your website, like clicking on different pages or staying for more than a few seconds. The longer they stay and explore, the more engaged they are.
What is ‘Bounce Rate’?
This tells you how many people came to your site and left without doing anything (like clicking a link or scrolling). If the bounce rate is high, it might mean people aren’t finding what they’re looking for right away.
What is ‘Session Duration’?
This shows how long visitors are spending on your site. A higher session duration means people are staying on your site longer, which can be a good sign that they’re finding your content interesting or useful!
