The dashboard nobody looks at

Most organizations with a website have Google Analytics 4 installed. Most of those organizations open it occasionally, see that pageview numbers are up or down from last month, mention this in a leadership report, and close the tab.

That is not analysis. That is scorekeeping without knowing what the game is.

The gap between organizations that improve their websites with data and organizations that just collect it isn't budget or technical skill. It's configuration. Out of the box, GA4 tells you how many people visited your site. With about three to four hours of setup work, it can tell you whether those people found what they were looking for, what stopped them from completing key tasks, and where the biggest opportunities for improvement are.

This guide covers the four setup areas that most teams skip and the reports that become possible once they're in place. None of it requires a data analyst. It does require someone comfortable clicking through the GA4 interface and, for the event tracking section, either a developer or access to Google Tag Manager.

First: understand what GA4 actually measures by default

Before adding to your setup, it helps to know what you already have.

GA4 automatically collects a handful of events without any configuration: pageviews (every time a page loads), sessions (a visit that groups multiple pageviews together), user engagement (time spent actively interacting with the page, not just having it open in a tab), scrolls (when a user reaches 90% of a page's length), and outbound clicks (clicks on links leaving your domain).

These default events give you a picture of traffic volume and rough engagement. They do not tell you whether users accomplished anything. They don't tell you whether someone filled out a contact form, downloaded a document, searched your internal search, clicked a phone number, or watched a video. For those, you need event tracking.

Here is the honest problem with relying only on default events: pageviews are a measure of traffic, not success. A page with high traffic and high bounce rate is likely failing its users. A page with moderate traffic and a high rate of outbound clicks to a booking tool is probably doing its job well. You can't see the difference without tracking the actions that matter.

Setup area 1: event tracking for key actions

What to track

Every website has a small number of actions that represent genuine task completion. These are your key events (GA4's term for what used to be called conversions). Identify them before you configure anything. For a municipal website, they typically include:

The right list for your organization is the intersection of "things users come to the site to do" and "things we can tell the site is doing well when they happen."

How to set it up

GA4 can receive custom event data two ways: through direct code instrumentation (a developer adds tracking calls to your site's code) or through Google Tag Manager (GTM), which lets you configure event tracking through a visual interface without touching the site's code. GTM is the more practical option for most non-developer teams and is free.

If GTM is already installed on your site (your developer can confirm), log into GTM and create a new Tag for each action you want to track. The most common setup for a form submission:

For document downloads, use a "Click — Just Links" trigger with a condition matching .pdf in the click URL. For phone and email clicks, use a "Click — Just Links" trigger matching tel: or mailto: in the click URL.

Marking events as key conversions in GA4

Once your events are flowing into GA4, go to Admin > Events in your GA4 property. Find each key action event and toggle "Mark as key event" on. This surfaces the events in your main reports and lets you see conversion rates alongside traffic data. An event that fires 50 times out of 300 sessions on a service page means a 16.7% completion rate — useful. 300 pageviews with no events means you have no idea what those 300 people did.

Setup area 2: internal search analysis

Why this is one of the highest-value reports you can run

When a user types something into your site's internal search box, they are giving you direct information: they couldn't find what they needed through navigation, so they're telling you exactly what they were looking for. Internal search data is one of the most actionable signals in analytics because it identifies gaps between what users need and what your navigation or information architecture provides.

Common patterns internal search reveals:

How to set it up

GA4 can automatically detect internal search in some configurations, but manual setup is more reliable. You need your site's search query parameter: the URL component that carries the search term. When someone searches your site and you look at the resulting URL, it typically looks something like /search?q=building+permit or /search-results?query=park. The query parameter is q or query in those examples.

In GA4, go to Admin > Data Streams > select your web stream > Enhanced Measurement > Search. Enable it and enter your query parameter. If your search uses a different parameter than the defaults GA4 suggests, click the pencil icon and add it manually.

Once enabled, GA4 collects a view_search_results event with the search_term parameter every time someone uses your internal search. To view the data, go to Reports > Engagement > Events and find view_search_results. Click through to see the search terms.

For a richer analysis, build a custom exploration (covered below) that shows search terms alongside whether the user continued engaging with the site after searching, or left immediately. A high-volume search term followed by immediate exit suggests the results for that term aren't helpful.

Setup area 3: custom explorations

What the standard reports won't show you

GA4's standard reports are built around broad audiences and averages. They're useful for an overall health check. They're not useful for answering specific questions like:

For questions like these, you use GA4's Explore section (left nav > Explore). Explorations are ad-hoc reports you build with a drag-and-drop interface. Three that are worth setting up as saved explorations for ongoing use:

Exploration 1: key event funnel

A funnel exploration shows you how many users complete each step in a sequence. For a contact form submission, the funnel might be: (1) viewed the Contact page, (2) started filling the form (a form_start event), (3) submitted the form (your contact_form_submit event). GA4 will show you where users drop off between steps.

To build it: go to Explore > Funnel Exploration. Add your steps using event names and, where needed, conditions (like page location containing /contact). Set the breakdown dimension to "Device category" to see whether mobile users drop off at a different rate than desktop users. A mobile drop-off at the form-start step often points to an input or layout issue on smaller screens.

Exploration 2: page path analysis

A path exploration shows you what pages users visit before and after a specific page. Start with your highest-traffic service pages. What do users do after visiting? If a high proportion navigate to the contact page, phone number, or an external service (like a payments portal), those are users trying to find a next step that isn't clear enough on the service page itself.

To build it: go to Explore > Path Exploration. Set the starting point to a specific page path (e.g., /permits/building-permit). The visualization shows the most common next pages. Unintended exits to the homepage suggest navigation confusion. High rates of return to a search results page suggest the page didn't answer the question.

Exploration 3: landing page performance by channel

A free-form exploration that lets you see, for each landing page, how users arrived (organic search, direct, referral, email campaign) and what they did (key event completion rate, engagement time, bounce). To build it: go to Explore > Free Form. Add dimensions: Landing page, Session default channel group. Add metrics: Sessions, Key events, Engagement rate. This tells you not just which pages get traffic but which pages are working, and which traffic sources bring users who complete tasks.

Setup area 4: audience segments worth creating

The problem with treating all users the same

Your website serves multiple audiences: residents looking for routine services, businesses navigating licensing requirements, people in urgent situations (emergency contacts, immediate service needs), and staff or partners who navigate the site differently than the public does. Averaging their behavior together in standard reports hides patterns that are obvious when you look at segments separately.

GA4's Audiences feature (Admin > Audiences) lets you define segments based on behavior, device, location, engagement, or event completion. Once defined, you can apply them in explorations to compare behavior across groups. Three audiences worth creating:

Completers: Users who triggered at least one key conversion event in the session. Studying what completers do — which pages they visited, how long they engaged, where they entered — gives you a model for what a successful journey looks like. You can then compare non-completers against that model.

High-effort users: Users who visited more than five pages in a session without triggering a key event. These are users who were clearly trying to find something and didn't. Pages they concentrated on are candidates for content improvement or navigation restructuring.

Internal search users: Users who triggered a view_search_results event. Comparing their task completion rate against non-search users reveals whether your search is helping or whether users who resort to search are more likely to leave frustrated.

Translating data into decisions: a practical framework

Data without a decision-making framework produces reports, not improvements. Here is a simple sequence for turning your GA4 setup into monthly action:

Step 1: Review key event completion rates (10 minutes)

Open Reports > Engagement > Key Events. Look at which key events are up or down versus the previous period and versus the same period last year. Significant drops in a specific event are the first flag that something has changed on the site or in user behavior.

Step 2: Check internal search terms (10 minutes)

Open your view_search_results event data or your saved exploration. Look for: new terms that weren't appearing before (emerging needs), high-volume terms with no corresponding high-traffic page (navigation or labelling gap), and terms you don't currently have content for (content gap).

Step 3: Run the funnel for your most important key event (15 minutes)

Open your key event funnel exploration. Where is the biggest drop-off step? Is it consistent, or did it change recently? If the drop-off changed, what changed on the site around that time?

Step 4: Identify one thing to change this month

Every data review should end with a single specific action, not a list of fourteen things to investigate. Choose the finding with the clearest implication and the most feasible fix:

One change, implemented and then measured three to four weeks later. That's how GA4 reports become website improvements.

The reports checklist

Set up in this order and you'll have a functional analytics practice within a week:

Week 1: Event tracking

Week 1: Internal search

Week 2: Explorations

Week 2: Audiences

Ongoing: monthly review rhythm

If your GA4 setup is starting from scratch or you're not confident the data you have is trustworthy, get in touch for an analytics audit and configuration session that gets you to accurate, actionable data fast.