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GA4 setup checklist for a new website

A correct GA4 setup takes about an hour and prevents months of unusable data. Create the property with the right time zone and currency, extend data retention to 14 months, mark your lead actions as key events, filter internal traffic and link Search Console and Google Ads.

Written by Manoj Pandey, founder of Sitesetu, with 9+ years in SEO and performance marketing. Last updated .

Property and stream

  1. Create a GA4 property under an account you own, using a company login.
  2. Set reporting time zone and currency. India Standard Time and INR for an Indian business.
  3. Add a web data stream for your domain and keep Enhanced Measurement on.
  4. Install the tag through Google Tag Manager, not hard-coded, so you can add other tags later.

Settings most people miss

  1. Data retention. Admin, Data Settings, Data Retention. Change 2 months to 14 months.
  2. Internal traffic. Define your office IP addresses and activate the filter.
  3. Unwanted referrals. Add your payment gateway domains so sales are not credited to them.
  4. Cross-domain tracking if your booking or checkout sits on another domain.
  5. Google Signals and consent. Decide these with your privacy policy in mind, especially if you have visitors from the UK or EU.

Events that matter

  1. Create events for lead actions: form submitted, phone link clicked, WhatsApp link clicked, file downloaded.
  2. Mark them as key events. These were called conversions before 2024.
  3. For stores, set up ecommerce events: view item, add to cart, begin checkout and purchase, with values.

Links

  1. Link Google Search Console to see queries and landing pages together.
  2. Link Google Ads to import key events and build audiences.

Test

  1. Use DebugView and Tag Manager preview. Submit a test form, click the phone number and confirm each event appears once with the right parameters.

Reports to look at each month

  • Traffic acquisition: sessions and key events by channel
  • Landing pages: which pages bring visitors in and which convert
  • Search Console queries: what people searched to find you
  • A simple exploration of leads by source and device

Mistakes that ruin data

  • Two GA4 tags firing on the same page, doubling every number
  • Counting every page view of the thank-you page as a lead, including refreshes
  • No UTM tags on campaign links, so paid traffic appears as direct
  • Leaving your own team's visits in the data

Beyond GA4

Add Microsoft Clarity for recordings and heatmaps, and Looker Studio for a dashboard your team will open. Apps and SaaS products should add Mixpanel for product analytics.

We set up GA4 for ₹1,999$39, or with Tag Manager, Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and Clarity for ₹4,999$99. See analytics setup.

Quick answers

How do I set up GA4 on a new website?

Create a GA4 property, add a web data stream, install the tag through Google Tag Manager, extend data retention, define key events for leads, filter internal traffic and link Search Console and Google Ads.

What are key events in GA4?

Key events are the actions you mark as most important to the business, such as a form submission or purchase. They were called conversions before 2024.

Why does GA4 only keep 2 months of data?

Two months is the default retention for user-level data in explorations. You can change it to 14 months in Admin under Data Settings.

Services mentioned in this article

GA4, GTM and Search ConsoleSitesetu sets up Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for ₹1,499$29, Google Analytics 4 for ₹1,999$39 and Google Tag Manager for ₹2,499$49.Mixpanel setupSitesetu sets up Mixpanel for ₹5,999$119 one-time.

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