Module 2 · Measuring anything at all Lesson 4 of 15
GA4 basics
GA4 records events, not just page views: a click, a sign-up and a scroll are all events you can look at afterwards.
The concept
GA4 is the analytics tool bolted onto almost every website, and it answers three questions: how many people came, where from, and what they did. Install the tag once, then look at Reports → Engagement → Pages to see which pages actually hold attention, and Acquisition → Traffic acquisition to see where the visits came from.
The single most useful feature is an Event: gtag('event', 'score_check_started') marks the moment somebody begins your tool, and score_check_completed marks the moment they finish. Those two events turn a report about visitors into a report about conversion, and the gap between them is where your design loses people.
// Fires when someone starts the tool.
gtag('event', 'score_check_started', { tool: 'altigrad' });
// Fires when they finish it.
gtag('event', 'score_check_completed', {
tool: 'altigrad',
score_bucket: '70-100'
});
// The gap between started and completed is where your design loses people.Common mistakes
The mistake is installing the tag and never checking it. Open the real-time report on your phone while you load the site: if you do not appear, the tag is on a page, not on the site. And resist counting sessions as people — one person refreshing ten times is not ten visitors.
Worked example
Users, sessions and conversions answer three different questions — mixing them up is how a report ends up claiming growth that did not happen.
Your practice task
Install a tracking tag on a test page, then confirm your own visit appears in the real-time report on your phone.
Do this before moving on. Reading a solution teaches the shape of it; typing it teaches you.
Key takeaway
GA4 is the analytics tool bolted onto almost every website, and it answers three questions: how many people came, where from, and what they did.
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