Web analytics

What web analytics should tell a business owner

Analytics tools can show hundreds of metrics. A business owner needs about five: how many enquiries came in, from which sources, at what cost, how many turned into customers and how that compares with last month. Everything else is detail for the person running the campaigns.

The trouble is that a default GA4 install doesn't answer any of those questions. It counts visits and page views. It doesn't know that a form submission is a lead, that a click on your phone number is a call, or that a booking through a third-party widget happened at all. Web analytics as a service is the work of teaching the tools what matters to your business, and then checking that they count it correctly.

The pieces and how they fit

A modern setup for a small business usually includes:

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4). The central record of visits, sources and conversions.
• Google Tag Manager (GTM). One container that loads all tracking codes, so changes don't need a developer each time.
• Ad platform tags. Google Ads conversion tracking and the Meta Pixel, ideally with the Conversions API for more reliable data.
• Consent management. A banner and Consent Mode, so tracking respects each visitor's choice.
• Call tracking. For businesses where most customers phone.
• Reporting. A dashboard in Looker Studio that pulls the numbers together.

Not every business needs every piece. A landing page for one service with a modest ad budget needs GA4, GTM and two conversion tags. An online store spending heavily on ads needs more. I start from the decisions you want to make and work backwards to the tracking that supports them.

Why the ad platforms' numbers don't match

Owners often notice that Google Ads, Meta and Analytics report different numbers for the same month. That's normal: each platform uses its own attribution rules and gives itself credit generously. Someone who saw an Instagram ad, later searched your name on Google and then called may be counted by both platforms. GA4 provides a more neutral middle view, and a CRM, if you have one, gives the final answer: which leads became paying customers. When ads are a big part of your budget, connecting those layers is what end-to-end analytics is for.

Privacy in Canada

Tracking has to respect the law and your visitors. PIPEDA applies to most private businesses federally and requires meaningful consent and transparency. In Quebec, Law 25 goes further: tracking technologies that identify or profile people must be off by default unless the visitor agrees, and businesses need a privacy officer and a clear policy. Alberta and British Columbia have their own private-sector privacy acts. In practice this means a proper consent banner, Consent Mode v2 so Google tags adjust to the visitor's choice, and a privacy policy that matches what you actually collect. I set up the technical side; the legal text is your responsibility, and for anything unclear a lawyer is the right person to ask.

Common mistakes I fix

1. Conversions counted twice. The same form is tracked by a GA4 event and by an imported goal, doubling the numbers.
2. Thank-you page tracking that misfires. Anyone who bookmarks or refreshes the page becomes a new lead.
3. Missing phone tracking. On mobile, many people tap the number; if that tap isn't tracked, the best channel may look like the worst.
4. Internal traffic counted. Your own team's visits inflate the data.
5. Tags firing before consent. A legal risk and, with Consent Mode, also a data quality problem.

Owning your data

If an agency or developer created your Analytics account under their name, you may not own your history. I always create accounts in the client's name and get added as a user. If you're locked out of an existing account, I'll help you request access or, if that fails, set up a new property cleanly. Ownership isn't a technicality: it's what lets you change suppliers without starting from scratch.

Where to start

If you're not sure whether your current setup works, start with an analytics audit. If you know nothing is set up, go straight to GA4 and Tag Manager setup. For a quick read on the numbers worth checking every month, see the 7 marketing numbers a small business owner should check.