Google Analytics (GA4) setup checklist

Your organization (optional)

0 of 25 in place

Account and access

0/3

Your organization has a Google Analytics 4 property for its website.
You, or a trusted staff member, have Administrator or Editor access.Admin, Account access management.
At least one other person has access, so you're never locked out.Good practice

0/4

A web data stream is set up and you know your Measurement ID (it starts with G-).Admin, Data streams.
The GA4 tag is installed and working on every page.Visit your site, then check Reports, Realtime.
If you use Google Tag Manager, the container with the GA4 tag is published.
If donations or registrations happen on a third-party platform, GA4 is tracking that platform too (or cross-domain measurement is set up).Many donation and ticketing platforms have a GA4 setting. Without it, the most important step goes unmeasured.

0/4

Google now calls the actions you care most about "key events" (formerly conversions in GA4).

Your most important action, such as a donation, membership, registration or sign-up, is tracked and marked as a key event.Admin, Events: mark the event as a key event.
Other valuable actions are tracked as events, such as newsletter sign-ups, volunteer forms or ticket purchases.
Where possible, gift or purchase amounts are recorded with the event, so you can see revenue by source.
Key events appear in your reports.Reports, Engagement, Key events.

0/3

You can see where visitors come from: search, paid ads, email, social, referral and direct.Reports, Acquisition, Traffic acquisition.
If you run ads, paid traffic shows up separately from unpaid traffic.
Links in your emails and social posts use UTM tags, so each campaign can be tracked.Google's Campaign URL Builder creates them.

0/4

You know your most-visited pages.Reports, Engagement, Pages and screens.
You know how many visitors use phones compared with computers.Reports, Tech.
You know where your visitors are located.Reports, Demographics.
Audiences are set up for groups you'd want to reach again, such as recent donors or people who started but didn't finish a donation.Admin, Audiences.

0/3

If you run Google Ads or have an Ad Grant, the account is linked to GA4.Admin, Product links, Google Ads links.
Google Search Console is linked, so you can see the searches that bring people to your site.Admin, Product links, Search Console links.
If you advertise, audiences are shared with Google Ads for remarketing.Good practice

0/4

Someone is responsible for reviewing GA4 regularly.Good practiceWeekly or every two weeks is a good starting point.
You have a saved report or dashboard you can check quickly.Good practice
You have at least 90 days of data to compare against.Good practice
Custom insights alert you to big changes in traffic or key events.Good practice

Your rating

Tick each item that’s in place or doesn’t apply to you, and mark “Not sure” for anything you’d need to check.

Checked against Google’s help pages in September 2026. Google updates these rules without notice, so confirm anything critical there.