📊 Google Analytics ⏱ About 10 minutes

How to Add Google Analytics 4 to Your Website

GA4 is Google's free tool for tracking who visits your site, where they come from, and what they do. Follow these steps to get it set up.

You'll need

✓A Google account

✓Your website URL

✓Ability to edit your site

Time breakdown

✓Setup in GA4: ~5 min

✓Adding code: ~5 min

✓First data: 24–48 hrs

Open Google Analytics

Go to analytics.google.com and sign in. Use the same Google account you want to use for AnalyticsDash.

ℹ️

First time here? You'll see a "Start measuring" button. Click it to begin. If you already have an account, skip to step 2.

Create a Property

If you're starting fresh, GA4 walks you through account creation automatically. If you already have a GA4 account, click the gear icon and navigate here:

Click path ⚙️ Admin → Create → Property

Name the property after your domain (e.g. lighthouselaunch.com). Set your time zone and currency, then click Next.

Add a Web Data Stream

After creating the property, choose Web as your platform. Enter your website URL and click Create stream.

Pick platform 🌐 Web or 📱 iOS app or 🤖 Android app

After saving, you'll see the stream details. Find and copy your Measurement ID — you'll need it in the next step.

🔑

Your Measurement ID looks like this

G-XXXXXXXXXX

Copy this — paste it into your site in the next step

Add the Tracking Code to Your Site

How you install it depends on your website platform. Find yours below:

🔌 WordPress

Install the Google Site Kit plugin → connects GA4 in one click

🌊 Webflow

Site Settings → Integrations → Google Analytics → paste Measurement ID

🛍️ Shopify

Online Store → Preferences → Google Analytics → Connect account

⬛ Squarespace

Settings → Advanced → External API Keys → paste Measurement ID

🌀 Wix

Marketing & SEO → Marketing Integrations → Google Analytics

💻 Custom HTML

Paste the snippet into the <head> of every page

For custom HTML sites, paste this snippet before the closing </head> tag on every page:

Paste into <head> on every page
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XXXXXXXXXX"></script>
<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
  gtag('js', new Date());
  gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXXXX');
</script>

Replace both instances of G-XXXXXXXXXX with your actual Measurement ID.

Check It's Working

Open GA4 and go to the Realtime report. Then open your website in a new browser tab. Within 60 seconds, you should appear as an active user.

In GA4 Reports → Realtime

✓

You're all set!

You'll see yourself appear in Realtime within a minute. Standard reports (traffic, channels, audience) take 24–48 hours to populate with data.

⚠️

Not showing up? Turn off any ad blocker — they block GA4 tracking. Also make sure you actually published/deployed the code change.

See your GA4 data in AnalyticsDash

Once GA4 is installed, connect it here for real-time traffic, channel breakdown, top pages, and smart insights — all in one dashboard.