If you want to use Google Analytics 4 (GA4), the latest version of Google’s web analytics tool, on your website, you need to install it correctly and verify that it is working properly. In this article we will show you five ways to check if GA 4 is installed correctly on a site.
View the page source
One of the simplest ways to check this is to view the page source code and look for the GA4 tracking code snippet. The GA4 tracking code usually starts with:
<script async src=”https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=…” or <script>(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[‘GoogleAnalyticsObject’]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){….
You can find the page source code by right-clicking on any web page and selecting “View page source” from the menu. Then, use the Ctrl+F or Command+F keyboard shortcut to search for the GA4 tracking code snippet. If you find it, it means that GA4 is installed on your website.
Use Google Tag Assistant
Another way to check if GA4 is installed on your website is to use Google Tag Assistant, a Chrome extension that detects and validates various Google tags, including GA4. You can install Google Tag Assistant from the Chrome Web Store. After installing it, you will see a blue tag icon in your browser toolbar. Click on it, in the next page click “Add domain” and insert the URL you want to inspect. A new tab will appear with the site to check. You can go back to the previous tab to view in Google Tag Assistant if any tags were found in that site.
Use Google Analytics Debugger
You can also look for Google Analytics Debugger, another Chrome extension that prints useful information about GA4 requests and events to the browser console. You can install Google Analytics Debugger from the Chrome Web Store. After installing it, you will see a bug icon in your browser toolbar. Click on it and select “ON” to activate it. Then, visit any web page on your website and open the browser console by pressing Ctrl+Shift+J or Command+Option+J on your keyboard. You will see a lot of information about GA4 requests and events that are sent from that page, such as configuration parameters, event names, event parameters, etc. If you see this information, it means that GA4 is installed on your website.
Use Realtime reports in Google Analytics
A useful way to check if GA4 is installed on your website is to use Realtime reports in Google Analytics. Realtime reports show you what is happening on your website right now, such as how many users are active, what pages they are viewing, what events they are triggering, etc. To access Realtime reports, you need to log in to your Google Analytics account and select the GA4 property that you want to check. Then, click on “Realtime” in the left sidebar menu and choose one of the sub-reports, such as “Overview”, “Users”, “Events”, etc. You will see a live stream of data from your website in real time. If you see any data, it means that GA4 is installed correctly on your website.
Use Tag Manager Preview mode
Finally, you can use Tag Manager Preview mode. This is a feature of Google Tag Manager (GTM) that allows you to test and debug your tags before publishing them to your website. If you use GTM to implement GA4 on your website, you can use Tag Manager Preview mode to verify that GA4 is working correctly. To use Tag Manager Preview mode, you need to log in to your GTM account and select the container that contains your GA4 tag. Then, click on “Preview” in the top right corner and follow the instructions to enable Preview mode. Then, visit any web page on your website and look for the GTM debug tab that was opened automatically. There you will see a list of all tags that are fired on that page. If you see GA4 in the list, it means that it is installed on your website.
Conclusion
By using these methods, you can ensure that GA4 is installed correctly and working as expected on your website. GA4 is a powerful and innovative web analytics tool that can help you gain deeper insights into your website performance and user behavior.
If you haven’t installed GA4 on your website yet, we recommend that you do it as soon as possible to take advantage of its benefits. If you need any help with installing or using GA4 on your website, please feel free to contact us. We are happy to help you.
