Google Analytics 4 and Search Console Setup
Measurement configured around your goals, not a tag pasted in and forgotten.
LGTCS configures Google Analytics 4 and Search Console together, with donation and enquiry tracking, consent handling and reports your team can actually read.
Fixed-price packages from $300. No retainer, no licence fees.
Short answer
Google Analytics 4 records what people do on your website. Search Console records how people find it. They answer different questions and you need both. LGTCS installs GA4 with the events that matter to your organisation defined as key events, such as a completed donation or a submitted enquiry, connects Search Console so search terms and rankings appear alongside behaviour, and configures consent handling where your visitors require it. Included from the Impact package upward.
support.google.com/analytics- Behaviour and search visibility, connected
- GA4 + Search ConsoleBehaviour and search visibility, connected
- Donations and enquiries tracked, not just pageviews
- Key eventsDonations and enquiries tracked, not just pageviews
- Owned by your Google account, not ours
- Your propertyOwned by your Google account, not ours
What Google Analytics actually is
Google Analytics 4 is the current version of Google's analytics product, and it works differently from the one most people remember. The old model counted sessions and pageviews. GA4 records events: a page viewed, a file downloaded, a form submitted, a donation completed. That change is why so many analytics setups look broken after the switch. The tag is firing, but nobody ever told it which events matter.
Search Console is a separate tool and answers a different question. Analytics tells you what visitors did once they arrived. Search Console tells you what they typed into Google, how often your pages appeared, and where you ranked. Neither answers the other's question, which is why LGTCS connects both and links them so search terms sit next to behaviour in the same reports.
Installing the tag is fifteen minutes of work. Deciding what counts as success, marking those as key events, filtering out your own staff, setting data retention, handling consent, and building a report your team will actually open is the part that takes real time and the part that determines whether any of it is useful.
Analytics configured properly versus a tag pasted in
Almost every website has a tracking tag. Very few have measurement. The difference shows up the first time someone asks how many donations came from the newsletter, and nobody can answer.
| Aspect | Configured for your goals | Default install, left alone |
|---|---|---|
| What is tracked | Donations, enquiries, downloads, sign-ups | Pageviews and little else |
| Answering where donors came from | Source recorded against each key event | Guesswork |
| Internal traffic | Your own team filtered out | Counted as real visitors |
| Search terms | Search Console linked and visible | Not available |
| Data retention | Extended deliberately | Defaults to the shortest window |
| Who reads it | A short report built for your team | Nobody, after the first month |
An honest caveat: Google Analytics is not the only option and is not always the right one. It relies on cookies, it requires consent handling in several jurisdictions, and a portion of visitors will block it. Where privacy or simplicity matters more than depth, a cookieless tool such as Cloudflare Web Analytics is the better choice, and LGTCS will say so rather than installing GA4 by reflex.
How LGTCS uses Google Analytics on client projects
Specific decisions we make on real builds, not a feature list copied from the documentation.
Key events defined around what you actually care about
A completed donation, a submitted enquiry, a downloaded report, a newsletter sign-up. These are marked as key events so they appear as outcomes in reports rather than being buried among ordinary page views.
Donation value passed through, not just the count
Where the package includes payments, the amount is sent with the event. That turns analytics from a count of donations into a view of income by source, which is the number a board actually asks about.
Search Console linked to the property
Queries, impressions and average position appear inside Analytics alongside behaviour. You see that a page ranks well but converts badly, which is a different problem from not ranking at all.
Consent handled where it is required
For visitors in regions that require it, tags are held until consent is given, using Google's consent signals. Analytics still receives modelled data, so you are not left blind, and you are not tracking people who declined.
Internal and bot traffic filtered out
Your own team, your office network and known crawlers are excluded. A small organisation checking its own website daily can otherwise account for a surprising share of its own traffic.
Data retention set deliberately
GA4 defaults to the shortest retention window, which quietly destroys year-on-year comparison. We extend it during setup, because the data you did not keep cannot be recovered later.
Thinking about a Google Analytics build?
Send us the pages you need and your deadline. We will tell you which package covers it and what it costs, usually the same day.
How a Google Analytics project runs, step by step
The same sequence on every project, whether it is a single landing page or a full platform.
- 1
Agree what success means
Before any tag is installed, we write down what the website is for. Donations, enquiries, applications, downloads, awareness. Everything else follows from that list.
- 2
Create the property under your Google account
The GA4 property and the Search Console property are owned by your organisation's Google account. LGTCS is granted access, which you can remove at any time.
- 3
Install the tag and verify it
The measurement tag is added to the site and checked in real time, confirming events fire once rather than twice and that page paths are recorded cleanly.
- 4
Mark key events and pass values
The events that represent success are marked as key events. Where money is involved, the amount and currency travel with the event.
- 5
Verify the domain in Search Console
Ownership is verified, the sitemap is submitted, and indexing is checked page by page so you know Google can actually see the site it is being asked to rank.
- 6
Build one report your team will open
A short dashboard covering traffic, sources, key events and search terms. One page, in plain language, rather than a tool nobody logs into.
What you receive
Everything below is handed over at the end of the project. Nothing is held back as leverage to keep you on a retainer.
- GA4 property owned by your organisation's Google account
- Measurement tag installed and verified firing correctly
- Key events configured for donations, enquiries and downloads
- Transaction value and currency sent with payment events
- Search Console verified with the sitemap submitted
- Search Console linked to the Analytics property
- Internal traffic and known bots filtered out
- Consent handling where your audience requires it
- Data retention extended beyond the default window
- A one-page report your team can read without training
Projects we build with Google Analytics
The kinds of work this part of the stack is genuinely the right answer for.
Charities reporting to funders
Reach, engagement and completed donations by source, exportable for a grant report, rather than a screenshot of a traffic graph.
Organisations running campaigns
Knowing which channel produced donations instead of which produced clicks, so the next campaign budget is based on outcomes.
Teams whose analytics stopped making sense
Usually the result of the move to GA4 with nothing reconfigured afterwards. Rebuilding the event setup restores the numbers people used to rely on.
Sites that rank but do not convert
Search Console shows the traffic arriving; Analytics shows it leaving. Together they point at the page that needs the work.
The business reason we chose it
Technology decisions only matter if they change something you can measure.
You can answer where donations come from
By channel, by campaign, by page, with the amount attached, rather than an estimate assembled at the end of the quarter.
Reports get read
One page, in plain language, aimed at the people who make decisions rather than at analysts.
The data belongs to you
Properties are owned by your Google account. If you change developer, nothing about your measurement history moves or is lost.
In our packages
Included from the Impact package upward. Donation conversion tracking is added with Growth, and custom dashboards and reporting with Digital Platform.
See all four packages side by sideGoogle Analytics questions we get asked
The things clients actually ask before signing, answered plainly.
Is Google Analytics free?
Yes, GA4 is free for the volumes an organisational website produces, and Search Console is free without limits. The paid tier exists for very large enterprises and is not relevant to the sites LGTCS builds. Setup is included in your package, so there is no separate analytics subscription to budget for.
What is the difference between Analytics and Search Console?
Analytics tells you what people did after they arrived on your site. Search Console tells you how they found it: what they typed into Google, how often you appeared, and where you ranked. They answer different questions and neither substitutes for the other, which is why LGTCS sets up both and links them together.
Do I need a cookie banner if I use Google Analytics?
It depends on where your visitors are. GA4 uses cookies, so audiences covered by EU and UK rules generally require consent before tracking begins. LGTCS configures consent signals so tags wait until permission is given. If your audience is entirely outside those jurisdictions the requirement may not apply, and if you would rather avoid the question completely we can use a cookieless analytics tool instead. Tell LGTCS where your visitors are and we will recommend the right setup.
Can you track donations, not just visits?
Yes, and it is the part most setups miss. Where your package includes Stripe, the completed donation is sent to Analytics as a key event with the amount and currency attached. You can then see income by traffic source and campaign rather than a count of button clicks. Ask LGTCS for donation tracking during scoping so it is built into the first release.
My analytics broke when GA4 arrived. Can you fix it?
Almost certainly. This is common, and the cause is nearly always the same: the property was migrated but the goals were never rebuilt as key events, so the tag records visits and nothing else. LGTCS can audit what you have, rebuild the event configuration and reconnect Search Console. Send LGTCS access to your existing property and we will tell you what is wrong and what fixing it involves before you commit to anything.
Is there a privacy-friendly alternative?
Yes. Cloudflare Web Analytics sets no cookies and collects no personal data, which removes the consent question and the banner entirely. The trade-off is less depth: you get traffic and pages, not per-visitor journeys or campaign attribution. For organisations where privacy or simplicity outweighs detail, LGTCS will recommend it over GA4, and we can run both if you want the comparison.
Who owns the analytics data?
You do. The GA4 and Search Console properties are created under your organisation's Google account with LGTCS granted access as a user. Remove our access whenever you like and your data, your history and your reports are unaffected.
The rest of the stack
Every tool we use has to work with the others. These are the closest neighbours.
Ready to build on Google Analytics?
Tell us what the website needs to do. We will tell you which package covers it, what it costs, and when it goes live.