TL;DR: Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google's free tool for measuring what happens on your website, and since Universal Analytics shut down in July 2023 it is the only version available. For a UK small business it answers three questions that matter: where your visitors come from, what they do once they arrive, and which channels actually turn into enquiries or sales. Set it up once, mark your key events, link it to Google Ads and Search Console, add a consent banner for UK GDP
