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GA4 Google Analytics Tutorial for Pet Business Owners: 3 Easy Ways to See Who’s Visiting Your Website and What They’re Doing

Last updated on January 8th, 2025 at 09:01 pm

You can’t manage what you don’t measure – Peter Druker

When was the last time you checked your Google Analytics data?

Lemme, guess. Nah-ah? Lol  

As an SEO content writer, I check my GA4 every day to see how my website is doing, but it’s also my least favorite tool. Too frequent, I know.

But, I am aware that without the right data, I don’t know if my content strategy is fueling my growth, or if it’s just draining my time, effort, and budget.

That’s why as much as I hate Google Analytics, I need it for my business.

And so do you. 

Imagine pouring hours into crafting the perfect blog posts, launching eye-catching social media posts, and running promotions, only to be met with depressing results. 

Ugh, believe me, I know.

At the end of this tutorial, you will be able to have a clear understanding of:

  • How to track your websites performance
  • Identify which marketing efforts are driving the most success, and
  • Spot areas that need improvement

With this knowledge, you’ll be able to focus your energy and resources on what works, while adjusting and/or discarding what doesn’t. 

Let’s jump right in. 

Affiliate Disclaimer: Pet Content Solutions is a proud partner of the Amazon Services LLC Associates and other pet businesses. Therefore, this blog post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission for qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Funds go to chimken, veggies, and toys for my dogs Kuya and Bunso. Please read the disclaimer for more info.

Google Analytics Tutorial for Pet Business Owners: How to Leverage Analytics for Better Marketing

In this tutorial, we will focus on three essential pieces of data:

  1. How many visitors are coming to your website
  2. Where they’re coming from
  3. What they’re doing on your website

But wait, 

If your pet business website is not yet connected to Google Analytics, or you don’t have a GA4 account yet, here are step-by-step instructions to help you get started. 

1. Google Analytics tutorial for pet business owners: How to check how many visitors are coming to your pet business website

google analytics tutorial for pet business owners by petcontentsolutions.com

Step 1: Sign in to Google Analytics

  1. Go to Google Analytics and sign in with your account.
  2. Once you’re logged in, find and click on Reports on the upper left corner, just below the Home icon. This will take you to the main dashboard where all your data is displayed.

Step 2: Set Your Date Range

  1. Look at the upper right corner of the dashboard for the date range selector.
  2. Click on it to adjust the duration of the data you want to view. For a broader perspective, select Last 30 days, then click Apply.

Understanding Your Dashboard

Once you’ve set your date range, here’s what you’ll see:

  • User Acquisition: This section shows where your new visitors are coming from. Are they finding you through search engines, social media, or direct visits?
  • Page Views: Find out which pages on your website are the most popular. This tells you what content resonates most with your audience.

2. Google Analytics tutorial for pet business owners: How to check where website visitors are coming from

Step 1: Navigate to Your Reports

  1. Sign in to your Google Analytics account.
  2. On the left-hand menu, click on Reports, then go to Engagement and select Pages and Screens. This section shows detailed data about the performance of your web pages.

Step 2: View All Your Web Pages

  1. Scroll down to the table that lists your web pages.
  2. Adjust the number of rows per page to see all your web pages. Look for the “Rows per page” option and set it to a higher number. This ensures you’re seeing the complete list of your pages in the Page Path and Screen Class column.

From this view, you can easily see which of your web pages are doing well and which need more attention.

Step 3: Identify Where Your Traffic Is Coming From

  1. Click the blue + icon above the table to add a secondary dimension to your report.
  2. Select Geography > Country. This will show you which countries your visitors are coming from. From this data, you can see that most of my traffic are coming from the US.

Step 4: Analyze Traffic Sources

  1. To see specific traffic sources, click the + blue  icon to remove the current filter.
  2. Click the blue + icon again and choose Traffic source > Manual > Session source/medium. This shows the different channels bringing visitors to your site, like Facebook, Google search, or direct visits.

From this data, you can tell that most of my traffic is coming from Facebook. This insight is valuable, especially since I recently cleaned up my website and experienced a drop in organic traffic due to a Google update. To compensate, I’ve been focusing more on driving traffic from Facebook, and it’s starting to show positive results.

3. Google analytics tutorial for pet business owners: How to check what website visitors are doing on my website (tracking outbound clicks)

Step 1: Sign in to Google Analytics

  1. Go to Google Analytics and log in with your account.
  2. From the main dashboard, look to the left-hand menu and click on Explore.

Step 2: Start a New Exploration

  1. At the top of the Explore section, you’ll see various templates. Click on the Blank template to start a new exploration.

Step 3: Add Dimensions to Your Exploration

In the blank exploration screen, look for the Dimensions panel on the left.

Click the blue + icon next to Dimensions. This will open a list of possible dimensions to add.

Scroll down to the Link category and select the following dimensions:

Link domain: This shows the domains of the links visitors click on to leave your site.

Link URL: This gives you the exact URLs of the outbound links.

Outbound: This dimension tracks the outbound clicks.

After selecting these dimensions, click Import to add them to your exploration.

Step 4: Add Metrics to Your Exploration

  1. Next to the Dimensions panel, you’ll find the Metrics panel.
  2. Click the + icon next to Metrics. This will open a list of possible metrics.
  3. Under the Event category, select Event count. This metric shows how many times the outbound clicks occur.
  4. Click Import to add this metric to your exploration.

Step 5: Set Up Rows and Values for Your Exploration

  1. In the main part of the exploration screen, you’ll see sections labeled Rows and Values.
  2. Under Rows, click the + icon or drag and drop to add the following dimensions:
    • Link domain
    • Link URL
    • Outbound
  3. Under Values, click the + icon or drag and drop to add the Event count metric.

Step 6: Analyze the Data

  1. Once you’ve set up the dimensions and metrics, your custom exploration will start to populate with data.
  2. You’ll now be able to see which outbound links your visitors are clicking on, how often they click on them, and where these links are taking them.

Here are my results.

After one week of writing blog posts everyday and sharing on Facebook, I’m getting some clicks on my Payhip store and CTA buttons for my services.

If you click on Visualizations, Google presents the data to you in different ways.

From here, you can also customize the duration of data you want to get. And, you can also download htis by clicking the download button at the upper right corner.

Final thoughts

And that’s it, I hope you enjoyed today’s Google Analytics tutorial for pet business owners.

Remember, every website visit and every click tells a story. Therefore, understanding your website’s stats isn’t just about numbers—it’s about uncovering the stories behind every visit. 

This knowledge lets you focus on what works, whether that means creating more content for a top-performing traffic source or tweaking your strategy when something’s not quite right. 

So, don’t let your website run on autopilot.

Let Google’s data guide you to your success.

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Namecheap – Secure your perfect domain name at a great price. Because every pet business starts with a great domain! I get all my domain names here. (Video tutorial here)

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Payhip – The best platform to sell your pet business products and digital downloads. Easy to use with powerful features.

Learn more