Google Analysis

Google Analysis (officially Google Analytics) is a free web analytics tool that lets you measure and analyze visitor behavior on your website. The tool records who visits your site, which pages they view, how long they stay and whether they complete a conversion such as a purchase or contact request. For Dutch SME companies, it is an indispensable source of insight: you not only see how many people visit your site, but also where they come from, what content works and where visitors drop out.

How Google Analysis collects and processes data

Google Analysis works through a tracking code that you place in the source code of your website. This code sends information to Google with each visit, such as the URL of the page, the duration of the visit, the location of the visitor and the device used. Since the introduction of Google Analytics 4(GA4) in 2020, the system works event-based: every action on your site (a page view, click, scroll or form completion) is recorded as an event. This differs from the old Universal Analytics approach, which focused on sessions and pageviews. The advantage of GA4 is that you can measure more flexibly and the tool is more compliant with privacy requirements such as the AVG. You do need more configuration to set up the tool properly.

Why Google Analysis came into being and why it is relevant today

Google launched Google Analytics in 2005 after acquiring Urchin Software. The goal was simple: to give Web site owners insight into their traffic without expensive enterprise software. Since then, the tool has become the world standard for Web analytics. In the United States, the vast majority of SMEs use Google Analysis because it is free, integrates well with other Google services such as Google Ads and Search Console, and because many web designers and marketers can work with it. The switch to GA4 in 2023 was profound: many companies had to rebuild their reports and revise their tracking strategies. Still, the tool remains relevant because alternatives such as Matomo or Adobe Analytics are more expensive or complex.

What Google Analysis delivers for SMEs

With Google Analysis, you can see which marketing channels bring in visitors, which pages convert well, and where your budget is paying off best. For example, an ecommerce store may discover that 60% of visitors come from organic search traffic, but that paid ads have a higher conversion rate. A B2B service provider can see which blog articles are generating leads and which are not. Linking these insights to an SEO strategy or to your content planning allows you to invest in a more targeted way. In practice, we at Monkey Vision find that companies often have Google Analysis installed, but don't structurally use the tool for decisions. That is a missed opportunity: the data is there, you just need to know what you are looking at and how to interpret the reports.

Google Analysis offers much more than a visitor counter. The tool helps you substantiate strategic choices, optimize campaigns and identify bottlenecks in your customer journey. Below are four concrete applications that provide direct value for Dutch SMEs.

Understanding traffic sources and channel effectiveness

Google Analysis shows exactly where your visitors come from: organic search results, paid ads, social media, direct visits or referrals from other sites. You see per channel how many sessions, new users and conversions there are. A practical example: an ecommerce store with 500 products discovers that organic traffic generates 70% of orders, while social media generates a lot of traffic but hardly any conversions. With that knowledge, you can shift your budget from Instagram campaigns to content SEO. In GA4, use the Acquisition > Traffic acquisition report to gain this insight. Note that by default, GA4 groups traffic into broad categories. For a sharper view, configure UTM parameters in your campaign links.

Conversion funnel and dropout analysis

With the funnel reports in GA4 (under Explore > Funnel exploration) you build the customer journey step by step: from landing page to product page, shopping cart, checkout and thank you page. You can see exactly where visitors drop out. For example, a B2B service provider with a contact form may discover that 40% of visitors open the form, but only 10% submit it. That indicates a problem: too many fields, unclear question wording or a technical error. By linking this insight to conversion design, you can simplify the form and increase conversion rates. In practice, we at Monkey Vision often see companies measuring conversions but not analyzing the intermediate steps. This makes it difficult to know where to intervene.

Target group segmentation and behavioral analysis

Google Analysis lets you filter reports by audience segments: new versus returning visitors, mobile versus desktop, certain regions or specific landing pages. For example, you may discover that mobile visitors have a much lower conversion rate than desktop users, which could indicate a non-responsive checkout or slow load time. Or you might see that visitors from the Randstad area convert more often than visitors from other regions, which helps you adjust your ads geographically. In GA4, you build segments under Explore > Segment overlap. A common mistake is using segments that are too broad without a hypothesis: split only if you have a concrete question, otherwise you get lost in the data.

When Google Analysis is the right choice and when it is not

Google Analysis is ideal if you want to start for free, want quick insight into traffic and conversions, and are already working with other Google tools such as Google Ads or Search Console. It is less suitable if you process highly privacy-sensitive data and want to be fully AVG-proof without external servers: then a self-hosted solution like Matomo is better. Even for very large websites with millions of events per month, GA4 can apply sampling in reports, so you won't see exact numbers. In that case, consider Google Analytics 360 (paid) or an enterprise alternative. For most SMBs, the free version of GA4 is more than adequate, provided you configure the tool properly and consult it regularly.