The default GA4 setup misses the conversions that matter for local businesses.
Every time I audit a local business's Google Analytics account, I find the same problem: the account was set up by someone who followed a generic tutorial, and it's measuring the wrong things. There's data, lots of it, but not the data that tells you whether your local SEO is working.
GA4 is a fundamentally different product from Universal Analytics. The event-based model is more flexible but requires deliberate configuration. For local businesses, the default setup out of the box misses the most important conversions: phone calls, direction requests, contact form submissions, and booking completions.
This guide sets up GA4 specifically for local businesses, tracking what actually moves revenue, not just what's easiest to track.
A vertical-specific version of this is our guide to local SEO for call tracking.
We break down which website URL to use on your profile and how to track it with UTMs in our guide to GBP UTM tracking.
If you're setting up GA4 for the first time:
Critical first setting: In Admin → Property Settings → Data Collection and Modification, enable Google Signals. This allows GA4 to associate sessions with Google accounts for cross-device tracking, important for understanding how users move from mobile search to desktop checkout or form submission.
Set data retention to 14 months: By default, GA4 retains event data for 2 months. Go to Admin → Data Settings → Data Retention and extend this to 14 months. Without this change, you can't compare year-over-year data in your reports.
If that tool is on your shortlist, see our Free Local Seo Tools alternative breakdown.
If this applies to you, learn how to track calls from your GBP.
GA4 can be installed directly via your website CMS or through Google Tag Manager.
Option 1, Direct installation (simpler, works for WordPress, Squarespace, Wix): Copy your Measurement ID (format: G-XXXXXXXXXX) from Admin → Data Streams. Insert the GA4 tracking code in your website's header section.
For WordPress: Use a plugin like "GA4 WP" or "Site Kit by Google" to install without touching code.
Option 2, Google Tag Manager (better long-term): If you're going to track events, phone clicks, and form submissions, install GA4 through GTM. It gives you far more flexibility without touching your site code every time you want to add a tracking element.
Verify installation: After adding the tag, use Google Tag Assistant (Chrome extension) to confirm GA4 is firing correctly on your site.
There's a dedicated breakdown in looker studio local seo reporting.
GA4's default events capture pageviews and basic engagement, but not the conversions that matter for local businesses. These must be configured manually.
For any local business, a phone click is a direct conversion signal, someone clicked your phone number, meaning they were ready to call.
To track phone clicks in GA4 via Google Tag Manager:
Create a new Tag in GTM with a Click element trigger for your phone number. Configure it as a GA4 Event with the event name "phone_click" and include the phone number as a parameter.
Mark "phone_click" as a conversion in GA4: Admin → Events → toggle "Mark as conversion" for that event.
Track when someone submits your contact form, not just when they visit the contact page.
Configure a trigger in GTM for Form Submission on your contact form. Send as a GA4 Event named "form_submission" and mark as conversion.
💡 Pro Tip: If your contact form redirects to a "thank you" page after submission, you can track this as a Destination conversion (page view of /thank-you) instead of a GTM event, simpler to set up without any code.
If you have an online booking system (Calendly, Acuity, OpenTable, etc.), track completed bookings as your most valuable conversion.
Booking platforms typically offer a confirmation page or webhook. Use that endpoint as your conversion trigger.
For brick-and-mortar businesses, "Get Directions" clicks on your embedded Google Map are valuable conversion signals.
Track these via GTM by setting up a Click trigger on your Google Maps embed's "Directions" link.
Out of the box, GA4's reports don't show you what you need for local SEO analysis. Create these custom explorations.
Navigate to Explore → create a new Exploration. Add:
This shows you your local organic traffic trend over time. Compare month-over-month to track whether your local SEO efforts are generating more website visits.
Create a second exploration with:
This shows which pages are receiving local organic traffic and which are converting. If your "Plumbing Services Austin" page is getting traffic but no conversions, that's an optimization opportunity.
Linking GA4 to your Google Search Console account surfaces search query data, the actual keywords driving traffic, inside GA4 reports.
How to link:
Once linked, a "Search Console" report appears under Acquisition → Search Console in GA4. This shows you the exact queries bringing visitors to your site alongside their conversion behavior, the combination of search impression data and on-site behavior in one view.
📊 Flento Data: Local businesses that connect GSC to GA4 and use the combined query data reduce their time spent identifying high-converting keyword opportunities by an average of 40% compared to analyzing each tool separately.
Stop looking at vanity metrics like total sessions. These are the monthly numbers that tell you whether local SEO is working.
Core metrics for local businesses:
Once GA4 is tracking your organic visitors, you can create audiences for Google Ads retargeting, serving ads specifically to people who visited your local service pages but didn't convert.
Create a local retargeting audience: Go to Admin → Audiences → Create Audience.
Target: Users who visited any of your service or location pages AND did NOT complete a phone click or form submission conversion.
This audience can then be used in Google Ads to show reminder ads to warm local prospects. For a local HVAC company in Nashville, this audience represents people who searched "HVAC repair Nashville," visited your site, read your service page, and left without calling. Those are the most qualified prospects in your entire ad universe.
GA4 data tells you what's working on your website. Google Search Console tells you what queries are driving traffic. Your GBP Insights tell you what's happening in Maps. These three sources together form a complete picture.
Monthly local SEO review workflow:
For complete local performance measurement, see how to measure local SEO ROI and local SEO KPIs that matter.
GA4 tells you what happens after someone lands on your website. Flento's Local Keyword Rank Tracker tells you where you're appearing in Google Maps and local search before they get to your site. Together, they give you the full funnel from search visibility to conversion.
When a GA4 report shows a spike in organic conversions, Flento's rank tracking data tells you which Local Pack or keyword position movement caused it. That connection, visibility to conversion, is how you identify what's actually driving revenue vs. what's just generating traffic.
Do I still need Google Analytics if I have GBP Insights? Yes. GBP Insights shows what happens on your Google listing, views, clicks, calls, and direction requests. GA4 shows what happens after those clicks land on your website, which pages they visit, whether they fill out a form, how long they stay. You need both to understand the full journey.
Is GA4 hard to set up for a non-technical business owner? The basic installation is manageable. The conversion event tracking (phone clicks, form submissions) requires either a developer's help or familiarity with Google Tag Manager. If you don't have technical resources, focus on the direct GA4 installation and the Search Console link first, those provide significant value without GTM.
What happened to Universal Analytics? Google sunset Universal Analytics in July 2024. GA4 is the only current version. All historical UA data is no longer accessible through Google's interface.
How long before GA4 data becomes useful? After correctly installing GA4 and conversion tracking, you need approximately 30 days of clean data before patterns are reliable. 90 days gives you enough data for meaningful month-over-month comparison.
Can GA4 track calls from my GBP listing? Not directly. Calls from your GBP listing bypass your website entirely. To track GBP-generated calls, use a call tracking number through a service like CallRail or Google Ads call extensions. The GBP Insights "Calls" metric shows call volume but doesn't integrate into GA4.
GA4 configured correctly is one of the clearest windows into whether your local SEO investment is generating real business outcomes. GA4 configured poorly is a pile of data that confirms nothing.
Set up phone click tracking today. Link to Search Console. Check those two data sources monthly against your GBP Insights trend. That combination tells you whether you're building a local presence that actually converts, and where to focus next.
