To track conversions accurately, check ten things: the key events declared in GA4, Consent Mode, data retention, the internal traffic filter, developer traffic, unwanted referrals, cross-domain measurement, the Search Console link, the Google Ads link, and a single UTM convention. None of these requires heavy development, but each one, if missed, distorts the numbers you rely on to make decisions.
This guide is for small businesses, online stores and marketing teams that already run Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console but no longer fully trust their reports: WooCommerce orders that do not match purchases in GA4, quote requests counted twice, or a suspiciously large share of "direct" traffic. For each setting we explain where it lives, why it matters and how to verify it.
Before you start: prerequisites and limits
This checklist assumes a few things:
- Administrator access (Editor is enough for some settings) to the GA4 property, and Owner access to the Search Console property.
- A clean tag installation, ideally through Google Tag Manager or the Google tag (gtag.js), with no duplicate install (for example once in the theme and again through a plugin).
- A written definition of what counts as a conversion for you: quote request, click-to-call, purchase, course registration, booked appointment.
Be realistic about the limits. GA4 will never mirror your back office exactly. Consent refusals, ad blockers, private browsing and attribution models all create legitimate gaps. The goal is not a perfect match, but reliable trends and gaps you can explain.
The 10 settings to check
1. Mark the right key events
Since 2024, GA4 uses the term key events for what used to be called "conversions" inside Analytics. "Conversion" now refers to actions imported into and used by Google Ads. Under Admin > Data display > Events, mark as key events only the actions that carry business value: generate_lead, purchase, a click on a phone number or WhatsApp link, a submitted registration form.
A common mistake is marking page_view or scroll as a key event, which makes the conversion rate meaningless. Another is firing a form event on the button click instead of on confirmed submission, so failed submissions are counted too. Test every event in DebugView before marking it.
2. Set up Consent Mode (v2)
If your site shows a cookie banner, the Google tag must receive the visitor's consent state. Consent Mode v2 passes four signals: ad_storage, analytics_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization.
There are two implementations:
- Basic: Google tags only load after the visitor accepts. Without consent, nothing is sent.
- Advanced: tags load on arrival with "denied" defaults and send cookieless pings when the visitor declines. Google can then model part of the missing behaviour, subject to volume thresholds.
Which one you choose is a privacy policy decision, not only a technical one. A Tunisian business processing personal data falls under Organic Law No. 2004-63 on personal data protection and the guidance of the INPDP, the national data protection authority; if you also target visitors in Europe, the GDPR applies. Use Tag Assistant to confirm that the default consent state is set before any tag fires.
3. Extend data retention
By default, a standard GA4 property keeps event-level and user-level data for 2 months. You can raise this to 14 months under Admin > Data collection and modification > Data retention.
The setting does not affect aggregated standard reports, but it does limit explorations: with 2 months, you cannot build a funnel exploration over last quarter. The change is not retroactive, so make it the day you create the property, and keep it consistent with your privacy policy.
4. Define and activate the internal traffic filter
Your own team opening the site several times a day inflates sessions and skews rates. Fixing it takes two steps:
- In Data streams > Configure tag settings > Define internal traffic, declare your office IP addresses.
- In Admin > Data filters, the "Internal traffic" filter is created in Testing state. Check its effect using the "Test data filter name" dimension, then switch it to Active.
An active filter permanently excludes matching data. If your staff work on mobile data or dynamic IPs, an IP rule will be incomplete; add a complementary method such as a dedicated parameter or cookie set through Tag Manager.
5. Exclude developer traffic
Hits sent in debug mode (DebugView, Tag Assistant) are flagged as developer traffic. A "Developer traffic" data filter removes them from reports. Turn it on so that test orders on your store and test form submissions do not end up in your numbers.
6. List unwanted referrals
When a visitor leaves for an external payment page and comes back to your confirmation page, GA4 may credit the sale to the payment provider instead of the real source, such as a Meta campaign. Under Data streams > Configure tag settings > List unwanted referrals, add the domains of the payment or booking providers you use. Online stores that rely on a hosted card payment page often overlook this.
7. Configure cross-domain measurement
If the journey spans several domains you own (a brochure site on one domain, a shop or booking tool on another), list them under Configure tag settings > Configure your domains. Otherwise every jump between domains starts a new session and the original source is lost. This only works for domains you control that carry the same tag.
8. Link Search Console to GA4
Go to Admin > Product links > Search Console links. The link brings Google organic queries and landing pages into GA4. Two things to know:
- Search Console data (impressions, clicks, average position) and GA4 data (sessions, key events) are counted differently. A Search Console click does not always produce a GA4 session, for instance when consent is refused or the visitor leaves before the tag loads.
- One GA4 web stream links to one Search Console property. Prefer a Domain property in Search Console, which covers every variant (http, https, www, subdomains).
While in Search Console, check the Pages indexing report and submit your sitemap: a page that is not indexed will not bring organic conversions.
9. Link Google Ads and import the right events
If you advertise on Google Ads, link the account under Product links > Google Ads links, then import the key events you want to optimise for. Avoid counting the same action twice: if a Google Ads conversion tag and an imported GA4 event both measure purchases, keep only one as the primary conversion. Confirm that auto-tagging (gclid) is on.
10. Adopt one UTM convention
Links in your email campaigns, Facebook and Instagram posts, SMS and partner placements need consistent UTM parameters. Without them, that traffic lands in "direct" or splinters into dozens of variants. Simple rules:
- Always fill
utm_source,utm_mediumandutm_campaign. - Use lowercase, no accents, hyphens between words: GA4 treats
Facebookandfacebookas different values. - Use
utm_mediumvalues recognised by the default channel groups (email,cpc,social,paid_social,referral,sms, and so on). - Keep a shared sheet of every tagged link.
| Link | utm_source | utm_medium | utm_campaign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly newsletter | brevo | newsletter-2026-11 | |
| Instagram ad | paid_social | winter-sale | |
| Reminder SMS | sms-provider | sms | cart-reminder |
| Link in bio | social | profile-bio |
Never add UTMs to internal links on your own site: they overwrite the real session source.
Useful extra settings
- Enhanced measurement: in the web stream, check which automatic events are on (scrolls, outbound clicks, site search, file downloads, form interactions). Turn off automatic form interactions if you already track forms manually, to avoid duplicates.
- Reporting identity: "Blended", "Observed" or "Device-based" changes how users are counted. Document the choice so everyone reads the same figures.
- Time zone and currency: set the property to your business time zone and selling currency (TND or the currency you invoice in) so daily reports and revenue line up.
How to check that everything works
Once the settings are in place, compare three numbers over one week: key events in GA4, real records in your back office or CRM, and Search Console clicks to the relevant pages. A gap of a few tens of percent can be normal depending on consent refusal rates; a gap where one figure is double the other almost always points to a duplicate or a misfiring event. Log every change (date, setting, who did it): it is the only way to explain a break in a chart six months later.
Summary
These ten settings take a few hours, yet every marketing decision depends on them: ad budgets, content priorities, trade-offs between channels. If you only do three today, start with key events, Consent Mode and 14-month retention, because the last two cannot be fixed after the fact.