The Problem With Default GA4
Google Analytics 4 ships with a default configuration that tracks a lot of things and surfaces very few useful insights for a small service business. Out of the box, you get session counts, page views, and a stream of automatically collected events that are mostly noise if you're not an e-commerce site.
After setting up GA4 on a dozen client sites, we've converged on a minimal configuration that consistently answers the questions that actually matter: where are leads coming from, which pages are driving contact form submissions, and is organic search traffic growing.
The Four Events That Matter
generate_lead — fire this on successful contact form submission. This is your primary conversion event. Everything else is secondary.
view_service_page — fire this when a user visits a specific service landing page. Lets you see which services generate the most interest.
click_phone — fire this on tel: link clicks. For service businesses, phone calls are often the highest-intent action a visitor takes.
scroll_depth — GA4's built-in scroll tracking (90% scroll) is worth keeping enabled. It tells you whether visitors are reading your content or bouncing after the hero section.
Everything else — file downloads, outbound link clicks, video plays — can be added later if you have a specific question to answer. Don't track it speculatively.
The Three Reports Worth Checking Weekly
Traffic acquisition by channel. Is organic search growing month over month? Is direct traffic disproportionately high (often a sign of branded search or repeat visitors)? Are paid campaigns producing sessions that convert?
Landing page performance. Which pages are the entry point for visitors who eventually submit a form? This tells you which content is actually earning the lead.
Conversion path. What sequence of pages does a converting visitor typically see? For most service businesses it's: landing page, then service detail page, then contact page, then form submission. If visitors are dropping off before the service detail page, the hero section isn't working.
Implementation in Next.js
We use the @next/third-parties package for GA4 integration in Next.js App Router projects. Import GoogleAnalytics from @next/third-parties/google and add it to your root layout. Custom events fire via the sendGAEvent helper from the same package, keeping the implementation clean and avoiding a global window.gtag reference in component code.
What to Ignore
Enhanced measurement events like page_view (redundant with session data), session_start, and user_engagement are noise for most small business use cases. The Realtime report is interesting but rarely actionable. The default Explore templates generate reports that look impressive and answer questions nobody asked.
Focus on conversions. Everything else is context.
Need help setting up GA4 correctly on your site? Contact Operon E2I at /contact — it's typically a one-hour engagement.