Want to track your real estate website’s performance? Setting up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is essential for monitoring user interactions like property views, form submissions, and virtual tours. This guide simplifies the process, from creating a GA4 property to tracking key metrics using tools like the Analytify plugin.
Key Steps to Get Started:
- Create a GA4 Property: Set up your Google Analytics account and configure data streams for accurate tracking.
- Install GA4 on Your Website: Use the Analytify plugin for WordPress or manually add the GA4 tracking code.
- Track Real Estate Metrics: Monitor property views, lead forms, and user behavior to improve your strategies.
- Generate Custom Reports: Dive into detailed insights like traffic sources, user flow, and geographic data.
Quick Tip: Tools like Analytify make it easy to integrate GA4 with WordPress, offering real-time stats and page-level analytics.
Let’s break it down step-by-step so you can start tracking and optimizing your real estate website today.
Setting Up Google Analytics 4 For Real Estate Agents – Live …
Before You Start
Get ready for GA4 by making sure you’ve covered these steps.
Set Up Your Google Analytics Account
If you’re new to Google Analytics, start by creating an account with a Gmail or Google Workspace account. This ensures it stays linked to your business over the long run. Here’s what you’ll need:
- A Google account (Gmail or Google Workspace)
- Admin access to your real estate website
- WordPress admin credentials if you’re using Analytify
Once your account is set up, double-check your current analytics configuration.
Review Your Existing Analytics Setup
Take a close look at your existing analytics setup. With Universal Analytics being phased out, GA4 will soon be the default, so it’s important to prepare.
Analytify makes it easier to integrate Google Analytics with your WordPress site, letting you manage everything directly from your WordPress dashboard. To review your setup:
- Look for any existing analytics plugins or tags in your WordPress dashboard.
- Confirm you have the permissions needed to update tracking settings.
- Document your current tracking configurations to avoid losing important data.
- Check your website’s source code for existing analytics tags.
Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll be in a good position to implement GA4 on your real estate website.
Create Your GA4 Property
Set up your GA4 property to monitor your website’s performance effectively.
Add New GA4 Property
Follow these steps to create your GA4 property in Google Analytics:
- Access Admin Settings: Go to the Admin section in your Google Analytics account.
- Create Property: Click the "Create Property" button under the Property column.
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Enter Property Details:
- Name your property (e.g., "Your Real Estate Website").
- Select your reporting time zone (e.g., your local time zone).
- Choose your currency (e.g., USD).
Once you’ve completed the setup, move on to configuring your data streams to track the interactions that matter most.
Configure Data Streams
Data streams determine how GA4 gathers information from your site. Setting them up correctly ensures accurate tracking of leads and user activity on your real estate website.
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Create a Web Stream:
- Enter your website’s URL.
- Assign a stream name (usually your domain name).
- Turn on enhanced measurement.
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Set Up Enhanced Measurement:
- Page views: Tracks visits to your pages (enabled by default).
- Scrolls: Monitors how far users scroll through property listings.
- Outbound clicks: Tracks clicks on external listing links.
- File downloads: Records downloads of property brochures (e.g., PDFs).
- Site search: Captures searches for properties on your site.
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Advanced Settings:
- Enable cross-domain tracking if you use multiple domains for listings.
- Adjust session timeout settings (default is 30 minutes).
- Configure user identification settings to align with your tracking needs.
If you’re using the Analytify plugin, locate the Measurement ID from your data stream settings. This ID, starting with "G-", is necessary to link GA4 with your WordPress site through the plugin.
Install GA4 Tracking
Once your GA4 property and data streams are set up, the next step is to install the tracking mechanism on your website. You can either use the Analytify plugin for WordPress or manually add the tracking code.
Install with Analytify Plugin
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Install and activate the Analytify plugin
Go to your WordPress dashboard, search for "Analytify", then install and activate the plugin. -
Connect Your Google Analytics Account
Select "Authenticate with Google Analytics" and follow the steps to grant the necessary permissions. -
Configure GA4 Settings
Enter your GA4 Measurement ID (the G-code from your data stream setup) into the appropriate field in the plugin. -
Verify Installation
Check your GA4 real-time reports to ensure data is being collected properly.
"This plugin integrates Google Analytics beautifully within the WordPress admin panel."
– Devin Walker [2]
Prefer a hands-on approach? You can also integrate GA4 manually.
Add Tracking Code Manually
If you want to handle the setup yourself, follow these steps:
- Go to your GA4 property settings and locate the tracking code snippet.
- Copy the snippet provided by GA4.
- Paste the code into your website’s header section.
- Test the setup to confirm everything is working.
Pro Tips for Real Estate Tracking:
- Create custom events to track lead form submissions.
- Use page-level analytics to analyze the performance of individual property listings.
"This is something that clients really love as they of course want to see traffic to their site… What’s really neat is that it does it for every single page as well. So you can really see what’s going on for a particular post."
– @matt2012 [2]
Analytify provides a simple and intuitive dashboard, trusted by over 40,000 users [2].
Track Real Estate Metrics
Keep an eye on key metrics to better understand how visitors interact with your property listings and lead forms. By connecting GA4 with the Analytify plugin, you can gather detailed data specific to real estate performance.
Set Up Lead Tracking
Lead tracking helps you measure how well your forms are performing. With Analytify’s form tracking features, you can monitor:
- Property inquiry submissions
- Contact form completions
- Newsletter signups
- Requests for property showings
To get started, activate the Analytify Forms add-on and link it to your existing contact forms. This lets you track completion rates and identify where users drop off – all within your WordPress dashboard.
"It gives me in-depth information about each individual post. That kind of info is hard to navigate to in Google Analytics even if you’re relatively familiar with it already." – Matt Cromwell
Once set up, you can dive into custom reports tailored to your property listings.
Create Real Estate Reports
Use Analytify’s page-level analytics to create custom reports that focus on your property listing performance. Some useful metrics to track include:
- Views for individual property pages
- Average time spent on listing pages
- Geographic locations of visitors
- Traffic sources bringing users to listings
- How users navigate through your property catalog
The Analytify dashboard makes these metrics easy to understand, helping you identify which listings are drawing the most interest.
For even deeper insights, you can enable additional tracking options.
Enable Advanced Tracking
Take your tracking to the next level with these advanced features:
- Custom Post Type Tracking: Monitor property listings as a custom post type to generate specialized reports based on categories or types of properties.
- Real-Time Monitoring: Keep tabs on active users, live form submissions, current search queries, and visitor locations as they happen.
- Enhanced Event Tracking: Track specific actions like virtual tour views, gallery interactions, document downloads, share clicks, and saved listings.
These tools give you a well-rounded view of how potential buyers are engaging with your listings, all accessible from your WordPress dashboard.
Check Your Setup
Once you’ve set up GA4 and Analytify, it’s time to ensure your real estate website is capturing accurate visitor data and their interactions.
Test Live Tracking
Head over to WordPress and check Analytify’s real-time stats to confirm everything is working. Here’s how to test your setup:
- Open your website in a private browser window.
- Explore property listings and submit a test form.
- Go back to your Analytify dashboard and look for the activity you just performed.
If the data appears as expected, you’re good to move on to analyzing more detailed reports.
Review Main Reports
Dive into the main reports to get a clearer picture of your website’s performance:
- Traffic Sources: Identify where your visitors are coming from – direct links, search engines, or social platforms.
- Page Performance: Analyze how individual property listings are performing.
- User Behavior: Understand how visitors interact with your property catalog.
- Geographic Data: See where your audience is located.
Want to make sure your tracking is thorough? Use a checklist like this:
| Testing Area | What to Check |
|---|---|
| Real-Time Data | Active visitors, current page views |
| Property Listings | Page-specific tracking, time spent on pages |
| Lead Forms | Form submissions, completion rates |
| User Flow | Navigation paths through property listings |
| Geographic Data | Visitor location insights |
This ensures you’re covering all key areas for accurate data collection and analysis.
Next Steps
Now that your GA4 property is up and running, you can stay organized and efficient by following this setup checklist and leveraging insights from Analytify.
Setup Checklist
Use this checklist to ensure your GA4 setup is complete:
| Setup Component | Status Check Items |
|---|---|
| Account Setup | Google Analytics account created; property configured |
| Data Streams | Website stream active; enhanced measurement enabled |
| Analytify Integration | Plugin installed; API connection verified |
| Event Tracking | Lead form submissions; property view events |
| Custom Reports | Real estate metrics dashboard; geographic data views |
Using Analytify
Analytify simplifies analytics for WordPress, offering an easy setup to track key metrics effortlessly.
Here are the main areas to focus on:
- Dashboard Overview: Keep an eye on daily visitor trends and property engagement right from your WordPress admin panel.
- Property Performance: Dive into page-level analytics to understand how individual listings are performing.
- Lead Generation: Use built-in event tracking to monitor form submissions and contact requests. Every interaction is captured using GA4 tracking code.
