How to Check Google Analytics for a Website

Checking your Google Analytics data is one of the most fundamental habits for growing your website. This article breaks down exactly how to confirm your setup is working and then walks you through the key reports that show you who your visitors are, where they're coming from, and what they do on your site.

Is Google Analytics Even Working? 3 Ways to Check

Before you can analyze your traffic, you need to be sure you’re actually collecting it. If you’ve just installed Google Analytics or taken over a new site, the first step is to verify the tracking code is active and firing correctly. Here are three simple methods to confirm your setup, from a quick glance to a definitive test.

1. Check Your Website’s Source Code

The Google Analytics tracking code is a snippet of JavaScript that needs to be on every page of your website. You can check for its presence by looking at the page's HTML source code. Don't worry, you don't need to be a developer to do this.

• Go to your website in a Chrome or Firefox browser.
• Right-click anywhere on the page and select "View Page Source" (or similar wording).
• A new tab will open with your site's HTML code. Use the find function (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) to search for "G-".

If you have Google Analytics 4 installed correctly, you should find a script that looks something like this, containing your unique Measurement ID (which starts with "G-"):

<!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XXXXXXXXXX"></script>
<script>
  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [],
  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments),}
  gtag('js', new Date()),

  gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXXXX'),
</script>

If you're still using the older Universal Analytics (which is no longer processing new data but the tag might still be on your site), your ID will start with "UA-". Finding either script is a good sign, but the most important thing for future tracking is to have the current "G-" tag installed.

2. Use a Browser Extension like Tag Assistant Companion

A much cleaner way to check for marketing tags is with a browser extension. The official Tag Assistant Companion from Google is perfect for this. Once installed in your browser, it detects all Google tags running on a page.

1. Install the Tag Assistant Companion extension from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Navigate to your website and click the Tag Assistant icon in your browser's toolbar.
3. In the popup, click "Enable" and then refresh your page.
4. Click the icon again. It will show a list of all Google tags found on the page.

You should see your Google Analytics tag listed with your Measurement ID ("G-XXXXXXXXXX"). If the tag icon is green or blue, it's firing properly. If it’s yellow or red, there might be an issue with your installation, and the assistant will often provide clues on how to fix it.

3. Look at the Real-Time Report (The Ultimate Test)

The only way to be 100% certain that Google is receiving data from your site is to check the Real-Time report inside Google Analytics. This report shows you activity on your website as it happens.

• Log in to your Google Analytics account.
• In the left-hand navigation menu, go to Reports > Real-Time.
• In a separate browser window (or on your phone), open your website and navigate to a few different pages.
• Switch back to the Real-Time report in Google Analytics. You should see yourself appear as at least one active user.

If you see your activity appear on the map and in the "Views by Page title" card, congratulations! Google Analytics is successfully installed and tracking users on your website. No activity after a few minutes? Double-check your tag installation using the previous methods.

Navigating Key Reports in Google Analytics 4

Once you’ve confirmed everything is working, it's time to check your data. The Google Analytics 4 interface is organized to answer core questions about your business. Getting familiar with where to find the answers is the next step.

Your primary hub for pre-built reports is the Reports tab in the left-hand sidebar. This section is organized into collections like "Acquisition," "Engagement," and "Demographics." Let's walk through the most important ones.

Who Visits Your Website? (The User Reports)

Understanding your audience is the first step to creating content, products, and marketing campaigns that resonate. The User attributes reports give you a clear picture of who an average visitor is.

• Demographics details: Found under Reports > User > User attributes. This report breaks down your audience by country, city, gender, and age. Are you attracting the audience you're targeting? Is there an unexpected pocket of users from a country you aren't advertising in? This is where you find out.
• Tech details: Also under User > User attributes. This shows you what devices (desktop, mobile, tablet) and browsers people use to access your site. If 80% of your traffic comes from mobile devices, your mobile site experience better be flawless. If it’s slow or buggy on mobile, you’re likely losing customers.

Where Do Your Visitors Come From? (The Acquisition Reports)

It's not enough to have traffic, you need to know which channels are driving it. The Acquisition reports tell you exactly how people find your website.

Navigate to Reports > Acquisition. You'll see two key reports:

• Traffic acquisition: This report shows you where your traffic for each session (each individual visit) comes from. A single person might visit your site three times from three different sources (e.g., once from an ad, once from Google search, and once directly). This report credits all three channels. It's best for understanding day-to-day channel performance.
• User acquisition: This report shows you where your new users first came from. It focuses only on their very first visit. This is best for understanding which channels are most effective at attracting a brand-new audience.

Within these reports, pay close attention to the "Session default channel group." This dimension categorizes your traffic into understandable sources:

• Organic Search: Visitors who came from a search engine like Google or Bing.
• Direct: Visitors who typed your URL directly in their browser or used a bookmark.
• Paid Search: Visitors who clicked on one of your paid ads (e.g., Google Ads).
• Organic Social: Visitors from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn (non-paid posts).
• Referral: Visitors who clicked a link to your site from another website.

Check this report to see which of your marketing efforts are paying off. Is your SEO work driving more Organic Search traffic? Is your social media strategy working? The acquisition report holds the answers.

What Do They Do on Your Site? (The Engagement Reports)

The Engagement reports show you how visitors interact with your website. Is your content interesting? Are people finding what they need? Are they taking the actions you want them to take?

Go to Reports > Engagement. Here are the crucial reports to check:

• Pages and screens: This is one of the most important reports. It lists your most popular pages by the number of views. Use this to identify your top-performing blog posts, landing pages, or product pages. You can also spot pages with low average engagement time, which might indicate that the content isn’t meeting user expectations.
• Events: An "event" is any specific interaction a user takes on your site, from a page view to a button click to a video play. By default, GA4 tracks some events automatically (like page_view, session_start, and scroll). Look here to understand what people are actually doing. If you see a high number of form_submit events, that’s great news!
• Conversions: A conversion is just an event that you’ve marked as especially important to your business. This could be a purchase (purchase event), a lead form submission (generate_lead), or even a newsletter signup. This report isolates your most valuable user actions so you can track how effectively you’re achieving your business goals.

Final Thoughts

In short, you can check that your Google Analytics is working by inspecting your site’s code, using a browser extension, or looking at the Real-Time report. Once confirmed, your insights journey begins in the Acquisition, Engagement, and User reports, which show where your traffic is coming from and what it's doing.

Navigating different Google Analytics reports is a great skill, but joining that data with information from your ad platforms, CRM, and storefront can feel like a full-time job. With Graphed, we centralize all of your marketing and sales data in one place. Instead of hunting through menus in a dozen different tools, you can simply ask questions in plain English, like "Show me my top landing pages from Google Ads that led to a sale" and get an instant, real-time dashboard. This lets you get the analytics answers you actually need in seconds, not hours.