Google's disavow tool — when to use it (and when not to)
Universal Analytics is gone. GA4 is the default, and "switching to GA4" is one of the most-Googled phrases for small business owners right now. This is the version we install on UK client sites — privacy-respecting, ICO-defensible, and actually useful.
1. Create the property
In analytics.google.com: Admin → Create Property. Pick the United Kingdom as the time zone, GBP as the currency, and "Web" as the data stream. Google gives you a measurement ID that looks like G-XXXXXXXX.
2. Install the tag (the right way)
In your <head>, after consent has been given:
<script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-XXXXXXXX"></script>
<script>
window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}
gtag('js', new Date());
gtag('config', 'G-XXXXXXXX', {
'anonymize_ip': true,
'allow_google_signals': false,
'allow_ad_personalization_signals': false
});
</script>Those three flags are not optional in the UK. Google Signals shares your visitor data with Google's ad network across services — fine for an e-commerce store running ads, problematic for a charity or professional services site that promised in its privacy policy not to do that.
3. Cookie consent — yes, you do need it
The ICO's position is consistent: analytics cookies are not "strictly necessary", so you need opt-in consent before loading the GA4 tag. A real consent banner — CookieConsent is a good free option — that defaults to "no" and only fires the GA snippet on accept. Pre-ticked boxes don't count and never have.
4. Set the data retention
By default GA4 keeps user-level data for two months. Admin → Data Settings → Data Retention — set this to 14 months (the maximum) only if you need year-on-year comparison. Otherwise leave it at 2.
5. Set the IP collection to none
GA4 doesn't store IPs the way UA used to, but you should still confirm: Admin → Data Streams → your stream → Configure tag settings → Show all → Define internal traffic. There's no UI checkbox to "anonymise IP" any more — it's built in — but adding the anonymize_ip flag in your gtag config above is belt-and-braces.
6. Filter your own traffic
Otherwise your team's visits dominate the data on a small site. Admin → Data Streams → Configure tag settings → Define internal traffic. Add your office IP. Then Admin → Data Filters and activate the "Internal Traffic" filter (it ships off by default, which is a baffling choice).
7. The four reports you'll actually use
- Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition. Where did visitors come from? Organic search, direct, referral.
- Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens. Which pages people read.
- Reports → Engagement → Events. Form submissions, clicks on phone numbers, whatever you set up as conversions.
- Explore → Funnel exploration. Custom multi-step funnels — the only place GA4 does anything UA didn't.
If you'd rather not use GA4 at all
Plausible, Fathom, and Simple Analytics are all UK-friendly, GDPR-compliant out of the box, don't need a cookie banner, and cost about £10–15/month. The reports are simpler — many would say better. We use Plausible on this site. If "we use Google Analytics" doesn't fit your privacy story, switch.
If your analytics setup needs an audit, or if your cookie banner is, frankly, a bit illegal, we can help. We do this kind of clean-up regularly.