Google Analytics 4 user interface best practice
This page is a work in progress.
The GOV.UK GA4 data can be accessed via the Google Analytics 4 user interface.
If you do not have access to this, please follow the GOV.UK GA access process.
In the GA4 interface, you can inspect the data using reports and explorations.
GA4 interface best practice
Pay attention to data quality
Pay attention to the data quality icons which can be found throughout the GA4 interface. These indicate whether the data in question is sampled, has thresholding applied, or is affected by cardinality.
In explorations, clicking on the data quality icon in the top right corner will tell you what percentage of the data your report is currently based on. In most cases, if you select ‘More detailed results’ in the dropdown, you will be able to get an exploration based on 100% of the raw data without needing to request an unsampled exploration.
Be particularly careful when using same-day data. GA4 data on GOV.UK takes several hours to be processed, so same-day data is often very unreliable. It is usually better to set your date range to exclude today’s data, unless there is a specific reason you need to look at today.
Name things sensibly
Assets shared within the interface are shared with all users of the property (so, all public servants with access to the GOV.UK GA4 data). It is therefore advisable to give any reports and explorations created clear and sensible names. You may wish to include your organisation’s acronym if you want others you work with to be able to find your explorations easily.
You can find explorations you have previously created easily by clicking the dropdown on the ‘Owner’ field (which appears when you hover over ‘Owner’) and selecting ‘Owned by me’. You can also search for explorations using the search feature on the top-right of the table of explorations, and you can sort them by name and modification time.
Deleted unusued shared assets you have created
It is requested that you delete any shared explorations you have created when they are no longer of use. This is to help declutter the shared workspace.