Website analytics, tracking and cookies

7 minute read • Last published: 25 February 2025

Analytics can help you understand your audience, the content they respond to and measure the success of your online channels. This includes your website, email marketing and social media.

Digital analytics can help you a lot about how visitors to your website are interacting with your content. It provides detail on key metrics including:

number of visitors landing on your pages
number of visitors making repeat visits
traffic sources (such as search engines or social media)
user demographics including which country they come from
average time spent on the site
conversion rates for bookings or enquiries

Find out more about your customers with key insights, understand them better and grow your bookings.

Collecting customer data

People sat at outdoor tables eating food — Backhouse Kitchen

The style and scale of your online presence will depend on the type of business you are running and the size of your operation. Regardless of the service you are offering, your channels should include the information your potential customers need and provide the clearest possible route to finding this.

Find out more about user experience and the customer journey.

Cookies

A web cookie is a piece of data that a website stores on a user’s computer, allowing you to track their usage of the website. The rules around cookies have been in place for a while but have had more attention recently, with users now able to give permission or to reject cookies for every website they visit.

You will only be able to track users on your website who have given permission, so the data you get from any analytics tool will only be for those users. You will not be able to get a complete picture of every user that visits your website.

Learn more about how Google uses cookies as an example.

Personal data management

Cookies are considered personal data because they can be used to identify someone, so they fall under data privacy laws and legislation such as:

That means you need to have a cookie policy on your website which explains the purpose of each cookie, and ask for the user’s permission to accept or reject the cookies.

PECR applies to all tracking technologies you might use on your website, which means it also applies to tracking pixels, scripts and beacons. None of these tracking technologies can be used without first gaining consent.

Cookies are now categorised, so you can place “strictly necessary” cookies (your website won’t work without them) without first gaining consent. However you must still inform the user that your website is placing these essential cookies on their device. Cookie banners can help you to do that.

The other categories of cookies are “performance”, “functionality” and “targeting”. You should allow users choice with regard to which cookies they allow. The option to reject cookies must have at least the same level of visibility as the option to allow.

UK GDPR must be followed by any business that offers goods or services, or monitors online behaviours and which targets data subjects in the UK and Europe.

The definition of consent used by PECR is now the same as that used for the UK GDPR, which means consent must be:

informed (using a privacy notice or transparency information)
for a specific purpose
freely given
able to be withdrawn at any time without detriment

Read the Digital Boost guide by Business Gateway on GDPR for businesses | PDF 0.8MB.

Most website platforms will cater for cookies by offering the option to install a cookie consent banner, which pops up to ask the user to accept or reject cookies. There are tools which can help generate a cookie policy automatically by scanning your website.

Google offers advice on:

Website analytics tools

A man and a woman walking down a high street outside of a bakery — South Queensferry

There are many digital analytics tools you can use to gather valuable insights. Google Analytics 4 is the most popular, but there are other user-friendly options including Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, Clicky, Crazy Egg, Matomo and SEMrush.

Google Analytics 4 allows you to easily capture lots of data from customers who have opted-in to analytical cookies. This means you can get a good indication on which of your marketing efforts are working, and which aren’t. You can then adapt your strategy accordingly and make better-informed business decisions.

Visit the Google Analytics site for more information on their services.

Google Help provides useful instructions on setting up analytics for your website and/or app including:

How to set up a Google Analytics 4 account
How to create a Google Analytics 4 property – a property is the site/app you are trying to gather data from
How to create a data stream – a data stream is the flow of data from when the customer interacts with your site/app to your analytics
How to set up data collection for your site/app ie the information you are looking to capture.

Find more information with Google Help.

Find out more about free online training opportunities for Google Analytics 4.

Other help guides

Analytics can be very detailed, but a lot of this detail might not be relevant for your business. However, it’s important to understand what they can offer and familiarise yourself with the tools available.

There are many other guides online including the website Analytics Mania, which provides useful instructions on how to install Google Analytics 4 and how to set up your account. This includes both an instructional video and written instructions.

Find out how to set up and install Google Analytics 4.

Business Gateway has a number of articles on using Google Analytics 4 including:

Website Insights provides information to help you:

Understand the terminology used on Google Analytics 4
Navigate the analytics to find the information you need

Brafton also provides some useful insights and entry level information to help get you started.

Cost

Google Analytics 4 is free of charge. However, please remember that setting up an account will provide Google with data from your site and your customers.

Google 360 is a premium plan also available but at a cost. Pricing varies depending on your user needs. There are lots of advantages to paying for the Google 360 Premium plan, especially if you are a larger business or your needs are more complex. Gain access to advanced features like in-depth analytics, greater data limits, and customer support. It also offers more flexible options for integration, better security, and more.

Find out more about Google Analytics 360 Platform.

Analytics for other channels

People in the audience at an event including a woman in a wheelchair pointing at the stage — Nice N Sleazy, a live music bar

Email marketing

The type of analytics you have for your email marketing will depend on the platform you use. Contact your provider to find out more about the information you can gather on your audience and emails.

At the very least, you should be looking to find out how many people open your emails and how many people click on the links you include.

Finding out more about how customers respond to your emails can help you:

decide how often to send emails
decide what day/time is best for your audience
find out what information your audience is most interested in
work out how long your emails should be or how much information to include

Read more about email marketing metrics.

There are inbuilt analytics for the social media platforms you use to promote your business and engage with your audience. Some refer to analytics as insights.

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Website analytics, tracking and cookies