GA4 Implementation Checklist for Shopify

This blog article is extracted from this Digital Darts blog article.  The Digital Darts article has a ton of background info.  I'm just summarizing the to-dos for the way that I implement GA4 in Shopify stores.

Checklist

1. Create GA4 profile in Google Analytics
2. Connect Shopify to GA4 using the Google & YouTube sales channel
3. Track Conversions
1. From the bottom-left side of GA4, click “Admin”.
2. Click “Conversions”.
3. Turn on “purchase” if Google hasn’t automatically turned on the purchase event.  If “purchase” is not turned on by default, you may need to go to the “Property” column then click “Events”. Turn on the purchase event. Next, hover over the event then click the three vertical dots to check it is not marked as “no personalized ads” (NPA).
4. Create other conversions that make sense for your store. Example conversions are email opt-ins, PDF downloads, ambassador enquiries, and wholesale enquiries. Send these as events in GTM then in the configure section of GA4, mark them as a conversion.
4. Track Klaviyo Sign-ups.  More info https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005077027 
1. Add the following to theme.liquid in Shopify
   
2. In GA4, go to Admin > Events.  Mark the submit event as a conversion.
5. Enable Enhanced Measurement
1. In Google Analytics, click “Admin”. Select the property you want.
2. Click “Data Streams” > “Web”
3. Under Enhanced measurement turn on the checkbox slider.
4. And turn on all options under the gear icon
6. Set Data Retention Period
1. In Google Analytics, click “Admin”. Select the property you want.
2. Click “Data Settings” > “Data Retention”
3. Set the data retention period to the maximum of 14 months
4. Enable “Reset user data on new activity”
7. Link Google Search Console
1. In Google Analytics, click “Admin”. Select the property you want.
2. Click “Search Console links” then “Link” to be taken to the “Link setup” page
3. Select your Search Console account to link
4. Click “Submit”
5. Go to Reports > Library
6. Find the Search Console collection near the top of page, click the 3 dots and publish
8. Manage Unwanted Referrals
1. Click “Admin”. Select the property you want.
   Click “Data Streams” > “Web”. Click your GA4 tag > “Configure tag settings” > “Configure your domains”.
2. Create unwanted referral exclusions for any of the following domains used in conjunction with the store.  Use the “contains” match type then enter the top-level domain
1. paypal.com
2. portal.afterpay.com
3. klarnapayments.com
4. amazon.com
5. checkout.shopify.com
6. pay.shopify.com
7. shop.app
8. yourstore.myshopify.com
9. Enable Google Signals
1. In Google Analytics, click “Admin”. Select the property you want.
2. Click “Data Settings” > “Data Collection”.
3. Acknowledge you understand the laws and policies.
10. Set Up Reporting Identity
1. In Google Analytics, click “Admin”. Select the property you want.
2. Click “Reporting Identity” then select “Blended”
11. Track Internal Search
1. Query Parameters
1. In Google Analytics, click “Admin”. Select the property you want.
2. Click “Data Streams” > “Web”. Click your GA4 tag > “Configure tag settings”. Click the cog icon to edit “Enhanced measurement”
3. Click “Show advanced settings”. 
4. Add type to the Additional Query Parameters box
5. Click Save
2. Create a basic internal search report:
1. Click “Reports” on the left then at the bottom of left navigation then click “Library”.
2. Click “Create new report” and select “Create detail report”.
3. Select the “Events” template to speed up the creation of the report.
4. Remove the current dimension then select “Search term”. Click “Apply”.
5. Under the “Event count” metric column in the report table, select “view_search_results”.
6. Save the report naming it “Site Search”.
12. Create Content Grouping