Choose one action to put at the top
Suppose you run a local service business and want people to request a quote. Put completed quote requests near the top of your dashboard. Decide exactly what counts: the form has been accepted successfully, rather than someone clicking its submit button. If the form fails, don't count it as a new inquiry.
Analytics tools record actions as events. In Google Analytics 4, or GA4, you can mark an important event as a key event. Select your quote-request event when reporting on inquiries, so other key events, such as newsletter signups, don't get mixed into the total. Test the event before relying on it. Google's Realtime and DebugView reports help you check that it arrives.
Add visits and a clearly labeled inquiry rate
Show sessions beside your inquiry count. A session groups activity into a visit; it isn't a count of individual people. The same person can visit more than once. Label this number 'Sessions (visits)' so you remember what you're comparing.
Next, show the percentage of sessions that included at least one completed quote request. In GA4, this is the Session key event rate when you select that particular key event. This tells you how often a visit included the action. Dividing the total number of requests by sessions can give a different answer if someone submits more than one request during a visit.
Keep the count and rate together. Two inquiry sessions out of 20 sessions give a rate of 10%, but one more inquiry session would change it to 15%. That's a reason to look over a longer period before deciding that a page or campaign has improved.
A simple dashboard example
Here's a made-up example for two complete weeks. Each inquiry session contains exactly one recorded quote request. These numbers illustrate the calculation; they aren't results from a business or a benchmark to aim for.
- Previous week: 200 sessions, 10 quote requests in 10 sessions, inquiry session rate 5%.
- Latest week: 300 sessions, 12 quote requests in 12 sessions, inquiry session rate 4%.
- Calculation for the latest week: 12 sessions with an inquiry ÷ 300 sessions × 100 = 4%.
You received more requests, even though a smaller share of visits included one. Check which sources brought the extra visits before changing the form.
Break visits down by traffic source
Below the totals, add a small table showing sessions, quote requests, and the inquiry session rate for each traffic source. A traffic source tells you where your analytics tool says a visit came from. In GA4's Traffic acquisition report, Session source / medium can show combinations such as google / organic. Here, google is the source, and organic means unpaid search traffic.
Use Traffic acquisition for this view of visits. User acquisition answers a different question: how people first found you. Keep the same selected quote-request event across your table and totals. If you can't see Traffic acquisition in your report navigation, an Editor or Administrator can add the report.
In the example above, you might find that a new social post brought many extra readers who were looking for advice. Read the post and the page it links to before judging those visits. The source table gives you somewhere to look; it doesn't prove why someone did or didn't request a quote.
Sources: Google Analytics: User acquisition versus Traffic acquisition
Show the pages people use
Add a short list of pages with their views. A view counts a page being displayed, including repeat views of the same page. Use GA4's Pages and screens report to see pages visited anywhere in a session. Use the Landing page report if you want the first page of each visit.
Those lists answer different questions. Your pricing page could get plenty of views after people arrive through an advice article, yet appear rarely as a landing page. Also, a key event listed beside a page doesn't mean that page persuaded someone to inquire. It may simply be where the event happened.
For your first dashboard, list the main service page, pricing page, and inquiry page. If something looks unusual, open the full report to investigate. You don't need a chart for every page.
Set a routine for reading it
Write the date range, timezone, and chosen inquiry event at the top. Compare complete periods that include the same days of the week. GA4 data processing can take 24–48 hours, and recent numbers can change, so leave time for reports to settle before making your regular comparison.
Keep a short note beside the numbers when you change a form, start a campaign, or alter tracking. Check recorded inquiries against the requests your business actually received. Consent choices and blocked tracking can leave gaps; a repeated event can inflate the count. Investigate a mismatch before using it to make a spending decision.
You can start with a spreadsheet and links to the reports you use. Once a week, write one sentence about what changed and one action you'll take. For example: 'Visits rose while the inquiry rate fell; I'll check the extra traffic by source.' Build a more elaborate dashboard when you have a question this one can't answer.
Sources: Google Analytics: data freshness