Install analytics and define your events
Six events is enough. More than that and nobody looks at any of them.
Inside this
- Install a web analytics tool20m
GA4 if you want free and deep; Plausible or Fathom if you want simple and EU-safe.
- Define the six core events45m
The six moments your funnel turns on, named once and never renamed. Subscription: signup_started, signup_completed, activated, trial_started, subscribed, cancelled. One-off purchase (a kit, a template, a course): product_viewed, checkout_started, purchased, downloaded_or_installed, first_use, refunded. Usage-billed or free-with-upsell: pick the six that mark the same turns. The names matter less than never changing them.
- Verify each event fires in a real session30m
Go through the funnel as a stranger in incognito — sign up, or buy the cheapest thing — and watch all six land. Most tracking is broken.
- Write down your UTM convention20m
One page: source, medium, campaign casing. Inconsistent UTMs make Phase 3 unreadable.
- Connect Google Search Console15m
The only free source of truth for what you rank for and what Google refuses to index.
- Connect Bing Webmaster Tools15m
One console for the second-largest reach you have: Bing’s index also serves Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Copilot and most of Ecosia. It no longer feeds ChatGPT, which runs its own crawler — but it is the only console that reports your Copilot citations.