Knowing how many people visit your website — and more importantly, where they come from and what they do — is the foundation of any data-driven digital marketing decision. Bali business owners who invest in SEO, Google Ads, or social media without tracking website visitors are making optimization decisions without data.
This guide covers the right tools and the right metrics to track for Bali businesses.
The Two Essential Tools
Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Google’s free web analytics platform — the standard for tracking website visitor data. GA4 shows: how many visitors your site receives, which pages they visit, how long they stay, what device and country they’re from, and what actions they take (clicking buttons, submitting forms, initiating WhatsApp conversations).
If you don’t yet have GA4 installed on your website, install it immediately. You cannot retroactively track visitors from before the tracking code was installed — every day without tracking is lost data.
Google Search Console (GSC). A free Google tool that shows specifically how your website performs in Google search results: which search terms your pages appear for, how many times they’re clicked, your average position for each keyword, and any technical issues affecting your search performance.
GA4 and GSC serve different purposes: GA4 is about what visitors do on your site; GSC is about how they found your site through Google. Both are essential; neither substitutes for the other.
Installing Google Analytics 4
Create a GA4 property at analytics.google.com, then add the tracking code to your website. For WordPress sites, the simplest installation method is through the “Site Kit by Google” plugin, which installs GA4, Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, and AdSense (if applicable) with a guided setup process.
Alternatively, add the GA4 measurement code directly through a header plugin (Insert Headers and Footers, or through your theme’s custom HTML section) or through Google Tag Manager for more complex tracking configurations.
The Metrics That Actually Matter
GA4 provides hundreds of metrics. For most Bali businesses, these are the ones that connect to business decisions:
Users. The count of individual people who visited your site in a given period. Watch the trend over time (weekly, monthly) rather than the absolute number — a consistent upward trend indicates your marketing is working.
Sessions by channel. In GA4’s Traffic Acquisition report, you can see how many visitors came from: Organic Search (Google, unpaid), Direct (typed your URL directly), Organic Social (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok), Paid Search (Google Ads), Email, and Referral (links from other websites). This channel breakdown tells you which marketing activities are driving traffic and which aren’t.
Organic search traffic specifically. Connect GA4 to Google Search Console for the most complete picture of your organic search performance. Organic traffic growth over time is the primary metric for evaluating your SEO investment.
Conversion events. The most important metric: what percentage of visitors take the action you want? Set up conversion events in GA4 for: contact form submissions, booking widget initiations, phone number clicks, WhatsApp button clicks. Without conversion tracking, you’re watching visitor counts without knowing if any of them actually became customers.
Top landing pages. In the Pages and Screens report, which pages attract the most visitors? If a page you didn’t expect is generating significant traffic, investigate why — it may reveal an SEO opportunity worth building on. If a page you expected to rank isn’t generating traffic, it needs optimization.
Reading the Data: Common Bali Business Scenarios
Lots of traffic but low inquiries. High visitors + low conversion = a conversion problem on the website itself. Check: is the CTA visible? Is the booking form working on mobile? Is there a trust issue (no reviews visible, outdated pricing)?
Direct and branded traffic only, no organic. Nearly all visits from people who already know your name = no new discovery happening. SEO content investment needed.
Traffic but no sessions from Instagram despite active posting. Social media effort isn’t driving clicks. The Instagram content may be generating engagement but lacking conversion mechanisms (link in bio, swipe-up CTAs).
Need help setting up GA4 and Search Console for your Bali business website? Contact Bali Web Design.