Library·SOP·Analytics
Choose how Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google's website reporting tool, should count a form success or store order. Match the method to what the website reports after a form succeeds or a store records an order: a dedicated thank-you page, a same-page Contact Form 7 success response, or a completed WooCommerce order.
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Clarity, structure and references reviewed in this version. This is not a test in a live account.
Choose how Google Analytics 4 (GA4), Google's website reporting tool, should count a form success or store order. Match the method to what the website reports after a form succeeds or a store records an order: a dedicated thank-you page, a same-page Contact Form 7 success response, or a completed WooCommerce order.
This SOP covers:
This does not cover:
A Submit click is an attempt, not proof that the form worked. A success message or thank-you page shows what the website reports; it does not prove the details were saved or received. For an order, choose what WooCommerce records after checkout.
Create a note called GA4 Method Choice. Add four fields: Website, Result to count, What the site shows after success, and Chosen guide or next question. Enter the website address under Website. If you want to measure more than one result, add a separate row for each result.
Ask the business owner which result GA4 should count. For this guide, choose either a form submission the website reports as successful or a WooCommerce order the store records after checkout. If the owner needs to know whether the form details were saved or received, write that result down and ask the website maintainer which system can confirm it. If the business wants both forms and orders measured, make a separate row for each in GA4 Method Choice. If it wants calls, offline leads, or a different action, write that result down; the methods in this guide do not cover it.
Choose a form signal that happens after the website reports success. A click on Submit, a validation error, spam response, or send error is not a successful form. The guide you choose must follow the form’s success behavior.
Ask the website maintainer, or use a recent successful form submission, to find out what happens after the form succeeds. Record the form tool and the success response in What the site shows after success. A new page, a same-page success message, and an error after an attempt mean different things.
Use the form behavior that matches the row in GA4 Method Choice.
The same fixed thank-you URL opens only after the website reports that the form succeeded: write Form → thank-you page under Chosen guide or next question, then follow the linked guide. This method counts visits to that page. Reloads or return visits can count again, so it is not a record of one unique form submission.
The page stays open and Contact Form 7 shows that the submission succeeded: write Contact Form 7 → successful submission under Chosen guide or next question, then follow the linked guide. It is for the Contact Form 7 success response, not a click on Submit.
Neither form method above fits: for example, the form uses another tool without its own fixed thank-you URL that appears only after success, it stays on the same page without Contact Form 7, or its success is unclear. Write Website-specific form tracking needed under Chosen guide or next question. Ask the website maintainer: What confirms that this form succeeded, separate from a button click or an error, and can that success be sent to GA4? Include the form-page address.
A purchase is an order the store records after checkout. Clicking Buy or seeing a checkout page does not by itself prove that an order was completed.
Ask the website maintainer which store platform creates the orders. Record the platform and what the store displays after checkout under What the site shows after success in GA4 Method Choice.
Choose the purchase method that matches the store and whether its eligible order reaches the buyer’s confirmation page.
WooCommerce order is eligible when the confirmation page loads: write WooCommerce → order purchase under Chosen guide or next question, then follow the child guide. It sends the browser purchase event only if the buyer reaches the confirmation page while the order has a status selected for the store’s purchase rule. A later status change alone does not send it.
The store uses another platform, or the business needs to count settled payments, refunds, subscriptions, or advertising attribution: write Platform-specific purchase tracking needed under Chosen guide or next question. Ask the store maintainer which completed-order signal sends the order number, items, amount, and currency to GA4. If an eligible order is created or paid after the buyer leaves and the browser will not return to the confirmation page, ask whether the platform can send that order server-side. Do not use a WooCommerce guide for another store platform or count a Buy click as an order.
Delayed or offline payment may make the order eligible after the buyer leaves, and the buyer may not return: this website method cannot see an order paid later. Ask the maintainer whether the store can send purchase tracking directly to GA4.
Read the selected guide's requirements before starting it. If that guide requires GA4 to be installed through Google Tag Manager and the site does not have it, follow the related installation guide first. That installation guide has its own requirements; this chooser does not install or change tracking.
Read each row in GA4 Method Choice. It should name the desired result, what the site shows after success, and either one matching guide or one exact question for the website maintainer.
