E‑commerce tracking: GA4, Search Console and Merchant Center

Three tools, three questions

These tools are often confused because they all come from Google. Each answers a different question.

In GoogleBefore the click

Search ConsoleHow does Google see the store? Queries, impressions, clicks, indexed pages.

Merchant CenterCan my products appear in Google? Product feed, disapprovals, free listings.

Click

On the storeAfter the click

Google Analytics 4What do visitors do once they arrive? Sources, journeys, add-to-carts, purchases.

We connect them on each of our stores, including Nidelune, Soporifik and Wafmiou.

Start with consent

In Europe, audience measurement and advertising require the visitor’s agreement. Without a consent banner properly connected to Google (Consent Mode), the data is wrong and advertising audiences are unusable.

To check:

• the banner shows on the first visit, with refusing as easy as accepting;
• no measurement tag fires before the choice;
• the choice is passed on to Google Analytics and Google Ads.

On Shopify, the native privacy banner and the Google channel do this job, provided they are configured for the countries you target.

Search Console: the first one to set up

It needs no tag on the site.

1. Add a “domain” property and verify it with a DNS record. It covers every variant of the address.
2. Submit the sitemap (/sitemap.xml on Shopify).
3. Look at the page indexing report after a few days.

Then, every month: rising queries, pages with impressions and few clicks (title to rework), and pages excluded from the index.

GA4: the e-commerce events

GA4 thinks in events. For a store, five really matter:

1. view_itemA product page is viewed
2. add_to_cartA product is added to the cart
3. begin_checkoutCheckout starts
4. add_payment_infoPayment details are entered
5. purchaseThe order is paid, with its amount and its products

These five events draw the funnel. It shows where visitors drop off, and which source the buyers come from.

Three checks after setup:

1. Place a test order and find it in the real-time report, with the right amount.
2. Make sure a purchase is counted only once, even if the confirmation page is reloaded.
3. Exclude payment providers from referrals, so they do not steal credit for the sales.

Merchant Center: the product feed

Merchant Center receives your product list and decides whether the products can be shown. Each product must carry at least an ID, a title, a description, a link, an image, a price and an availability. Brand and barcode (GTIN) are expected when they exist.

The most frequent disapprovals:

• the feed price differs from the price shown on the page;
• shipping costs or the return policy are missing;
• the image carries text or a logo;
• the merchant’s contact details are missing from the site.

Once the feed is approved, turn on free listings. They need no campaign.

Link the tools together

The tools give their full value once linked:

• Search Console with GA4, to read queries next to conversions;
• GA4 with Google Ads, to import purchases and audiences;
• Merchant Center with Google Ads, for Shopping campaigns.

The logical next step is our guide Google Ads for an online store.

The monthly check-in

Measurement nobody looks at is useless. One hour a month is enough:

• traffic sources and their conversion rate;
• the funnel step that loses the most people;
• Google queries won and lost;
• products disapproved in Merchant Center.