How to set up Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager on your Herald-powered website

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) shows how people find your church website and which pages they visit. Google Tag Manager (GTM) runs the Analytics tag on your site. You’ll connect the two, add one ID to Herald, then confirm that Analytics receives a visit from your live website.

Before you begin, open your church’s live website and copy the address from the browser after it finishes loading. Use that address throughout setup, including https:// and www if your site uses it. Have your Herald login ready. If your church already uses these Google tools, sign in with the account your church invited. You’ll need permission to edit Herald settings and publish changes to the GTM container. Creating or editing an Analytics web stream requires Editor access or higher.

Step 1. Open or create your Google Analytics property

1. Sign in to Google Analytics. A property is where your church’s website reports are stored.
2. If your church already has a GA4 property for this website, select it from the account and property menu at the top and continue to Step 2. Reusing it keeps your reporting history together.
3. If this is your first Analytics setup, click Start measuring. Enter your church’s name as the account name, review the data-sharing choices, and click Next. If your church already has an Analytics account and needs a property, open that account and click Admin → Create → Property.
4. Give the property a name you’ll recognize, such as Grace Church Website. Choose the church’s reporting time zone and currency, complete the organization and business objective questions, then click Create. Accept Google’s terms if prompted.

Step 2. Find your website’s Measurement ID

1. For a new property, choose Web when Google asks where to collect data. For an existing property, click Admin → Data collection and modification → Data streams. If the church’s website already has a web stream, open it and go straight to the Measurement ID below. Otherwise, click Add stream → Web.
2. When creating a stream, select the correct protocol, enter the live domain, give the stream a name, leave Enhanced measurement enabled, and click Create stream.
3. Under Stream details, copy the Measurement ID starting with G-. Keep it for Step 4. The numeric Stream ID displayed nearby is a different value.

Does the existing stream show an old URL? For example, your stream might show http://example.org while visitors reach https://www.example.org. Click the pencil in Stream details, update the protocol and domain to match the live website, and click Update stream. Editing the existing stream preserves its Measurement ID.

Step 3. Open or create your Google Tag Manager container

1. Sign in to Google Tag Manager. A container holds the tags for one website. If your church already has a Web container for this site, open it and skip to item 4.
2. For a new account, click Accounts → Create Account. Enter the church name and country. If your church has an account but needs a container for this site, open the menu beside the account name and choose Create Container.
3. Use the church’s domain as the container name, select Web as the target platform, and click Create. Accept the terms if prompted. If Google displays installation code, close that window. Herald installs the code for you in Step 5.
4. At the top of the workspace, copy the Container ID starting with GTM-. Keep it for Step 5.

Step 4. Add the Google Analytics tag inside Tag Manager

1. In the container, open Workspace → Tags. If an existing Analytics tag uses your G- Measurement ID and fires on all pages, reuse that tag and continue to Step 5.
2. Click New. Give the tag a recognizable name, such as GA4 – Church Website. You’ll look for this name when you test.
3. Click Tag Configuration → Google Analytics → Google Analytics. If your container shows the alternate menu, choose Google tag.
4. Paste the G- Measurement ID from Step 2 into Measurement ID or Tag ID, depending on your screen.
5. Click Triggering → Initialization – All Pages, then click Save. The tag is now saved as a draft in your workspace.

Step 5. Add the Tag Manager container ID to Herald

1. Sign in to Herald, open the church’s website, and go to Website → Settings → General.
2. Find the Google Tag Manager field. Paste the GTM- Container ID from Step 3 and click Save. If it already matches, continue to Step 6. If a different ID is there, check with whoever manages that container before replacing it. It may also run advertising or other tags.
3. For a new installation, leave Herald’s separate Google Analytics field empty. If it already contains the same G- ID and is tracking directly, keep it through testing. When the GTM tag is published in Step 7, clear the matching Google Analytics field and save so each page view is counted once. If the GTM tag was already live, clear the matching direct ID when saving the container ID.

Step 6. Test the setup in Tag Assistant

1. In your GTM workspace, click Preview. Enter the live website address you copied at the start and click Connect.
2. Keep the church website tab open. Visit the homepage and a second page, such as Plan a Visit. Return to the Tag Assistant tab and click Continue if prompted.
3. Select the page you just visited. Under Tags Fired, look for the tag you named in Step 4. Check that the destination matches your G- Measurement ID. A tag listed as Fired in the Preview version means your draft ran successfully.

Tag Assistant says “Connected” but shows “0 Google tags found”? Pause your ad blocker for the church site. In Brave, click the lion icon and lower Shields for that site. If the site asks about cookies, allow analytics cookies for your test. Reload the website and start a new preview. If no tags appear, compare the GTM- ID in Herald with the ID at the top of your GTM workspace.

Step 7. Publish the tag

1. Once the preview succeeds, return to GTM and click Submit → Publish and Create Version. If you reused a published tag and made no workspace changes, continue to Step 8.
2. Review Workspace Changes and make sure every listed change is intended to go live. Enter a version name, such as Enable GA4 on church website, and click Publish. If you only have edit access, ask the church’s GTM administrator to publish the draft or grant you Publish permission.
3. If you’re moving from a direct Herald installation, complete the change to Herald’s Google Analytics field described in Step 5.

Step 8. Confirm a live page view in Google Analytics

1. Close the preview session. Keep your ad blocker paused and open the church’s live website in a fresh tab. Visit a recognizable page, such as an individual sermon, and note the part of its address after the domain.
2. In Google Analytics, select the same church property you used in Step 1. Click Reports → Realtime pages and select Last 30 min.
3. Look for the page path you just visited. For example, a visit to https://www.example.org/our-story appears as /our-story. Seeing that visit in the church’s property confirms the live website is sending data. New installations can take up to 30 minutes to start collecting data.

Where can we see our traffic later? In Analytics, open Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition to see how visitors arrived, or Reports → Engagement → Pages and screens to see which pages they viewed. Select the date range in the upper-right corner. If your menu looks different, search for the report by name at the top of Analytics. Standard reports can take 24–48 hours to populate.