Phase 1~2.5 hoursMedium
Tracking Checkpoint
Critical: Set Up Tracking Before Building Your Website
Do not skip this step. Before you build your website in Phase 2, you need tracking in place. Without it, you will build your entire digital presence with no way to measure what works. This is failure mode #1 from section 0.4 — and over half of small businesses make this mistake.
Complete these two sections now (they take about 2.5 hours total):
- 8.1 Google Tag Manager (~1.5 hours) — the container that holds all your tracking codes
- 9.1 Google Analytics (GA4) (~1 hour) — your central measurement dashboard
Yes, these sections are numbered 8.1 and 9.1 because they appear later in the full guide. But in practice, they are Phase 1 activities. The tracking must exist before your first visitor arrives. You cannot retroactively measure traffic you missed.
Once GTM and GA4 are set up, return here and continue to Phase 2.
That's a solid afternoon's work.
We knock it out before lunch. Literally.