Once Google Analytics 4 is linked to BigQuery, raw events appear in your warehouse every day: every page view, click and enquiry with all its parameters. That gives you freedom the Analytics interface doesn’t, but the data is structured unusually, and first queries often leave people stuck. Here’s how GA4 tables in BigQuery are structured, three first SQL queries — by day, by page and by source — and how to avoid overpaying for data processing.

Google tag gateway is a feature that lets you load Google tags from your own domain instead of Google’s servers. It’s often described as a way to “bypass blockers and recover all your data”, but in reality it’s more modest — and more useful than it sounds. Here’s how tag gateway works in plain words, what it really gives you, what it doesn’t do, how to turn it on via Cloudflare and how to check the result.

Core Web Vitals are three metrics Google uses to judge how comfortable a page is to use: how quickly the main content appears, how quickly the page responds to taps and clicks, and whether the layout jumps around while loading. They shape visitors’ impressions and are taken into account in Google Search. Here’s where to check them, how to read PageSpeed Insights and Search Console results, and why the numbers differ between tools.

If emails from your domain land in spam or don’t arrive at all, the first thing to check is three DNS records: SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Since 2024, Gmail has required all senders to have at least SPF or DKIM, and bulk senders to have all three. Here’s how to set up all three records for Google Workspace email on your own domain: what to add, in what order and how to check the result.

reCAPTCHA protects your website forms from spam bots. During 2025, Google moved all reCAPTCHA keys to Google Cloud, so many older guides are out of date: keys are now created and managed in the Google Cloud console, and free usage comes with a monthly limit. Here’s how the reCAPTCHA types differ and which one to choose for a form, where to create a key now, where to find the secret key for a plugin and what happens if you exceed the limit.

A map on your Contact page helps customers see where you are and get directions straight away. You don’t need an API key or a payment card in Google Cloud for that: a simple map can be embedded with code straight from Google Maps in a couple of minutes. Here’s how to get the map code, how to make it work well on phones, how to embed directions — and when you can’t do without a Google Maps Platform key after all.

Google Ads learns from conversions: enquiries, calls, purchases. If they’re counted wrongly, the system optimises your campaigns blind — spending budget on clicks that bring nothing and missing the ones that bring customers. Here’s how to check conversion tracking yourself: where to see the statuses, how to make a test conversion, how to compare the numbers with real enquiries and where data usually gets lost.

Data Studio is Google’s free tool for reports and dashboards. In April 2026 Google brought back this name; for several years before that it was called Looker Studio. A report connects to Google Analytics, Search Console and advertising and updates itself: open the link and you see fresh numbers. Here’s how to build your first report from scratch: connect data, add four useful blocks, set up the date range and share it with colleagues.

Google Consent Mode v2 passes the choice a visitor made in your cookie banner to Google Analytics and Google Ads. A banner can look perfect and still pass nothing on — and then your advertising and analytics run with errors while you, the site owner, have no idea. Here’s how to check consent mode yourself in 10–15 minutes — three ways, from the simplest to the most precise — and the mistakes that come up most often.