What do you need before you start measuring?
You need a GA4 property connected to your marina website. GA4 is the current version of Google Analytics; the older Universal Analytics platform was retired, and the two are not interchangeable, as noted in the U.S. Department of Energy GA4 Definitions Guide. You also need edit-level access to the GA4 Admin panel so you can create events and mark them as key events.
If you have a contact or availability-request form on your site, confirm it redirects to a thank-you page with its own URL after submission. That URL is what GA4 will use to count a conversion.
- Log in to GA4 and confirm your property is receiving data under Reports > Realtime.
- Go to Reports > Pages and Screens and note the exact page paths for your location, services, slip-sizes, and availability pages.
- Add the columns for Engagement rate and Average engagement time per session to that report.
- Filter by each page path one at a time and record the numbers in a simple spreadsheet.
- Set up a monthly recurring task to pull the same numbers so you can track direction of change.
What are the three measures and how do you collect each one?
Measure 1: Engagement rate per page. According to Google Support, GA4 defines an engaged session as one that lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a key event, or has two or more page or screen views. Engagement rate for a specific page is engaged sessions on that page divided by total sessions to that page, expressed as a percentage. Collect it in GA4 under Reports > Pages and Screens, filter by the individual page path, and read the Engagement rate column.
Measure 2: Availability-request conversion rate. This is the share of sessions on your availability or contact page that end in a confirmed form submission. The denominator is total sessions to the page containing the form. To collect it, go to GA4 Admin > Data display > Events > Create event, name the event something like availability_request_submit, set the condition to match your thank-you page URL, then toggle Mark as key event, as described in the Google Support GA4 engagement rate and bounce rate documentation. GA4 begins counting it as a conversion the first time the event fires. View results under Reports > Conversions filtered by page.
Measure 3: Average engagement time on page. GA4 reports this as the average session duration of engaged sessions on that page. For content-heavy pages like your services descriptions or slip-size charts, a longer number indicates boaters are reading rather than leaving immediately. Collect it in GA4 under Reports > Pages and Screens by adding the Average engagement time per session column and filtering by page path.
The Marine Retailers Association of America (MRAA) identifies Traffic by Page as a distinct recommended metric, noting that understanding which pages are most popular gives insight into the decision-making process customers go through. Running these three measures per page rather than site-wide is how you get that insight.
Measurement worksheet: what to record each month
- Page path (e.g., /location, /services, /slip-sizes, /availability)
- Total sessions to that page
- Engaged sessions on that page
- Engagement rate (engaged sessions divided by total sessions, times 100)
- Availability-request form submissions (for the /availability or contact page only)
- Conversion rate (submissions divided by total sessions, times 100)
- Average engagement time per session in seconds
- Month and year of the measurement
- Notes on any changes made to the page that month
Hypothetical example: running the numbers for one page
Hypothetical example. Your /availability page receives 200 sessions in a month. Of those, 130 meet GA4's engaged-session criteria, giving an engagement rate of 130 divided by 200 times 100, which equals 65 percent. Of the 200 sessions, 18 end in a confirmed form submission, giving a conversion rate of 18 divided by 200 times 100, which equals 9 percent. On the /services page, 130 engaged sessions log a combined engagement time of 7,800 seconds, giving an average engagement time of 7,800 divided by 130, which equals 60 seconds. No benchmark is implied by any of these figures; the value is in comparing the same page next month after you make a change.
What mistakes do operators make with these measures?
The most common mistake is comparing a GA4 engagement rate to a Universal Analytics bounce rate. According to Google Support, GA4 engagement rate and bounce rate documentation, GA4's bounce rate is simply 100 percent minus the engagement rate, meaning the two metrics are arithmetic complements. Universal Analytics bounce rate used a different definition entirely. The numbers are not interchangeable.
A second mistake is rolling all pages into a single site-wide engagement rate. A boater researching slip sizes behaves differently from one checking your fuel dock hours, so a blended number hides which page is actually losing people.
A third mistake is citing an externally published engagement rate as a target. According to Google Support, Google publishes no official engagement rate benchmark for any industry, and any single figure cited externally is a sample presented as a standard. Marina Resources marketing analytics guidance reinforces tracking traffic by source and by page rather than chasing a generic number.
Finally, if your form does not redirect to a dedicated thank-you URL, GA4 cannot count the submission as a conversion without additional tag configuration. Confirm the redirect before you mark the event as a key event.
What should you do next?
- Open GA4 and confirm your property is collecting data for your marina's website.
- Go to Reports > Pages and Screens and identify the exact paths for your location, services, slip-sizes, and availability pages.
- Add the Engagement rate and Average engagement time per session columns to that report.
- Filter by each page path and record the three measures in a spreadsheet using the worksheet fields listed above.
- Confirm your availability or contact form redirects to a thank-you page with its own URL.
- In GA4 Admin > Data display > Events, create a custom event triggered by that thank-you page URL and toggle Mark as key event.
- Pull the same numbers at the end of next month and compare each page to its own prior-period figures to identify which pages are improving and which need attention.