So you already understand the basics of event tracking in Google Analytics, but you want to know exactly which events you should implement?

This guide will help you identify and set up the most valuable events for your website, letting you skip the learning curve and jump straight to collecting actionable data.

Core Events Every Website Should Track

No matter what type of website you run, these fundamental events provide essential user engagement insights.

1. Button & Link Clicks

Track clicks on your most important buttons and links to measure how users interact with your key conversion elements.

Implementation Example:

// For a specific button using gtag.js

document.getElementById('signup-button').addEventListener('click', function() {

  gtag('event', 'click', {

    'event_category': 'Button',

    'event_label': 'Signup Button - Homepage Hero'

  });

});

// For all buttons with a specific class using GTM

// Set up a click trigger in GTM for CSS selector '.cta-button'

2. Form Interactions

Don't just track form submissions - monitor the entire form experience to identify friction points.

Track these specific form events:

• Form start (first field interaction)

• Form field completion

• Form validation errors

• Form abandonment

• Form submission success

Implementation Best Practice: Use Google Tag Manager to create a form interaction variable that captures field names and values, then trigger events at each stage of the form process.

3. Scroll Depth

Discover how far users are reading your content before leaving, helping you optimize content length and placement of key elements.

Key Scroll Points to Track:

• 25% page depth

• 50% page depth

• 75% page depth

• 90% page depth

• 100% (complete scroll)

In GA4, scroll tracking is included in Enhanced Measurement settings - simply enable it in your property settings.

[GUIDED DEMO: Setting Up Enhanced Scroll Tracking] Video Description: A 3-minute screencast that walks through enabling and customizing scroll tracking in GA4. The demo begins by showing where to find Enhanced Measurement settings in the GA4 admin panel, followed by toggling on the scroll tracking feature. The cursor movement is deliberate and slow, highlighting exactly where to click. The video then shows how to customize scroll thresholds if needed, and concludes with a real-time test showing scroll events appearing in DebugView as different page depths are reached.

E-commerce Specific Events

For online stores, these events are critical for understanding your purchase funnel.

1. Product Interactions

Track how users engage with your product catalog:

• Product view

• Product click

• Add to cart

• Remove from cart

• View cart

• Begin checkout

• Add payment info

• Purchase

GA4 includes a built-in e-commerce event model. For detailed implementation, check out our E-commerce Event Tracking Guide.

2. Wishlist Events

Monitor when users save items for later, indicating interest without immediate purchase intent:

• Add to wishlist

• View wishlist

• Remove from wishlist

• Move from wishlist to cart

Implementation Example:

// Add to wishlist event

gtag('event', 'add_to_wishlist', {

  'currency': 'USD',

  'value': 19.99,

  'items': [{

    'item_id': 'SKU_12345',

    'item_name': 'Premium Blue Widget',

    'price': 19.99,

    'quantity': 1

  }]

});

Content Site Events

For blogs, news sites, and content-focused websites, these events provide insights into content engagement.

1. Content Engagement

Track how users interact with your articles, videos, or other content:

• Content view (time on page > 10 seconds)

• Content scroll (read more than 50%)

• Content complete (read to the end)

• Related content click

• Share content

• Print content

Implementation Tip: Set up timer triggers in Google Tag Manager to fire engagement events after users spend specific amounts of time on the page.

2. Media Interaction

For sites with video or audio content:

• Media start

• Media progress (25%, 50%, 75%)

• Media complete

• Media pause

• Media resume

• Change quality/speed

SaaS Product Events

For software products and web applications, track these user actions:

• Sign up

• Complete onboarding

• Feature usage (track each key feature)

• Upgrade plan

• Downgrade plan

• Cancel subscription

• Reactivate account

Implementation Strategy: Create a consistent naming convention for all your feature usage events to make reporting easier, such as:

gtag('event', 'feature_use', {

  'feature_name': 'image_editor',

  'feature_action': 'crop',

  'user_type': 'free_tier'

});

Lead Generation Events

For B2B sites and lead generation focused websites:

• Content download

• Demo request

• Contact form submission

• Newsletter signup

• Pricing page view

• Case study view

• View contact information

[GUIDED DEMO: Setting Up Lead Generation Events] Video Description: A 4-minute step-by-step screencast showing how to implement lead tracking events through Google Tag Manager. The video begins with opening GTM and creating a new tag for tracking form submissions. It shows detailed cursor movements when selecting trigger conditions specifically for lead forms (filtering by form IDs or classes). The demo then covers how to capture important form values like lead source, requested information, and industry selection. It concludes with a testing section showing exactly how to use Preview mode to verify the events are firing correctly and sending the right data to GA4

Implementation Checklist

When implementing these events, follow this process for best results:

1. Prioritize your events - Start with 3-5 most critical events before expanding

2. Maintain consistent naming - Create a naming convention document

3. Test thoroughly - Use GA4 DebugView to confirm proper data collection

4. Create custom reports - Set up specific reports in GA4 for each event category

5. Set up conversions - Mark key events as conversions for deeper analysis

Next Steps

Now that you know which events to track, learn how to implement them effectively using Google Tag Manager in our GTM Implementation Guide.

Or if you want to see how to build reports from this event data, check out our Building Custom Event Dashboards and Reports guide.

Remember that effective event tracking starts with a clear strategy - identify your business goals first, then implement the events that provide insights into those specific objectives.