Switch from Site Kit by Google

How it works

Imports the GA4 property Site Kit reports on, through Google's Analytics Data API

Where

Vireo Analytics, then Settings, then Import & export

Cost

Free. Importers are part of the free plugin.

What carries over

• Daily pageviews and users
• Pageviews and users per page, matched to your posts where the path resolves to one
• Referring sites, by domain
• Which pages each referring site sent readers to
• Countries
• Browsers, operating systems and device types
• Outbound link clicks by site, and file downloads by file name, where GA4 recorded them
• Custom events: your own events and form submissions, by name and count
• Google searches from the last 90 days once you connect Search Console, with clicks, impressions and position for each search and each post

What doesn't

• Searches older than 90 days. Search Console keeps 16 months, and the older months stay there.
• AdSense earnings and data from any Google service other than Analytics and Search Console
• Sessions, engagement time and revenue. Vireo has nowhere to store them, so they stay in GA4.
• GA4's automatic events, such as scroll, session_start and the video events. Outbound clicks, downloads and form submissions are the ones that come across.
• Event parameters. Your own events come across by name, without the details attached to them.
• Missing pages and bot traffic. The GA4 importer doesn't read them.
• Query strings on page addresses. Pages are stored by path.
• Referrals from your own domain. A visit from one of your pages to another isn't a referral.
• Universal Analytics properties. The importer reads GA4 properties only.

What you get with Vireo

• Visits counted on your own server and stored in your WordPress database, with no cookies on visitors' devices
• Search Console searches stored in your own database, two years by default, so they build up past the 16 months Search Console keeps
• What AI crawlers take from your site, next to the readers AI assistants send back
• Bots kept out of the numbers and listed by category, so you can see what was filtered
• Core Web Vitals measured in your own visitors' browsers, next to Google's PageSpeed Insights lab test

What you give up

• Sessions, engagement time and unique users over a month. Vireo counts pageviews and visitors per day, and a month's visitors are the days added up.
• AdSense, Tag Manager, Google Ads and the other services Site Kit sets up. You can keep Site Kit for those and disconnect only Analytics.
• Site Kit's sign-in with your Google account. Vireo connects with a service account key, which takes longer to set up the first time.

What you need

• A Google Cloud service account with a JSON key
• Viewer access for that service account on the GA4 property
• The numeric GA4 property ID (not the G- measurement ID)
• The PHP OpenSSL extension on your server
• For searches: the Google Search Console API enabled for the service account, and Restricted access for it on your Search Console property

Steps

1. Install Vireo Analytics from WordPress.org on the same site. It starts counting from that day. With Site Kit active, the Import & export tab lists Google Analytics under "Found on this site".
2. In Google Cloud Console, create a service account with a JSON key and enable the Google Analytics Data API for its project. The Google Analytics guide has each screen.
3. In Google Analytics, add the service account address with Viewer access on the property Site Kit is connected to, and copy its numeric property ID from Admin, then Property details.
4. In WordPress, go to Vireo Analytics, then Settings, then the Import & export tab. Choose Google Analytics, paste the whole JSON key, enter the property ID and pick a date range, then start the import.
5. To bring in searches, open the Search Console & API tab in Vireo's settings, give a service account Restricted access in Search Console, paste its key and the property exactly as Search Console lists it, and save. Then click "Fetch the last 90 days".
6. To keep Site Kit for AdSense or Tag Manager, open Site Kit, Settings, Connected services, and disconnect Analytics. Search Console stays connected there, because Site Kit needs it.
7. Or deactivate Site Kit. Your Analytics property and Search Console data are in your Google account, so they stay where they are.

Before you start

• Imports stop the day before Vireo's own data begins, and the import screen says which day that is, so days Vireo already counted aren't added twice. You can include those days anyway, with a warning that they'll be counted twice.
• Vireo counts a visitor once per day. For a month, its visitor total is the sum of the daily figures, which reads higher than GA4's users for the same month, because GA4 counts a returning user once across the whole range.
• Vireo connects to Google with service accounts, separate from Site Kit's Google sign-in, so there's nothing to re-authorise later.
• While Site Kit places the Google tag, its cookies stay on your pages, so keep your consent setup until the tag is gone.

After the import

Imported days sit in the same tables as the traffic Vireo records itself, so your charts run straight through from the old tool to the new one.

The Google Analytics 4 guide has each Google screen for the GA4 import, and the Search Console docs cover the searches.

Still deciding? Vireo vs Site Kit by Google compares the two feature by feature, with prices and where Site Kit is ahead.

Site Kit by Google is a trademark of its owner. This guide describes Vireo's importer as of October 2026. Site Kit by Google.