How to measure what your website brings in

Many business owners have no idea whether their website brings them anything. That makes it impossible to know if it is worth improving, or what to improve. You do not need a marketing department to fix this. A few numbers and a monthly look are enough.

The one number that matters most

Count enquiries from the website: phone calls from the call button, contact forms, booking requests and messages. Everything else, such as visits, clicks and time on page, only matters because it leads to this. Marketers call this measuring conversions: the share of visitors who take the action you want [1].

Simple ways to count them:

• forms that send a copy to one email address, so they are easy to count
• asking every new customer "how did you find us?"
• a separate phone number or tracking on the call button, if you want more precision

Free tools that are worth it

Google Search Console [2], Google Analytics [3] and Microsoft Clarity [4] cover most of what a small business needs.

Google Search Console shows how your site appears in Google: which searches you show up for, how often people click and which pages are indexed. It is free and essential for SEO. See why your website is not on Google.

An analytics tool shows visits: how many people come, from where, on which device and which pages they look at. Google Analytics is the best known; lighter, privacy-friendly alternatives exist too. In the EU, analytics that use cookies usually need the visitor's consent.

Your Google Business Profile shows how many people saw your listing, called you or asked for directions: set it up step by step.

The numbers to check every month

1. Enquiries from the website.
2. Visits, and where they came from (Google, social media, direct).
3. Your most visited pages.
4. Searches you appear for in Google, and your position.
5. How many visitors use phones.

Write them down once a month in a simple table. Trends matter more than single numbers.

Turning numbers into decisions

• Many visits but few enquiries? Work on the page itself: how to turn website visitors into customers.
• Few visits? Work on being found: SEO for a business website: where to start.
• One service page gets most of the visits? Improve it first and make sure it has a clear call to action.

If you do not measure enquiries, you are guessing. One number, checked monthly, already changes how you decide.

Keep it simple

Do not try to track everything. Start with enquiries and Search Console, and add more only when you have a question the numbers should answer. Each improvement to your site is a new version, and measuring tells you which versions work: see how we work.

References

1. Wikipedia. "Conversion rate optimization." en.wikipedia.org
2. Google. "Google Search Console." search.google.com
3. Google Analytics Help. "Introducing the next generation of Google Analytics." support.google.com
4. Microsoft. "Microsoft Clarity." clarity.microsoft.com