Website Tracking for Local Businesses

Website tracking for local businesses: measure what matters (and stop guessing)

If you are relying on your website to bring in enquiries, there is one uncomfortable question worth asking:

Do you actually know what your website produces each month?

Not “visitors”. Not “page views”. Real outcomes:

• calls
• enquiry forms
• quote requests
• booking clicks
• direction requests

Because once you can see what is happening, improving results becomes much simpler. You stop guessing, and you start making small changes that reliably increase enquiries.

This post gives you a straightforward way to set up tracking, even if you are not technical.

Why most local businesses track the wrong things

A lot of tracking advice online is built for ecommerce and big marketing teams.

Local businesses are different.

You do not need 50 dashboards. You need a clear answer to a few practical questions:

• Which pages bring in enquiries?
• Which traffic sources bring in enquiries?
• Where are people dropping off before they contact you?
• What should you fix first?

If you can answer those, you are already ahead of most competitors.

The only numbers most local businesses need to track

Here is a simple framework. You can add more later, but start here.

1) Enquiries

These are the actions that matter:

• phone calls
• contact form submissions
• quote requests
• booking clicks
• WhatsApp or email clicks (if you use them)

2) Where enquiries come from

For each enquiry type, you want to know:

• which page the visitor was on
• whether they came from Google search, Google maps, social, or another source

3) A few simple supporting metrics

These help you spot issues:

• top landing pages (first page people see)
• bounce rate or engagement rate (a rough quality signal)
• time on page (useful, but not a goal on its own)

The goal is always the same: connect activity to enquiries.

What you should track first (in plain English)

Track contact form submissions

If someone fills in a form, that is an enquiry. It should be counted every time.

If you have a thank you page after submission, tracking is usually simpler. If you do not, it is still possible, but it can be slightly more fiddly depending on how your form is built.

Track phone clicks on mobile

A lot of local customers click to call on mobile. If that click is not tracked, you are missing the biggest signal.

You are not tracking every phone conversation. You are tracking the intent.

Track booking and quote clicks

If you send people to an external booking system, track the click that takes them there.

Same for “Get a quote” buttons, WhatsApp buttons, and direction links.

A simple tracking setup that works for most local sites

You have two realistic options.

Option 1: The simple option (good enough for most)

Track these events:

• form submissions
• click to call
• booking clicks
• quote request clicks

Then review results monthly using a basic scorecard (we will cover the scorecard in a later post).

Option 2: The more advanced option (when you want deeper call data)

If phone calls are your main conversion, you can add call tracking software that assigns a unique number per visitor source.

That can be powerful, but it is not essential to start improving.

Start simple. Upgrade when you know the website is already converting.

The quickest way to find “lead leaks”

Once tracking is in place, here is the first thing to do.

Step 1: Identify your top landing pages

These are the pages that people enter your site on.

For most local businesses, that will be:

• the homepage
• a few service pages
• sometimes a location page
• sometimes a blog post

Step 2: Compare traffic vs enquiries

You are looking for pages that have:

• decent traffic
• low enquiry rate

These pages are your biggest opportunities.

You do not need more traffic if your best pages are leaking leads.

What to fix on high traffic, low enquiry pages

This is where Post #1 and Post #2 come back into play.

Most pages underperform because of a few predictable issues:

Clarity and next step

People cannot tell what to do next.

Fix:

• add a strong call to action near the top
• make contact options obvious
• remove distractions

Lack of proof

People do not trust the page enough to enquire.

Fix:

• add reviews that mention the specific service
• include real photos
• add credentials and reassurance

The page does not match the search intent

The visitor expected one thing and landed on something too broad.

Fix:

• make the page more specific
• create a dedicated page for that service (one page per service)
• add FAQs that match real questions

Mobile friction

Buttons are hard to tap, forms are long, or the phone number is not clickable.

Fix:

• shorten forms
• add click to call
• make the primary CTA sticky on mobile if appropriate

A simple monthly tracking routine (15 minutes)

If you want a routine that makes your website improve without constant effort, do this once a month.

1) Check enquiry totals

How many calls, forms, and booking clicks did you get?

2) Check which pages produced them

Which pages are doing the work?

3) Check which pages got traffic but produced little

Pick one page to improve next month.

4) Make one change

Examples:

• rewrite the headline for clarity
• move the call to action higher
• add reviews and proof
• shorten the form
• add a service specific FAQ section

5) Compare month on month

You are not looking for perfection. You are looking for steady improvement.

Small monthly changes compound quickly.

How tracking supports local SEO too

This is the part most people miss.

Tracking tells you where Google is already giving you visibility, and where visitors are already landing.

That means you can:

• double down on services that are already getting attention
• improve pages that are close to converting
• build new pages based on what customers actually do, not what you assume

In other words, tracking turns your website from a brochure into a system.

How this links to the rest of the series

• Post #1 (the 5-second test) helps you fix clarity and trust so people do not bounce.
• Post #2 (one page per service) helps you build the depth Google rewards.
• This post makes sure you can measure what works and improve with confidence.

If you are building a website to dominate locally, these three together are your foundation.