A website that looks good and a website that brings in work are two different things, and you can’t tell which one you have by looking at it. You need a few numbers, checked more than once a year.

These are the ones we look at for small businesses, roughly in order of how much they tell you. None of them need paid tools. Google Analytics, Google Search Console and your Google Business Profile are all free.

1. Leads: the number that matters most

Traffic is nice. Inquiries pay the bills. Count the people who actually reached out: form submissions, phone calls, bookings, emails.

• In Google Analytics 4, set up key events for a form submission, a click on your phone number and a click on your email address. (Google renamed “conversions” to “key events” in 2024, in case older guides confuse you.)
• Ask every new customer how they found you, and write it down. It’s low-tech and it catches what analytics misses, like someone who saw your site and called from memory a week later.

If you only track one thing, track this.

2. Where your visitors come from

In Google Analytics, open Reports → Acquisition → Traffic acquisition. You’ll see visits split into groups like Organic Search (Google), Direct, Referral and Organic Social.

Look for the group that sends people who become leads, not just the biggest one. And keep an eye on referrals from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and similar sites. For most small businesses those numbers are small right now, but they’re the first sign that AI tools are recommending you.

3. What people searched before they found you

Google Search Console shows the actual searches your site appeared for, how often it showed up (impressions), how often people clicked, and your average position.

The most useful pattern to spot: lots of impressions, very few clicks. That usually means you’re showing up but your page title doesn’t make anyone want to click. Our SEO checklist covers how to fix that.

4. Engagement rate (what used to be bounce rate)

Google Analytics 4 counts a visit as “engaged” if someone stays at least 10 seconds, views two or more pages, or completes a key event. Engagement rate is the share of visits that did one of those. Bounce rate still exists, and it’s simply the opposite number.

Don’t chase an industry benchmark here. Compare your own pages to each other. The service page with the lowest engagement rate is where to look first: maybe it loads slowly, maybe it buries the price, maybe it doesn’t answer the question that brought people there.

5. Phone vs. computer

Under Reports → Tech → Tech details, switch the view to device category. Then compare how often phone visitors complete a key event versus desktop visitors.

If phones bring most of your traffic but desktop brings most of your leads, your mobile site is losing people. That’s one of the most common problems we find, and one of the cheapest to fix.

6. Your Google Business Profile

For a lot of local businesses, more calls come from the Google profile than from the website. Open the profile’s Performance view to see calls, website clicks and direction requests by month. If those are climbing while your website traffic is flat, that’s still a win, and it tells you where to keep investing.

7. Speed

Slow pages lose people before they read a word. Search Console has a Core Web Vitals report that flags slow pages across the whole site, and PageSpeed Insights checks one page at a time. Start with your homepage and your most-visited service page, tested on mobile.

8. What people tell you

Numbers tell you where something is wrong, not why. Ask a few recent customers what almost stopped them from getting in touch. You’ll hear things analytics will never show you, like “I couldn’t tell if you worked in my town.”

How often to check

Put 30 minutes on your calendar once a month and write down four numbers: leads, clicks from Google Search (Search Console), engagement rate on your main service page, and calls from your Google Business Profile.

That’s it. After three months you’ll see which way things are moving, and that’s worth more than any single month’s figure.

What’s a good conversion rate?

It depends too much on your industry, your prices and where your traffic comes from for a general number to mean much. A plumber’s emergency page and a wedding photographer’s portfolio will never look alike. The useful comparison is your site against itself: this quarter versus last, one page versus another.

Want someone to keep an eye on it for you?

Our Growth care plan includes a monthly performance report built around these numbers, and the SEO Audit is a good one-time check if you’ve never looked. Or book a free 20-minute call and we’ll look at your numbers with you.