Analytics and conversion tracking for local businesses
Most local businesses have analytics installed and almost none of them can answer the only question that matters: where did the last ten customers come from?
Analytics gets installed once, usually by whoever built the site, and then nobody looks at it. It counts page views, which nobody cares about, and it doesn't count phone calls or completed bookings, which are the only things that pay. So the business ends up with a dashboard full of numbers that can't answer whether the money spent on marketing did anything.
The fix isn't more tracking. It's tracking the right three or four events (a booking completed, a form submitted, a phone number tapped) and connecting them back to how that person arrived. Once that exists you can see which channels bring people who actually book, rather than which channels bring people who bounce.
We set this up first, before any other work, because without it there's no honest before to measure against. And it goes in accounts registered to you, not to us. If you stop working with us you keep every month of history, which isn't true of every arrangement you'll be offered.
Two levels
Which one you need depends on your traffic.
These are different products sold under one name. Collapsing them misleads buyers in both directions, so here they're separately.
Measurement setup
One-off · fixed fee
The foundation. Enough to know what's working, in accounts you own, readable without training.
- GA4 configured properly rather than left on defaults
- Google Tag Manager, so future changes don't need a developer
- Conversion events for bookings, forms and tapped phone numbers
- Call tracking, where phone calls are the main way people buy
- Search Console connected and verified
- A Looker Studio dashboard showing the handful of numbers that matter
Advanced attribution
Project · for higher volume
For businesses spending real money on ads, or with a longer path from first visit to booking than a single session.
- Server-side tagging, so tracking survives ad blockers and browser changes
- Cross-domain tracking where booking happens on a third-party system
- Offline conversion import, connecting closed jobs back to their source
- Consent mode and cookie compliance done properly
- Channel attribution beyond last-click
- Brought in through a specialist we work with
What's included
Everything covered, in plain terms.
GA4
Configured rather than installed. Default GA4 tells you almost nothing useful about a local service business.
Conversion events
Bookings, form submissions and tapped phone numbers, tracked as the outcomes they're rather than as page views.
Call tracking
For businesses where the phone is the main way people buy, connecting calls back to the channel that produced them.
Tag Manager
So adding or changing tracking later doesn't require a developer and a deployment.
A dashboard
Looker Studio, showing the few numbers you actually make decisions on. Built to be read by you, not by us.
Accounts in your name
Every account created under your email from day one. Analytics history can't be moved between accounts, so this matters more than it sounds.
Questions
Analytics & Tracking, answered.
I already have Google Analytics. Do I need this?
Having it installed and having it configured are different things. Default GA4 counts page views and sessions but doesn't know what a booking is on your site, so it can't tell you which marketing produced customers. The setup work is teaching it what counts as a conversion for your business and then presenting it somewhere readable.
Who owns the analytics accounts?
You do, from the first day. Everything is created under your email address rather than ours. This matters more than it sounds: Google Analytics properties can't be transferred between accounts, so if a provider sets yours up under their own login, leaving them means losing every month of history and starting again.
Will I be able to understand the reports?
That's the point of building a dashboard rather than handing over a GA4 login. GA4 is a genuinely difficult interface designed for analysts. The dashboard shows the four or five numbers a local business makes decisions on, which is bookings, where they came from, what it cost and the trend, on one screen with no training.
Do I need call tracking?
Only if a meaningful number of your customers phone rather than book online, which for trades and law firms is most of them. If your bookings happen almost entirely through an online system then call tracking adds cost without adding much insight, and we'll say so.
Related
Often done alongside.
Conversion Rate Optimization
There are two different things sold under this name, and they suit very different businesses. We'll tell you which one you actually need.
Technical & AI Search
The half of SEO that's engineering rather than copywriting, and the newer half that decides whether an AI answer engine can quote you.
Want to know what's costing you business?
We will scan your site before we talk and come to the call with the three things we think are most worth your attention. No prep needed from you. No obligation to hire us afterward.