You can tell whether your website is working from six numbers: enquiries, conversion rate, where visitors come from, which pages they land on, how engaged they are and how often Google sends them. All six live in two free tools, Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console. Check them once a month and you’ll know more than most business owners do about their site.
Key takeaways
- Enquiries and sales are the number that matters most. Everything else explains why they rise or fall.
- Most sites don’t track enquiries properly. Set up key events for forms and phone taps first.
- Compare each number with the same month last year, not just last month.
- A 15-minute monthly check beats a dashboard nobody opens.
Why does Google Analytics feel so confusing?
GA4 is built for every kind of website, from global shops to one-page sites. So it shows you dozens of reports, and most of them don’t matter to a small business. The trick is to ignore almost everything and look at a handful of numbers that link to money.
Before you start, make sure GA4 is recording the right things. If nobody set up tracking for enquiries, the most important number will be missing. A quick fix from your developer, or from us, solves that.
The 6 numbers, and where to find them
| Number | Where to find it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Enquiries and sales | GA4: Reports > Engagement > Key events | Is the site producing business? |
| 2. Conversion rate | GA4: Session key event rate | How well visits turn into leads |
| 3. Visitors by channel | GA4: Acquisition > Traffic acquisition | Where people come from |
| 4. Top landing pages | GA4: Engagement > Landing page | Which pages do the work |
| 5. Engagement rate | GA4: Traffic acquisition or Pages report | Whether visitors stick around |
| 6. Google search clicks | Search Console: Performance | How visible you are on Google |
Menu names in GA4 change from time to time. If you can’t find a report, search its name in the box at the top of Analytics.
1. Enquiries and sales (key events)
This is the number that tells you whether the website earns its keep. In GA4, the actions that matter to your business are called key events. They used to be called “conversions”. You choose which events count, such as a form submission, a quote request or a purchase, and you can mark up to 30 (Google Analytics Help).
GA4’s enhanced measurement can record form submissions automatically (Google Analytics Help). Test that it catches your forms, though. Taps on your phone number aren’t listed among the automatic events, so ask your developer to set one up. For tradies and service businesses, phone calls are often the biggest lead source.
2. Conversion rate
This is the share of visits that end in an enquiry or sale. In GA4 it’s called the session key event rate. It shows whether a traffic change is good news. If visitors double but enquiries stay flat, you’re attracting the wrong people, or your pages aren’t convincing them.
Avoid comparing yours with “industry averages” you find online. They mix very different businesses. Track your own rate over time and look for changes after you update a page or run a campaign.
3. Visitors by channel
The Traffic acquisition report groups visits into channels. Organic Search is unpaid search results, Direct is people typing your address or using a saved link, Referral is links from other websites, and Organic Social is unpaid social media (Google Analytics Help).
Look at which channels bring enquiries, not just visits. A channel with fewer visitors but more key events deserves more of your time. If you rely on one channel, such as Google search, you’re exposed when something changes there.
4. Top landing pages
A landing page is the first page someone sees on your site. Often it isn’t your homepage: it’s a service page or a blog post that ranks on Google. Sort this report by sessions, then check the key events column. Pages with lots of visits and few enquiries are your best opportunities. Usually they need a clearer next step, a better headline or a faster load.
Look at what’s on those pages, too. Real photos of your team and work tend to build more trust than generic images, as our comparison of stock photos vs real photos on a website explains.
5. Engagement rate
GA4 counts a session as engaged if it lasts longer than 10 seconds, includes a key event, or views two or more pages. Engagement rate is the share of sessions that were engaged. Bounce rate is simply the opposite (Google Analytics Help).
A low engagement rate on one page points to a mismatch. Visitors expected something else, or the page loaded slowly and they gave up. Compare mobile with desktop as well. In Australia, mobile and desktop each carry about half of web traffic (StatCounter), so a weak mobile page costs real leads.
6. Google search clicks
This one comes from Google Search Console, not Analytics. Its Performance report shows clicks from Google results, impressions (how often you appeared), click-through rate and your average position (Search Console Help). Open the Queries tab to see the searches people used to find you.
Rising impressions with flat clicks means you’re showing up but not being chosen. Better page titles and descriptions often help. Structured data can also make your listing richer, as our guide to schema markup for small business explains.
How often should I check these numbers?
Monthly is enough for most small businesses. Set a 15-minute reminder for the first week of each month and write the six numbers in a simple spreadsheet. Compare each with the previous month and the same month last year, because many businesses are seasonal.
Don’t react to a single bad week. Look for trends over two or three months. And note what you changed, such as a new page, a price change or an ad campaign, so you can connect cause and effect later.
What should I do when a number looks wrong?
- Enquiries drop suddenly: test every form and check the emails arrive. A broken form is a common, silent cause.
- Engagement falls on mobile: check page speed and layout on a phone. Our website speed and improvement work targets exactly this.
- Search clicks fall: check Search Console for errors and which pages lost visits.
- Visits rise but enquiries don’t: look at your landing pages and their calls to action.
Sometimes the numbers say the site itself is holding you back. If it was built on a generic template that’s hard to change, our guide to a custom website vs template sets out the trade-offs. For strategy, SEO and new design work, see design and marketing from the Next Level Creative family.
Once your numbers are flowing, use them. Our guide to improving your website’s conversion rate shows what to change first.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Analytics 4 free for small businesses?
Yes. The standard version of Google Analytics 4 is free, and so is Google Search Console. A paid version, Analytics 360, exists for large organisations, but a small business won’t need it. The main cost is the time to set up tracking properly.
What is a good engagement rate in GA4?
There’s no single good figure, because it depends on your industry and the type of page. A contact page and a long blog post behave very differently. Track your own rate over time, and compare pages with each other to find the ones that underperform.
Why doesn’t GA4 match my real enquiries?
Usually because some aren’t tracked. Phone calls, emails clicked from your site and some forms need their own key events. Visitors who decline cookies or use blockers may also be missing. Treat GA4 as a trend line, and keep your own count of real leads.
Do I need Google Search Console as well as Analytics?
Yes. Analytics shows what people do once they’re on your site. Search Console shows how you appear in Google before they click: the searches you show up for, your position and any indexing problems. Both are free and they work best together.
What happened to bounce rate in GA4?
It’s still there, but it’s defined differently. In GA4, bounce rate is the share of sessions that weren’t engaged: under 10 seconds, one page and no key event. Engagement rate is its opposite, and it’s the more useful number to watch.
Sources
- [GA4] Mark events as key events, Google Analytics Help
- [GA4] Enhanced measurement events, Google Analytics Help
- [GA4] Default channel group, Google Analytics Help
- [GA4] Engagement rate and bounce rate, Google Analytics Help
- Performance report (Search results), Search Console Help
- Desktop vs mobile vs tablet market share, Australia, StatCounter, October 2026