How to tell whether your website is working

Define the work you want before choosing website metrics

“More leads” sounds like a clear goal until the office starts answering requests the business does not want.

An established service company might want larger projects, recurring contracts or more direct customers. It may still value smaller existing accounts without wanting the website to attract more of the same.

Write down the services, customers, locations and project conditions that make an enquiry useful. Check the definition with the person who assesses new work, then use it consistently.

For example, an office fitout enquiry and a household repair request can both be genuine. If only the first fits the business's acquisition goal, a total that treats them equally hides the result you need to judge.

Business Victoria's measurement guide also starts with the site's goals. The practical step is turning your particular goal into a definition the team can apply to an actual request.

Keep website activity, enquiries and won work separate

Use the following stages to understand where the evidence stops:

• Search visibility and visits show that people can find and reach the website.
• Contact actions show that someone clicked, called or submitted, according to what the tracking actually records.
• Received enquiries show that a real request reached the business.
• Suitable opportunities show that the team assessed the request and confirmed it fits.
• Won work shows that an opportunity became an accepted job or contract.

A click on a phone number is not evidence of a connected call. A form event is not, by itself, a suitable opportunity. Someone still needs to check what arrived and what happened next.

In Google Analytics, selected important actions can be marked as key events. Google's definition describes the recorded action; the meaning depends on what you configured it to measure.

Keep those labels beside the report. “Conversions” is too vague if one report counts contact-button clicks and another counts received requests.

Your enquiry-form plan should identify the recipient and response responsibilities. The launch checks establish that the route works. This review follows the real enquiries after that.

Example measurement plan: a commercial electrical contractor

This fictional company wants planned electrical upgrades for offices and warehouses within its service area. New household emergency callouts are outside that acquisition goal. Existing customers still have their normal support route.

A suitable new opportunity needs a relevant commercial project, a supported location and enough information for the estimating team to assess the work. An incomplete request stays pending until the team clarifies it.

The company already uses a shared enquiry inbox, an office call record and a quote register. Website analytics and Search Console are available. It uses those sources rather than buying a new reporting system first.

The office manager records the request when it arrives. The estimating manager updates fit after assessment and records later quoting and job decisions. Each enquiry keeps one reference linking those updates.

Where a phone request has no recorded source, include it in the business enquiry count but leave its website contribution unknown.

At the monthly review chosen for this example, the director and marketing coordinator examine the records together. They compare requests received in equivalent periods, then follow each group's later outcomes.

That avoids counting an old opportunity's win as the result of this month's new enquiries. A project still awaiting a decision remains open rather than becoming a loss to complete the report.

Start with the suitable, unsuitable and pending counts. If you report a suitability rate, divide suitable requests by assessed new-project requests and show how many remain unassessed alongside it.

Keep existing-customer support, job applications, supplier messages, spam and test submissions out of that new-project total. Combine genuine follow-ups about the same project rather than counting every email as another opportunity.

The search row answers a narrower question. Review available queries against the actual pages rather than attaching a site-wide query total to whichever service you want to promote. Search Console's guidance explains its grouping and query-coverage limits.

The enquiry and job records establish commercial progress. The search report does not identify which individual buyer won a contract.

Record how the customer found you without filling the gaps yourself

Knowing that a job was won and knowing where it came from are different questions. Keep the outcome and its source evidence separate.

A connected record might preserve a website enquiry's source through to the accepted job. Report that as source-linked, within the system's actual coverage.

If the customer says they found you through Google, keep it as reported information. It does not become independently tracked organic search, particularly when paid search is also running.

Sometimes the record shows several influences: a referral, a website visit and a later campaign response. Keep those touches visible rather than giving one channel all the credit.

When the source is unknown, leave it unknown. Rising search traffic and a new job in the same month do not establish that the first caused the second.

The same care applies to “Direct” in analytics. Google describes it as traffic without a clear referral source. It can include missing tracking information, so it is not proof that marketing played no part.

A referred prospect may use the website to check your capabilities before contacting you. Ask what helped them assess the business, while keeping that account distinct from the recorded acquisition source.

Use an existing CRM or a well-maintained register if it supports these jobs. A dashboard cannot supply the assessment or sales outcome nobody entered.

Keep personal customer information in the approved business system, with appropriate access. A general website report should not need copied private correspondence to explain the result.

Use the review to make a specific decision

The plan needs an agreed point when someone examines the evidence and decides what to do. Here are two possible reviews for the electrical contractor.

The requests repeatedly concern the wrong service

The enquiry record shows repeated household emergency requests, with the same wrong-service reason confirmed by the estimating manager.

Review the actual customer routes. Check the relevant pages, available search queries and campaigns before blaming the form or changing the whole site.

Suppose the main service page still promises emergency electrical work for homes and businesses. That wording conflicts with the company's agreed new-project offer.

Correct the service explanation and relevant links. Retain the existing-customer support route. Record what changed and review the fit of later enquiries against the same criteria.

The correction has a clear factual reason. The current records do not prove that the wording caused every unsuitable request or that the change will produce a particular uplift.

Fewer form events, but incomplete records

The next review shows fewer recorded form events. The office has not finished entering phone enquiries, some fit assessments are pending and several quotes remain open.

Complete the missing records and confirm the tracking definition before judging whether the website is performing worse. If there is evidence that enquiries are not arriving, have that route tested promptly.

For now, keep the current service copy. The available comparison does not justify a rewrite or a claim that the new site has failed.

The office manager reconciles the calls, and the estimating manager completes the pending assessments before the next monthly review. The director then reviews the updated records and the opportunities still awaiting a decision.

“No content change yet” is a valid decision when it has a reason, a responsible person and a next check.

Compare periods fairly and agree who maintains the plan

Keep a record of the pre-change position where reliable information exists. Save the definitions and dates, including any period when tracking or enquiry records were incomplete.

For a rebuild, preserve that evidence before the old site or its reporting disappears. Our website rebuild checklist covers the wider preservation work.

If the old records are unusable, start a clearly dated baseline now. Do not invent a before-and-after result from memory.

Compare equivalent periods using the same definitions. Note campaign changes, seasonal demand, service changes, capacity constraints and known tracking interruptions. Any of those can affect the result alongside the website.

Match the review window to the decision. Broken enquiry delivery needs prompt attention. Judging larger contracts needs enough time for those opportunities to develop; a new site's first week cannot settle every commercial question.

Choose a practical review schedule with the people maintaining the records. Keep it frequent enough to act while requests can still be clarified. Increase attention when volume or a known problem warrants it.

Agree who investigates issues and who approves any resulting content, technical or marketing work. Ask your provider what post-launch review and changes are actually included. Installing analytics does not establish an ongoing improvement service.

Bring the measures into the wider website plan before commissioning the build. With SOL, the website development scope defines the required pages, functions and any tracking or connections. Ongoing SEO, reporting and improvement work need their own agreed responsibilities and scope.

Tell us which work the website should help bring in and how your team currently handles those opportunities.