Most owners judge a website by feel or by traffic. Traffic is not income. To know whether your site is making money, you need to count enquiries and connect them to work booked. This guide shows a simple way to do it.
Step 1: Define what counts as an enquiry
List the actions that show real interest: a tracked phone call, a tap on the call button, a form submission, an online booking, a chat that leaves contact details, a text tap, and for your Google profile, a direction request. Decide which of these you will count as an enquiry, and write it down so the definition stays the same each month.
Step 2: Set up the tools
- Google Analytics 4. Mark key events for call taps, form submissions, and booking confirmations.
- Google Search Console. It shows which searches and pages bring visits.
- Google Business Profile performance. It shows calls, direction requests, and website clicks.
- Call tracking. Use different numbers for different sources, with recordings where lawful, and keep your main number as the primary one on your Google profile so listings stay consistent.
- A simple log or CRM. Record every enquiry with its source, date, and outcome.
- A confirmation page or event for every form and booking, so each one is counted.
- UTM tags on links in ads, emails, and posts.
- One question on every call and form: how did you hear about us? Include AI tools such as ChatGPT as an option, because some AI visits appear in analytics as direct traffic.
Step 3: Track the funnel, not only the top
Count each stage every month: visits, then enquiries, then enquiries answered, then jobs booked, then jobs won, then revenue. Most of the leaks happen after the form is submitted, through slow replies and missed calls, and they will not show up in a traffic report.
Step 4: Put a conservative dollar value on enquiries
One simple method is to value each enquiry at the lowest published price of the service the person chose. Multiply enquiries by that price. The total is a floor, not revenue, because many enquiries will not buy and many buyers spend more than the minimum.
Illustrative example, not a customer result: 40 qualified enquiries in a month at a lowest published price of $250 gives an estimated floor value of $10,000. Replace the numbers with your own and compare the total with what you spend on the website and marketing.
Two cautions keep the number honest. First, a tap on a phone number is not always a conversation, so count calls that last about a minute or longer, or conversations you logged, to avoid overstating. Second, always label the figure an estimate. When you can match jobs to their source in your invoicing or CRM, replace the estimate with actual revenue, which is the better number.
Step 5: Build a one-page monthly report
- Visits by source: Google search, Google Maps, direct and referral, and AI tools
- Enquiries by type: calls, forms, bookings, chats
- Average response time
- Jobs booked and, where known, jobs won
- Estimated value of enquiries
- Top pages and top searches
- Three changes you will make next month
How to read AI traffic
Google says sites that appear in its AI features, AI Overviews and AI Mode, are included in the overall search traffic in Search Console's Performance report, under Web search. Visits from other AI tools may show up as referrals from sites such as chatgpt.com or perplexity.ai, but some arrive as direct traffic, so the true number is likely higher than what you can see.
Common mistakes
- Starting without a baseline
- Counting your own visits and your staff's clicks. Filter internal traffic.
- Not retesting forms and tracking after every site change
- Replacing the main phone number on your Google profile with a tracking number
- Judging a change after two weeks
- Reporting rankings without reporting enquiries
Share it with the people who answer the phone
Your conversion rate depends on follow-up. If the person answering calls and replying to forms sees the numbers, response times improve.
Questions owners ask
How much traffic do I need? Less than you think if the site converts well. A small number of qualified visitors can fill a calendar.
What is a good conversion rate? Benchmarks vary widely by industry, traffic source, and offer. Unbounce publishes landing page medians by industry, but start by beating your own baseline.
Permasize AI Forge's free AI Visibility Audit gives you a starting baseline across your website, search visibility, and AI visibility: https://site.permasizeaiforge.com/free-audit
Sources
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
- Unbounce Conversion Benchmark Report: https://unbounce.com