Open Google Analytics for the first time and it can feel like a cockpit full of dials. Users, sessions, engagement rate, events, traffic sources. It is easy to spend an hour looking at numbers and still not know whether your website is working.
The good news is that most small businesses only need to track a handful of things. This guide explains what those are, how to set them up and how to review them without drowning in data.
Start with the question, not the dashboard
The most useful question is simple: is the website bringing in enquiries or sales, and where are they coming from? Everything you track should help answer that. Numbers that don’t help you make a decision can usually be ignored.
1. The actions that matter to your business
Decide which visitor actions count as a result. For most small businesses, that includes:
- Contact or quote form submissions
- Clicks on your phone number, especially on mobile
- Clicks on your email address
- Online bookings
- Purchases, if you sell online
In Google Analytics 4, you record these as events, then mark the important ones as key events. Key events were previously called conversions in GA4, so you will still see that term in older guides and in Google Ads.
Test each one after setting it up. Submit your own form, tap your phone number on your mobile and check the event appears.
2. Where your results come from
Once key events are tracked, you can see which channels lead to them:
- Organic search: people finding you on Google without ads.
- Paid search and paid social: your Google and Meta ads.
- Organic social: visits from your social media posts and profiles.
- Direct: people typing your address or using a bookmark.
- Referral: links from other websites and directories.
This is where you find out whether your ad spend, social media effort or SEO work is actually producing enquiries. If you run ads, our guide to Meta ad budgets explains how to judge results.
3. Which pages people land on
Look at the pages where visitors arrive and which of those lead to key events. If a service page gets plenty of visits but few enquiries, it may need clearer information or a stronger call to action. Our guide to why websites get visitors but no enquiries covers what to fix.
4. How people find you on Google
Google Search Console is a separate free tool that shows the searches your website appears for, how often it is clicked and any technical problems Google finds. It complements Analytics, which shows what people do once they arrive. If you haven’t set it up, it is worth doing.
Your Google Business Profile has its own performance reports too, including calls, website clicks and direction requests from your listing. For many local businesses, this is where a large share of enquiries starts.
5. Mobile vs desktop
Check how many visitors use phones and whether they complete key events at a similar rate to desktop users. A big gap often points to a mobile usability problem, such as a hard-to-use form or a slow page.
What you can mostly ignore
- Total visitors on their own. More traffic isn’t useful if it is the wrong traffic.
- Short-term ups and downs. Compare months, or the same period last year, rather than day to day.
- Vanity metrics like likes and impressions, unless they connect to real enquiries.
Add the offline piece
Analytics won’t capture everything. Someone might read your website, then call from a different phone or walk in a week later. Ask new customers how they found you and keep a simple record. Combined with your analytics, it gives a much more reliable picture.
A simple monthly review
Once a month, spend 15 minutes answering five questions:
- How many enquiries, calls, bookings or sales came through the website?
- Which channels did they come from?
- Which pages led to the most enquiries, and which had visits but few results?
- What searches are bringing people to the site?
- What is one thing to improve next month?
Write the answers down. Over time, that record becomes more valuable than any dashboard.
Want tracking set up properly?
Madexify sets up Google Analytics 4, key events, Search Console and simple monthly reporting for small businesses across Pakenham, Officer, Beaconsfield, Berwick, Narre Warren, Cranbourne, Clyde and Bunyip. We focus on the numbers that help you make decisions. See our digital marketing services, or contact us to get your tracking sorted.
Sources: Google Analytics Help: key events. Accessed 26 September 2026.
This article is part of our Marketing Planning and Growth Guide. Browse all our guides on the guides page.
