Ask most small business owners where their work comes from and you’ll get a confident answer: "Mostly word of mouth, and a bit from Google." Ask them which bit of Google, or what the directory listing and the van signwriting actually brought in last quarter, and the answer gets vaguer. That’s not a criticism. When you’re on site all day, nobody’s keeping score.
The trouble is that without knowing, every marketing decision is a guess. You keep paying for the directory because cancelling feels risky. You can’t tell whether the new website was worth it. And when someone offers you a shiny new lead service, you’ve nothing to compare it against. This article sets out a simple way to find out, most of it free, and none of it requiring you to become a data analyst.
"The most useful tracking tool for a small business is a list of every enquiry, with one column saying where it came from. Analytics and reports are helpful, but they only tell you what happened online. The list tells you which enquiries turned into paid work, and that’s the number that matters."
1. Start an enquiry log, today
Before anything technical, keep a simple record of every enquiry. A spreadsheet, a notebook in the van or a note on your phone will do. What matters is that every enquiry goes in it, including the ones you turn down. Useful columns are:
- Date and the customer’s name.
- How they got in touch: phone, website form, email, text, Facebook message, WhatsApp.
- Where they found you: more on how to ask below.
- What the job was and roughly where, for example "boiler swap, Ossett".
- Outcome: quoted, won, lost, not suitable.
- Value of the job if you won it.
After a couple of months you’ll be able to answer questions that no website report can: which sources bring jobs you actually want, in the places you want to work, at a price that pays.
2. Ask the question properly
"How did you hear about us?" is a good start, but the first answer is often too vague to be useful. "Google" could mean your Google Business Profile, your website, an advert or a directory that appeared in the search results. A quick, friendly follow-up makes the answer worth recording:
- "Was that on the map, or on our website?"
- "Do you remember what you searched for?"
- "Did someone recommend us, or did you come across us?"
Expect plenty of mixed answers. A neighbour mentions you, the customer looks you up, reads your reviews and then rings from your Google profile. Record both parts: "recommended, then Google profile". That combination is very common, and it’s why your online presence matters even when most of your work comes from recommendations. We look at that in more detail in why recommended customers still check Google.
Put the question on whatever you use to take bookings: a line in your notebook, a field in your job app or a sticky note by the phone. If whoever answers the phone always asks it at the same point, such as when taking the address, it soon becomes a habit rather than something you remember now and then.
3. Read what your Google Business Profile already tells you
Your Google Business Profile records how people interact with it, and you can see this for free. Google’s help page on Business Profile performance lists what’s available, including:
- Calls: how many times people tapped the call button on your profile;
- Website clicks: how many times people clicked through to your site;
- Directions: how many people asked for directions;
- Searches: the search terms people used when your profile came up;
- Views: how many people viewed your profile on Search and Maps.
One thing to know: Google counts taps on the call button, not completed calls. Someone who taps by accident still counts. So treat the figure as a guide to trends, and use your enquiry log to see how many real conversations came from it.
The search terms are often the most revealing part. If people are finding you for "gutter repairs" but you’d rather do roofing, or for "Dewsbury" when you’d like more work in Batley, that tells you where your profile and website need work. Our Google Business Profile service page explains what ongoing management covers.
4. Track the enquiries your website produces
If you use Google Analytics 4 on your site, it can count the actions that matter, not just visits. In GA4 these are called key events. Google’s help page explains how to mark events as key events. For a small business site, the useful ones are usually:
- a contact form being submitted, ideally counted when the thank-you message or page appears;
- a tap on a phone number;
- a tap on an email address or a WhatsApp link.
Setting these up properly can be fiddly, and it’s a reasonable thing to ask your web person to do. Once they’re in place, you can see which pages and which sources lead to enquiries, rather than just which pages get looked at.
Remember that analytics uses cookies, so it needs to be set up in line with the cookie rules. Our guide to privacy, cookies and enquiry forms explains the exception for basic statistics that came in during 2026, and when you still need consent. One side effect worth knowing: if some visitors object to analytics, they won’t appear in your figures, which is another reason your enquiry log stays the more complete record.
5. Label the links you control
When someone clicks through to your website from your Google profile, a Facebook post or an email signature, Analytics doesn’t always know exactly where they came from. You can tell it by adding a few labels to the end of the link, known as UTM parameters. Google’s page on URL builders explains them and links to a free tool that builds the link for you. The three to fill in are:
- utm_source: where the visit comes from, such as google or facebook;
- utm_medium: the type of channel, such as organic, social or email;
- utm_campaign: a name you choose, such as business-profile or autumn-leaflet.
Good places to use labelled links include the website button on your Google Business Profile, links in social media posts, your email signature and any QR code printed on a leaflet, card or van. Keep your naming consistent, and write it down so you use the same labels each time.
6. Phone numbers: useful, but handle with care
Phone calls are often the hardest enquiries to trace, especially for trades where most people ring rather than fill in a form. One approach is to use different phone numbers for different places, such as one on your leaflets and another on your van, so you can tell which one rang. Call tracking services do this automatically.
Don’t start swapping the main number on your Google Business Profile, website and directory listings for tracking numbers without thinking it through. Your business details should be consistent wherever they appear, and a number you later stop paying for could leave old listings pointing nowhere. If you use tracking numbers, start with things you control fully, like printed leaflets or a single advert, and keep your main number as the one you’re known by.
7. Put it together once a month
Set aside twenty minutes at the start of each month. Look at:
- your enquiry log, counted by source, and which ones became paid work;
- your Google Business Profile calls, website clicks and search terms;
- your website key events, broken down by source.
Then ask three questions. What brought the work I want? What cost money but brought little? What should I do more of next month?
Imagine a landscaper in Horsforth who does this for a few months. They might find that patio and driveway enquiries mostly come through the website, while a paid directory brings plenty of calls about small garden tidies they don’t want. That’s a clear decision, made on evidence rather than gut feeling. If you’re weighing up directories and lead sites against your own website, our article on lead-generation sites versus your own website covers the trade-offs.
A word of caution: no system is perfect. Some customers won’t remember how they found you, and many will have seen you in more than one place before getting in touch. Look for patterns over several months rather than reacting to a single week.
Your checklist for this week
- Start an enquiry log with the columns above, and fill in what you can remember from the last month.
- Agree a standard "how did you find us?" question, with a follow-up, for everyone who answers the phone.
- Open your Google Business Profile performance and note last month’s calls, website clicks and top search terms.
- Ask your web person whether form submissions and phone taps are set up as key events in Analytics.
- Add UTM labels to the website link on your Google Business Profile.
- Put a monthly twenty-minute review in your diary.
Knowing where your enquiries come from turns marketing from a leap of faith into a series of sensible decisions. Tracking and a short plain-English monthly report are part of the Driving Sales Locally monthly plan, at £225 a month with the website included. If you’d like Jeremy to look at what your current set-up can and can’t tell you, book a free call.
Frequently asked questions
How can a small business track where its customers come from?
Keep a log of every enquiry with a column for where the customer found you, and ask a consistent question with a follow-up. Add your Google Business Profile performance figures and website key events in Google Analytics for the online side.
Does the calls figure on Google Business Profile count actual phone calls?
No. Google counts the number of times people tapped the call button on your profile, not completed calls. Use it to spot trends, and check your own enquiry log for real conversations.
What are UTM parameters?
They are labels added to the end of a link, such as utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign, that tell Google Analytics where a visit came from. Google provides a free URL builder to create them.
What is a key event in Google Analytics 4?
It’s an action you’ve marked as important, such as a contact form being submitted or a phone number being tapped. Marking these as key events lets you see which pages and sources lead to enquiries, not just visits.