What Should a Small Business Track on Its Website? (The Free Setup)

The short answer

You don't need a big dashboard. You need answers to three questions:

1. How do people find me? Which searches show my site, and which ones get clicks?
2. What do they do? Do they call, fill in the form or book?
3. Where do they get stuck? What do they tap that doesn't work, and where do they leave?

Five tools answer those questions, and all five cost nothing. Here's what each one does.

1. Google Search Console: how people find you

Google: "Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results." (Search Console help)

The report to open is Performance. It shows:

• Clicks: how many people clicked through to your site
• Impressions: how many times you showed up
• CTR: "The click count divided by the impression count"
• Average position: "The average position of the topmost result from your site"

You can sort it by search, by page and by device. (Search Console help)

Two things to know so you don't panic:

• Google says not to "expect all URLs on your site to be indexed, only the canonical pages." Not every page will be in Google, and that's expected. (Search Console help)
• After you fix a page, you can request indexing, but "Indexing can take up to a week or two." (Search Console help)

A tip if you're new to Google Business Profile: set up Search Console first. Google says that "In some cases, Google verifies a profile instantly," and one of those cases is when "You verify your website with Google Search Console." (Google Business Profile help)

2. Google Analytics: what visitors do

Google: "Google Analytics gives you the tools, free of charge, to understand the customer journey and improve marketing ROI." (Google Analytics)

The setting that matters most is the key event. Google defines it as "an event that measures an action that's particularly important to the success of your business." It's what Analytics used to call a conversion. Google now uses "conversion" for ad campaigns. (Analytics help)

Our recommendation: mark these as key events.

• A tap on your phone number
• A contact form sent
• A booking made

Then Analytics can tell you which pages and which sources bring you leads, not just visits.

3. Google Tag Manager: one place for all of it

Google calls Tag Manager "a tag management system that allows you to set up and manage tags on your site." You install it by adding "2 snippets of code to each page." (Tag Manager help)

Our recommendation: load Analytics through Tag Manager. Later, when you want to track something new, you change it in Tag Manager instead of editing your website.

4. Microsoft Clarity: where people get stuck

Microsoft: "Clarity is a free service forever." It gives you recordings of real visits and heatmaps of where people click and how far they scroll. One rule: it must not be used on sites aimed at people under 18. (Microsoft Clarity)

Clarity flags two things worth watching:

• Rage clicks: when someone "clicks multiple times in a clustered area in rapid succession"
• Dead clicks: when someone "clicks on an element but gets no feedback in a reasonable amount of time"

(Clarity docs)

Often it means something looks like a button but isn't one, or a button is broken. Both are usually quick to fix.

5. Bing Webmaster Tools: copy it over to Bing

Once Search Console is set up, Bing can copy it. In Bing Webmaster Tools, go to My Sites, then Import, and sign in with Google. Your sites are verified for you, and data shows up within 48 hours. (Bing Webmaster blog)

What to look at once a month (our recommendation)

This part is our advice, not Google's.

By our estimate, setting up all five takes about three hours. After that, block an hour or two a month, look for one of these, and fix one thing:

• Searches where you show up a lot but few people click. Rewrite that page's title and description so it matches the search.
• Searches where your average position is 8 to 20. You're close. Make that page better: answer the question fully, add detail, a photo and an FAQ.
• Busy pages with few key events. Make the top of the page clearer and the call or book button easier to find.
• Rage clicks and dead clicks in Clarity. Fix whatever looks clickable but isn't.

One change a month adds up. Twelve small fixes in a year beats one big redesign you never get to.

Drop 08 has the full setup checklist and a month-by-month table that tells you what to look for and what to change.