If nobody set up analytics, you don’t know and can’t find out retrospectively — measurement only starts from the day it’s installed, which is why the twenty minutes it takes is worth spending today rather than next quarter. Two free tools cover everything a small business needs.
The moment it happens
How do you even know if anyone visited your website yesterday? The question usually arrives alongside a bigger one — whether the website was worth the money. And you find you can’t answer either, because there’s nothing to look at.
This isn’t unusual. Analytics rarely appears in a low-cost package because it isn’t something the buyer asks for, and it isn’t visible in the delivered product.
First: check whether tracking already exists
Two ways to find out in five minutes.
Ask, in one message: “Is Google Analytics installed on my site, and is Search Console set up? If yes, please add my email as an admin.” Note the second half — if it exists under someone else’s account, you want your own access.
Or check yourself: open your site in a desktop browser, right-click, choose “View page source”, and search the page for “gtag” or “analytics”. Finding those strings means something is installed. It won’t tell you whose account it reports to, but it answers the first question.
The two tools worth having
Both are free, and they answer different questions.
| Tool | Answers | Setup effort |
|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | How many people came, from where, which pages they viewed, what they did | ~15 minutes, needs a code snippet added |
| Google Search Console | What people searched before clicking, whether Google can index your pages, which queries you nearly rank for | ~5 minutes, needs one verification step |
Search Console is the more useful of the two for a small business and the one more often missing. It tells you the actual phrases people typed — which is the closest thing you have to reading your customers’ minds, and it directly informs what to write next.
Setting them up
You need access to your website’s admin, or a developer willing to paste one line of code.
- Create a Google Analytics property at analytics.google.com using your own Google account — not a developer’s. Note the measurement ID.
- Install the tracking code. On WordPress, a plugin field or the theme’s header option. On other platforms, an analytics field in settings. If you don’t have access, this is a fifteen-minute request to your developer.
- Add the site to Search Console at search.google.com/search-console. Verification is usually a DNS record or a file — a developer can do either quickly.
- Submit your sitemap in Search Console. Usually your address followed by
/sitemap.xml. - Wait 48 hours before drawing conclusions. Data starts from installation, not before.
The account ownership point in step one matters more than it looks. Analytics set up under a developer’s account leaves you with the same access problem as everything else.
The four numbers to actually look at
Analytics can show hundreds of metrics. For a small business site, four are enough:
Users, per month. The blunt answer to whether anyone is coming. Single digits means nothing is sending traffic — that’s a marketing gap, not a website fault.
Traffic sources. Whether visitors arrive from Google search, direct links, social, or ads. This tells you which of your efforts is working and which isn’t.
Top pages. Which pages people actually read. Frequently not the ones you expected, and useful for deciding where to put your phone number and your best offer.
Search queries (Search Console). The phrases people typed. Any query showing impressions but almost no clicks is a page worth improving — you’re already visible for it and losing the click.
Ignore the rest for now. Bounce rate and session duration are widely misread and rarely change what a small business should do next.
The honest limitation
Analytics tells you about clicks, not about calls. Most small business enquiries in India arrive as a phone call or a WhatsApp message, and neither appears in a visitor report by default.
Two fixes, both simple. Make the WhatsApp button a trackable click event — any developer can do this in minutes. And keep asking callers where they found you; it’s imprecise, but for a business getting ten enquiries a month it’s more informative than any dashboard.
What to do this week
- Ask whether Analytics and Search Console exist, and get admin access under your own email.
- If they don’t, set both up — or request it as a fifteen-minute job.
- Submit your sitemap in Search Console.
- Wait a week, then look at the four numbers.
- Start asking every caller how they found you.
If you want it done the certain way
We set up Analytics and Search Console under your own Google account as part of launch, and show you the four numbers that matter once data starts arriving. If your current site has no measurement, we’ll add it whether or not you build with us. WhatsApp us; we reply in about five minutes between 9am and 7pm.
Related reading
- “Why am I not on Google?”
- My website is live — why are there no customers?
- Whose fault is zero enquiries?
- The website handover checklist
FAQ
How can I see how many people visit my website?
Install Google Analytics and add the site to Google Search Console — both free. Data only starts from the day tracking is installed, so past visits can’t be recovered.
Is Google Analytics free for small businesses?
Yes, and so is Search Console. The only cost is the short setup, which needs access to your website’s admin or a developer to add one line of code.
Why don’t my phone enquiries show in analytics?
Analytics measures website clicks, not calls. Make your WhatsApp and call buttons trackable click events, and keep asking callers how they found you — for low enquiry volumes that’s often the more reliable signal.
