Search · Tracking & Analytics
You cannot prove it works without measurement.
Most local businesses have Google Analytics installed and almost nothing configured. The visitor count is real. The part that tells you which search produced a booked job is missing, and that is the only part worth paying for.
The short answer
What tracking setup actually is: 1 job, making the numbers mean something.
Tracking setup is wiring your site so a phone call or a form submission can be traced back to the search that produced it. Analytics installed is not the same thing as analytics configured, and most operators pay for reports built on the second one being true.
Google Analytics 4 out of the box tells you how many people visited. It will not tell you which of them called, which page they were reading when they decided, or which search brought them there. Those are settings a person has to turn on deliberately.
Google Search Console is the only place you can see the queries you genuinely appeared for, the pages that earned them, the position each one sits at. It is free from Google, and most operators have either never connected it or never opened it.
The honest limit: tracking does not produce a single extra lead. It produces the ability to know which work paid, which means next month's money goes somewhere defensible instead of somewhere plausible. That is the whole return.
This page is also not here to rank. There is no strong commercial search behind this work and we are not going to pretend otherwise. It exists because a sceptical operator deserves to see how the reporting is built before signing anything.
What arrives
What gets wired: 6 pieces, then checked every month.
- 01
Google Analytics 4 configured
Installed properly, with the events that matter switched on: calls, form submissions, quote requests, the pages people read just before converting. A default install measures pageviews, which is the least useful number on any report.
- 02
Search Console connected and read
The queries you actually appeared for, the pages that earned them, the average position of each. Free from Google, the most honest data source in local search, and we read it monthly rather than screenshot it.
- 03
Call tracking that survives
A number that traces a ringing phone back to the search behind it, set up so it does not wreck the consistency of your name, address, phone across the web. Done carelessly this is a genuine ranking problem.
- 04
Form submissions verified
Forms fail silently. Email routing changes, a plugin updates, then three weeks of quote requests go nowhere at all. We test the whole path at setup, then re-test it as part of the monthly work.
- 05
Conversion tracking for paid
If you run Google Ads, conversions get wired so the platform optimises toward booked work instead of clicks. Without it you are paying into an auction to guess, which is how ad budgets quietly go sideways.
- 06
A monthly report you can check
What moved, what did not, what we do next. Every number in it points at a source you can open yourself, which is the difference between reporting and reassurance. If a figure cannot be sourced, it does not go in.
Fit
Who this fits: 4 signs it is you.
Measurement earns its money when there is real money already moving through the channel, or about to be. Spending nothing and getting nothing is a different problem.
This is you if:
- You are about to start paying for search work and want a baseline first.
- You already pay an agency and cannot verify a single number they send.
- You run ads without knowing which campaigns produce work rather than clicks.
- Your phone rings and nobody in the business can say what made it ring.
This is not you if:
- You want a dashboard to look at. Dashboards are cheap. Decisions are the point.
- Nothing will change based on what it shows, which makes it an expense with no return attached.
- You need calls this month. This tells you where calls came from, it does not create them.
- You want individual visitors tracked personally. That is not something this sets up.
How the work runs
How it runs: 4 steps, before anything else starts.
- 01
Audit what exists
Most sites already carry three analytics scripts, two of them broken. We find what is installed, what is double-counting, plus what has been silently reporting nothing for a year.
- 02
Wire the events
Calls, forms, quote requests configured as real events in Google Analytics 4, so a report can tell the difference between a visitor and somebody trying to hire you.
- 03
Connect the sources
Search Console linked, ad accounts linked if you run them, call tracking placed carefully so it does not damage the listing consistency your map-pack position depends on.
- 04
Prove it monthly
Every figure in the monthly report traced back to a source you can open yourself. Anything we cannot source, we leave out rather than round up.
Proof, not a pitch
Built by people who ran the truck first.
We put real money through the major ad platforms in our own service business, and the only reason that was survivable is that we could see which campaigns produced booked work. Reports we could not verify are exactly why this gets built before anything else.
- 300+
- Points in the Deep Audit, worked by hand
- 36
- Hyperlocal pages shipped in one build
- 14
- Categories in the Deep Audit, worked by hand
Every point listed in the report appendix
6 service areas × 6 services, same engagement
300+ points, $1,500
Search
What it costs: published, not quoted.
Setup is folded into the start of a search engagement rather than billed as its own project, so the Local Engine at $1,500 a month covers it. What decides the work is how many sources need wiring plus whether call tracking is in scope.
Start on the Local Engine. Move up to the Market Engine when you are ready to own more than one town, and to the In-House Engine when you want a marketing department without the hire.
Every retainer tier, with what is in it| Tier | Price | What moves the number |
|---|---|---|
| Local Engine Get found where you already work: the map pack and the searches that ring the phone. | $1,500 per month | The price is flat. What changes is where the effort points: a harder town, or more services, means the same monthly hours aimed at fewer targets, and we say which before you sign. Page counts and posting frequency are agreed in writing per engagement, so scope cannot quietly drift. Not included. Multi-market page coverage, expanded listings and the AI-search program at full strength are the Market Engine. We would rather tell you when you are ready for it than sell it to you early. |
| Market Engine Own every town you serve: coverage pages, AI-search visibility, listings everywhere that counts. | $3,000 per month | How many markets and how many services. The price is flat, and the page program inside it is agreed up front, in writing, so the scope cannot quietly drift. Not included. Placements on other platforms, PR-grade link campaigns, social management, video creative and conversion testing are the In-House Engine, and it is capacity-capped. |
| In-House Engine Everything, run for you: search, content, placements, PR-grade links, social presence, video creative, conversion work, quarterly strategy. | $6,000 per month | Capacity, not scope creep. We run a small number of these engagements at a time so the work stays deep rather than spread thin across too many accounts. Not included. We still do not sell paid ad management, and we still will not commit to a monthly number of editorial links. Both get the same answer at every tier. This tier is also capacity-capped: a few seats, run deep, and we will say plainly if one is not open yet. |
Objections and questions
Questions we get asked: 6 answers.
These come from operators who have been handed a report they could not check, which is most of the ones we speak to.
Ask us something else How much does analytics and conversion tracking setup cost?
It is not sold as a standalone project. Setup happens at the start of a search engagement, so the Local Engine at $1,500 a month covers Google Analytics 4 configured, Search Console connected, form tracking verified, rank tracking with an AI-search baseline, plus the monthly report built on top of it. The Market Engine at $3,000 a month adds conversion testing on the pages that already get traffic, measured on the same base. Call tracking involves a third-party number that carries its own small monthly cost, and we tell you that figure before anything is switched on.
I already have Google Analytics. Do I still need this?
Having it installed and having it configured are different situations, and almost every account we open is the first one. The tag fires, pageviews accumulate, nothing is defined as a conversion. So the account can tell you 1,400 people visited and cannot tell you that 11 of them called. The work here is defining what counts as a lead in your business, then making the account record it, which is a setup task rather than a monthly one.
What is the difference between Google Analytics and Search Console?
Search Console covers what happened before the click: which searches you appeared for, how often, at what position, which page Google showed. Analytics covers what happened after: where they went on your site, what they read, whether they called. Neither one answers the other's question, and a report built on only one of them has a blind half. Both are free from Google. Connecting them is a twenty-minute job that goes undone at most local businesses for years.
Will call tracking hurt my local rankings?
Done carelessly, yes, and this is worth saying plainly because plenty of setups get it wrong. Your phone number needs to stay consistent across your Google Business Profile, your site, the directories that list you, because that consistency is a ranking input. A tracking number swapped in without care creates exactly the mismatch that costs map-pack position. The way around it is straightforward once you know about it, which is why we set it up rather than leaving you to a plugin default.
Can you promise the numbers will go up once you are tracking?
No, and anyone who does is describing a report rather than a business. Measurement changes what you can see, not what happens. What it does change is the argument: once calls, forms, plus search queries are wired to real sources, a monthly review stops being a discussion about whether the work is helping and becomes a discussion about which part is helping most. Sometimes the first honest month of data shows a channel we recommended is not paying, and you get told that too.
Can I set all of this up myself?
Yes, and if you are technical enough to enjoy it, the money is better spent elsewhere. Google Analytics 4 and Search Console are free, the documentation is public, and a careful operator can wire the basic conversion events in an afternoon. Where it usually goes wrong is form tracking that breaks quietly, call tracking that damages listing consistency, plus events defined so loosely that everything counts as a conversion. If you want to try it first, we will tell you what to check.
Related services
What this pairs with: the rest of the stack.
Every one of these is sold on its own, and none of them needs the others to work. Tracking & Analytics Setup sits inside SEO Services, which is where the whole line is laid out side by side.
- 01 SEO Services The half that decides whether anyone sees the site: Google, Maps, plus the AI answers your buyers are already reading. Read more
- 02 SEO Audits The hand-built teardown, including keyword and opportunity research. Read more
- 03 Local SEO Ranking in the map pack for the towns you actually serve. Read more
- 04 Small Business SEO The whole program, sized for a business that has to pay for it monthly. Read more
- 05 Technical SEO Crawl, index, speed, schema. The plumbing under the rankings. Read more
- 06 Conversion Rate Optimization Find where the traffic you already have quietly leaks away. Read more
Trades
Who we do this for: named by trade.
What counts as a conversion changes by trade. For an emergency plumber it is a phone ringing inside two minutes. For a pest-control company it is a recurring contract that only becomes visible if somebody wired the tracking for it.
- 01 Plumber Marketing Emergency intent converts in seconds. Most plumbing sites lose it. Read more
- 02 HVAC Marketing Emergency calls, maintenance plans, and the seasons that pay for the year. Read more
- 03 SEO for Roofers Storm-season demand is won in the map pack, not the phone book. Read more
- 04 Contractor Website Design A site that reads like a firm homeowners trust with a six-figure job. Read more
- 05 Pest Control Marketing The recurring contract is the business. Sites keep burying it. Read more
- 06 Cleaning Company Marketing Residential and commercial are two funnels, not one page. Read more
Free snapshot · paid teardown
Send us your site: 300+ points, worked by hand.
A short, sharp look: the top handful of findings, scored, delivered by email. What's broken, in plain English.
Want the full punch list? The Deep Audit is $1,500: the same crawler and link indexes the top-tier agencies run, plus live map-pack checks town by town and AI-assistant citation checks almost nobody local does. 300+ points across all 14 categories, plus a prioritized 90-day plan. Credited in full toward your first month if you hire us within 60 days.
Snapshot delivered in a few business days
It's yours either way. Hand it to your own developer, or your own AI, and it still pays for itself. If you hire us, it costs you nothing.
Site & search audit · what we check
300+ points
- Crawl, indexation and site security 30 pts
- Duplicate signals, structure and internal links 39 pts
- Speed and Core Web Vitals 28 pts
- The experience on a phone 14 pts
- Money pages: content, depth and freshness 24 pts
- Structured data and the trust surface 20 pts
- Search demand and the keyword map 20 pts
- Google Business Profile 20 pts
- Reviews and reputation 16 pts
- Local presence: map results and directories 20 pts
- AI search and assistant citation 22 pts
- Link profile and authority 20 pts
- The operators beating you 22 pts
- Turning visits into calls, and counting them 24 pts
The Snapshot is the top handful of these, free. The Deep Audit is all 14 categories, 300+ points, scored, with a 90-day plan and the full point-by-point appendix. No account, no card either way.
Ready to stop losing customers to the guy with a better site?
Fifteen minutes, no discovery deck. We'll tell you what we'd build, what we'd rank, and what it costs. And if we're not the right fit, we'll say that too.