Which website numbers are worth keeping

Choose one decision you want to make about your website. You might need to decide whether the enquiry route needs attention, or whether visitors are reaching a new service page. Write that decision above the report you currently use, then check which numbers could help you make it.

Name the decision first

Write the decision in plain language at the top of the report. Should the enquiry form stay where it is, or move up the booking page? Then list the few numbers that could change your answer, and leave out the rest.

Define what each number counts

Ask whoever manages your analytics to show you the setting behind the label. Then write, in plain words, what the number counts and where the count comes from. Keep the description beside the report so a colleague can read it without guessing.

One label can cover several different things. Google Analytics measures events, which are interactions or occurrences on a site or app, and its documentation gives page loads, link clicks, and purchases as examples (About events). What your report shows depends on what was recorded.

If a report counts clicks on an enquiry link, call it a click count. A number for enquiries received needs a record that confirms receipt, such as your inbox or the customer system you already use. For bookings, find out what the booking system can actually report. Keep the three apart, because a click does not tell you what the visitor did next.

Give each one a job

Tie each measurement to a follow-up. Finish this sentence: if this changes, we will look at this part of the service. If you cannot name a useful follow-up, leave the number out of this review and keep it for a later question.

Do the same at the level of the service. Decide what the service is for, pick measurements whose meaning you can state in one sentence, and use more than one source before you draw a conclusion. A website count on its own is a thin basis for a decision. Combined with what your team records elsewhere, it carries more weight.

For an enquiry review, ask whoever handles requests which record counts as a received enquiry, and how they tell a real request from a test or a duplicate. Settle that before anyone presents a total. If your records cannot link an enquiry back to a website visit, write that the link is unknown.

Check a count before relying on it

Arrange one test with whoever maintains the site and analytics. Pick an action you are allowed to test, note the time and the page, and ask them to find the matching record. For a form or booking, use an obviously marked test entry so staff recognise it.

Ask what might be missing from the report, and how repeat actions are counted, then file the answers with the definition. If the test does not turn up as expected, mark the measurement unverified until the maintainer works out why. Do not change the site in response to a number whose meaning is still in question.

Keep the review report to the totals the decision needs. Customer messages and contact details belong in the systems that handle them. If you want to add tracking, agree with whoever manages analytics on what gets collected and who can see it.

Compare results with their context

Pick one reporting period and save the dates with each result. Note anything that could change how you read the numbers: a revised form, a campaign, different opening hours, a change in tracking. When a definition or a collection method changes, mark that point so the next reviewer knows those figures need closer inspection.

If you show a percentage, include the counts behind it and state what the denominator represents. Recorded events are not people. When the data cannot support the comparison you want, write down what is missing instead of assigning a cause.

End with a specific next check and a name against it. If enquiry-link clicks rose while recorded enquiries did not, inspect the route and the recording process before deciding what to change. Save the finding beside the figures, and start the next review from there.