Is your website working? The 6 metrics that actually matter

"I get 3,000 visits a month" means nothing

It's the line clients repeat most often when they show us their analytics. And the awkward reply is always the same: how many customers did those visits bring you? That's usually where the room goes quiet.

Traffic is a vanity metric. It goes up and you feel good; it dips and you worry. On its own it tells you nothing about whether your site is doing its job, which is bringing in business. These six do.

1. Conversions (the only number that pays bills)

A conversion is any action that moves someone closer to becoming a customer: submitting the form, requesting a quote, tapping to call, booking, messaging you on WhatsApp.

If you can only track one thing, track this. And track it in absolute numbers, not feelings: "14 quote requests came in during June."

2. Conversion rate

Conversions divided by visits. It's what turns the previous metric into something you can compare month to month.

1% means 100 visits gets you one enquiry. For local services, 2% to 5% is usually a healthy range. Below 1% there's almost always a messaging or friction problem, not a traffic problem.

Doubling your conversion rate is nearly always cheaper and faster than doubling your traffic. And it produces exactly the same result.

If your number is low, the issue is rarely how many people show up — it's what they find when they get there. That's the whole point of turning visitors into customers.

3. Cost per lead

What each enquiry costs you. Add it all up — ads, SEO, the site, your own time — and divide by the enquiries in the period.

This is the number that lets you say whether a channel is worth it. If a lead costs €40 and your average customer is worth €900, you have a machine that works and it needs more fuel. If it costs €300 and the customer is worth €400, you have a problem no matter how nicely traffic is trending.

4. Organic traffic (and for which terms)

Here traffic does matter, but broken down. Getting 1,000 visits for "what is SEO" is not the same as 100 for "SEO agency in Valencia". The second group buys.

Open Search Console and look at which queries bring people in, and especially which ones carry commercial intent. If all your traffic is informational, you have an audience but not a market. The fix is targeting intent-led terms, which is what keyword research for small businesses is about.

5. Load speed (LCP)

LCP measures how long the main content takes to appear. It's the performance metric that correlates most closely with losing people before they read a word.

If the number is bad, start with Core Web Vitals and why speed is costing you customers.

6. Mobile share (and what happens there)

For most local businesses, 60% to 80% of traffic arrives on a phone. The interesting part isn't the percentage — it's comparing mobile conversion rate against desktop.

If desktop converts at 4% and mobile at 0.8%, you don't have a website problem: you have a mobile website problem. Awkward form, hidden call button, 12px text, a pop-up that won't close. All fixable, and you feel the fix in the bank account. That's what responsive design is for.

How to run the monthly review (20 minutes)

You don't need a dashboard with fifteen charts. A document with six rows and one column per month will do:

1. Write down the six numbers on the 1st of each month.
2. Circle the one that got worse.
3. Pick one single action for that number.
4. Next month, check whether it moved.

That's it. The discipline of looking every month is worth more than any expensive tool.

Your next step

Open your analytics now and find the six numbers. If half of them are missing, that's your diagnosis right there.

At webifay we build sites with measurement in place from day one: you know how many enquiries come in, where from, and what they cost. Get in touch and we'll go through what your site is measuring today — and what's slipping past it.