Analytics for non-ecommerce websites: measure what you can act on

Khalid Mohamed
Founder, CapitalSEO · Last reviewed · 10 min read

First published , rewritten .

The short answer

If your site doesn't sell online, traffic isn't your goal. Decide what a visit is worth to you, such as a call, a form or a referral you can show a partner. Count those actions, then add one thing most guides skip: how often AI answers cite you, because a citation often means no click at all.

Most analytics advice assumes a shopping cart. You add to cart, you check out, and the report tells you what you made. A plumber, a law office, a clinic, a nonprofit or a government department has no cart. Their best result is a phone call, a booked visit, or a reader who found the answer and left happy.

This guide gives you a scorecard of six numbers you can check once a month, the free tools that fill it, and how to count phone calls and AI citations. It's a rewrite of the guide I first published here in 2015, with my original advice kept where it still holds.

Who this is for: owners and marketers of service businesses, nonprofits and information sites, especially in Ottawa–Gatineau.
Who it isn't for: online stores. Your platform already reports sales; start there.

You're still doing analytics wrong

In 2014 I took on a government client. They hired me to bring direction to their web communications, and the first thing I checked was how they used analytics. They were collecting plenty of data. They just had no idea what success looked like, so the reports went out every month and nothing changed.

They had nothing to sell. No products, no services. People came, read, and left. So what counts as a win?

My answer then is my answer now: if you're only using data to produce reports you never act on, stop and define what success means for your site. Get creative. A government page wins when people find the form they need. A trades business wins when the phone rings. A directory wins when it sends customers to the businesses it lists. Our view

What changed since 2015 is where people find you. Some of your future customers now ask an AI assistant instead of scrolling Google, and the assistant may name you without sending a click. That makes the old "count your visitors" approach even weaker. More on that below.

When this fails: when nobody agrees on what success is. Settle that with the owner first, in one sentence, before you open any tool.

The 6-number monthly scorecard

Here's the scorecard I'd set up for a site that doesn't sell online. Six numbers, checked once a month, compared with the same month last year when you have it.

  1. 1LeadsCalls, forms, emails, bookings
  2. 2Good leadsReal jobs, not spam
  3. 3Search clicksNot counting your own name
  4. 4AI visibilityHow often AI answers cite you
  5. 5AI visitsChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot
  6. 6Task successFor information sites
Six numbers, once a month. Number 4, AI visibility, is the one most small businesses aren't measuring yet. Tap a number to jump to how you measure it.
#NumberWhat it tells youFree tool
1Leads (calls, forms, emails, bookings)Is the site making the phone ring?Your analytics events, your inbox, your phone log
2Good leadsHow many leads were real jobs or real enquiriesA spreadsheet or your CRM
3Search clicks that aren't your nameAre new people finding you?Google Search Console
4AI visibilityHow often AI answers show or cite your pagesSearch Console, Bing Webmaster Tools
5AI visitsPeople who came from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot or GeminiYour analytics referrers
6Task success (information sites)Did readers do what the page is for?Your analytics events

Pick the ones that fit. A trades business lives on 1 to 3. A government or nonprofit site lives on 3, 4 and 6. Everyone should watch 4 now. Our view

When this fails: when you track 40 numbers instead of six. Nobody acts on a 40-row report. That was the government client's problem in 2014.

Count the actions that matter

Visits are a means. Actions are the point. These are the actions worth counting on most service sites:

  • Phone calls: taps on your phone number. For many trades, that's where most leads come from.
  • Form submissions: quote requests, contact forms, bookings.
  • Email clicks: taps on your email address.
  • Directions: clicks to your map or address.
  • Outbound clicks to partners: if you list or refer to other businesses, the clicks you send them.

Most analytics tools count page views on their own. Taps on a phone number usually need an event you add yourself. Our view Here's how simple that can be. This snippet sends an event every time someone taps a phone link on your site, using Vercel Web Analytics:

<script>
document.addEventListener('click', e => {
  const a = e.target.closest('a[href^="tel:"]');
  if (a && window.va)
    va('event', { name: 'phone_click' });
});
</script>
Paste this once, below the Vercel Web Analytics script. Every tap on a phone link on any page is counted as phone_click.

Vercel's custom events are a paid feature (Pro and Enterprise plans). Confirmed–Industry Other tools have the same idea under a different name: Plausible calls them goals, Google Analytics 4 calls them key events.

Example: WeddingVenuer.com

WeddingVenuer.com is a venue directory I built and run (it's my own site, so weigh this accordingly). Each venue card has two buttons: Visit venue site and Call the venue. Each tap sends one event, outbound_click or phone_click, to Vercel Web Analytics. Tested by us

That small setup changed the business. Instead of telling a venue "you got some views," we can show them the visitors and calls we sent their way. That proof is what opened partnerships with wedding venues in Vancouver. Tested by us

The lesson works for any site that sends people somewhere else: count the hand-off, not just the visit.

When this fails: when a tap isn't a call. Someone can tap your number and hang up. Count calls you actually answered in your phone log too, and compare the two now and then.

Separate good leads from noise

Ten leads a month means little if eight are spam or out-of-area. Keep a simple sheet with one row per lead: date, how they reached you (call, form, email), where they came from if you know, and what happened (quoted, booked, no fit). Our view

Add one question to your contact form: "How did you hear about us?" Include "Google search," "Google Maps," "An AI assistant (ChatGPT, Copilot…)", "A friend" and "Other." Analytics can't see a customer who asked ChatGPT, then typed your name into Google a day later. The customer can tell you. Our view

When this fails: when nobody fills in the sheet. Keep it to five columns, and make it someone's job.

AI citations are changing SEO, and your measurement

Here's my position: AI citation is changing SEO. Being the source an AI answer quotes is becoming as important as ranking, and most small businesses aren't measuring it at all. Our view

The clicks are shrinking. In a Pew Research Center study of real browsing, people clicked a result on 8% of Google searches that showed an AI summary, versus 15% of searches that didn't. Confirmed–Industry If you only watch clicks, a page that AI keeps citing can look like it's failing. (More on where this is heading in Is Google search going away?)

So measure AI in three layers:

1. Are AI answers showing your pages?

  • Google: Search Console now has a Generative AI performance report for how your content performs in Google's AI features on Search and Discover. Confirmed–Google Clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are also counted inside the regular Performance report, under the "Web" search type, mixed in with everything else. Confirmed–Google Your site also has to be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console to be eligible to appear in them. Confirmed–Google
  • Bing and Copilot: Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report (public preview since February 2026). It shows how often your pages are cited as sources in Microsoft Copilot, Bing's AI summaries and some partner tools, which of your pages get cited, and sample "grounding queries" the AI used to find them. It doesn't report clicks. Confirmed–Industry In June 2026 Bing added Citation Share, your share of all citations for a query against every other site cited, plus a view that compares periods. Both are also in preview. Confirmed–Industry

2. Are AI tools sending visitors?
Check your analytics referrers for chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, copilot.microsoft.com and gemini.google.com. ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it sends, which makes those visits easy to spot. Confirmed–Industry Don't lump in bing.com: most of that is regular Bing search. Our view

3. Do AI tools name you when nobody clicks?
Once a month, ask ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Perplexity the five questions your customers ask most, such as "best emergency plumber in Orléans." Write down whether you're named, and who is. It's manual, but it's the only way to see the answers your customers see. Our view

When this fails: when one month's AI numbers drive a big decision. These reports are new, Bing's is still in preview, and the numbers move a lot. Watch the trend over three to six months.

Search Console and Bing: the free core

If you set up only two tools, make it these. Both are free and both use real data from the search engine, not estimates.

  • Google Search Console shows the searches you appeared for, plus clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position. Confirmed–Google Filter out searches for your own business name to see whether new people are finding you; that's number 3 on the scorecard. Our view
  • Bing Webmaster Tools covers Bing and, through its AI Performance report, Copilot. You can import your sites from Search Console in a few clicks. Our view
  • Google Business Profile shows calls, website clicks and direction requests from your Maps and local listing. Confirmed–Google If you're a local business, your profile may send more calls than your website. Our view

When this fails: when you only look at averages. "Average position 14" hides one page at 3 and another at 40. Look page by page.

Information and government sites

In 2015 I suggested four measures for sites that only inform: loyalty (how often people come back), recency (how long since their last visit), length of visit and depth of visit (pages per visit). Our view

Loyalty and recency still hold up. Length and depth don't, on their own. A long visit can mean someone couldn't find the answer. A one-page visit can be a perfect visit: they landed, got the answer, and left. Our view

Measure the task instead:

  • Did they download the form or guide?
  • Did they use the locator, the calculator or the booking tool?
  • Did they click "Yes" on a "Was this page helpful?" question at the bottom?
  • Did calls to your help line about that topic go down after you published the page?

That last one is the measure my government client should have used. Fewer repeat questions to staff is a real saving. Our view

When this fails: when the helpful-page question gets a handful of answers a month. Treat it as a signal, not a score.

English and French: measure them separately

If your site has English and French pages, report on them separately, for example by comparing your /fr/ pages against your English ones. Our view French searches, French AI answers and French customers behave differently, and a combined number hides a weak language. Google's AI Mode has answered in French in Canada since October 2025, so this applies to AI visibility too. Confirmed–Google

When this fails: when French pages are machine-translated copies. The numbers will tell you they're weak; the fix is the content, not the report.

Privacy: choose tools you can defend

Analytics collects data about real people, so the tool you pick matters.

  • Cookie-based tools such as Google Analytics 4 are free and powerful, but they usually need a consent banner. Quebec's Law 25 requires businesses to tell visitors how to turn on functions that can identify, locate or profile them, which lawyers read as meaning those functions must start switched off. Confirmed–Industry In practice, visitors from Gatineau and the rest of Quebec opt in, and every visitor who declines is missing from your reports. Our view
  • Cookieless tools such as Vercel Web Analytics and Plausible count visits without cookies, so there's usually no banner and fewer gaps. They're simpler and show less detail. Our view
  • Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Business Profile report on search activity, not on visitors to your site, so they add nothing to your privacy notice. Our view

This site uses cookieless Vercel Web Analytics and no Google Analytics, for exactly these reasons. This isn't legal advice; check your own obligations, especially if you serve Quebec. Our view

When this fails: when you install three analytics tools "just in case." Each one is another privacy obligation and another dashboard nobody reads.

Myths to skip

  • "More traffic is the goal." Traffic that never calls or never finds its answer is a cost, not a win. Our view
  • "Bounce rate tells you if a page is good." A visitor who reads one page and calls you counts as a bounce in many tools. Judge pages by the action, not the bounce. Our view
  • "AI traffic is too small to bother with." The visits are small. The citations aren't. Measure both. Our view
  • "Time on site should go up." For a page that answers a question, a short visit can be a success. Our view

Next step

This month, do two things: write down in one sentence what success means for your site, and set up Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools if you haven't. Next month, add the phone-call event and the "How did you hear about us?" question.

If you'd rather have it done, start with a free visibility audit. It includes a check of how AI answers treat your business. If you're still choosing what to target, read the keyword research guide first.

About this page

Who: Written by Khalid Mohamed, founder of CapitalSEO, who wrote the first version of this guide in 2015. I built and run WeddingVenuer.com, the example used above.
How: Rewritten from my 2015 guide with AI assistance. Google and Bing claims were checked against their own documentation on October 12, 2026 (Bing's June 2026 additions re-checked the same day), and labelled; opinions are labelled "Our view."
Why: To help businesses that don't sell online measure what actually matters.
Last substantive update: October 12, 2026: full rewrite. Added the monthly scorecard, phone and partner-click tracking, AI citation measurement, bilingual reporting and privacy. Kept the 2015 point about defining success, and updated the four 2015 metrics.

Sources

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