Knowing which calls came from your website

In many businesses the majority of good enquiries arrive by telephone, and the telephone is the one channel your analytics cannot see. Call tracking closes that gap, at a price worth understanding first.

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Call tracking gives the website its own phone number, so calls to it are known to have come from the site. It is worth it when calls are a large share of your enquiries and you spend money on marketing you need to judge. Simpler alternatives, recording taps on the number and asking callers directly, answer most of the same questions for nothing.

The gap it fills

Somebody finds your number on their phone, writes it on the back of an envelope, and calls two hours later from the office. Nothing about that call is visible to your website analytics, and in a trade business a great many enquiries look exactly like that.

This is why owners so often feel their reports are wrong. They are not wrong, they are partial, and the missing part happens to be the most valuable one.

How it works, in plain terms

The simplest version gives the website a dedicated phone number that forwards to your normal line. Any call to it must have come from the website, so counting those calls tells you what the site produced.

More elaborate versions swap the displayed number depending on where the visitor came from, so you can tell a search visitor from an advertising visitor. That extra detail costs more and adds moving parts, which is worth remembering before buying it.

When it is worth it

Call tracking earns its keep in a specific situation: calls are a large share of your enquiries, you are spending money you need to judge, and the decisions genuinely depend on knowing which channel produced the call.

  • Trades, clinics and services where most enquiries are calls.
  • Businesses running paid advertising that must be evaluated.
  • Multi-location businesses wanting to know which area produces work.
  • Anywhere a single job is valuable enough that a few extra calls pay for the service.

The complications to weigh

There is a real cost beyond the monthly fee. Your number appears in many places: your map listing, directories, printed materials, vehicles. Introducing a second number can create inconsistency, and for local search, consistent details across the web genuinely matter.

The usual approach is to keep your main number everywhere else and use the tracking number only on the website. Even then, keep the arrangement documented, because the person who inherits it will otherwise find two numbers and no explanation.

Recording and consent

Many call tracking services offer call recording, which is useful for understanding what customers actually ask. It is also regulated, and the rules differ considerably between countries and even between regions within them.

If you record, check the current requirements where you and your customers are, announce it clearly, and keep the recordings securely for a defined period. This is not an area to rely on what somebody told you a few years ago.

The free alternatives that cover most of it

Before paying for anything, get the cheap version working. Record taps on your phone number as an event, which captures every call started from a phone on your site. Then ask every caller how they found you, and write the answer down.

Between them, those two answer the question most owners actually have, which is whether the website is producing calls at all and roughly where they come from. Buy call tracking when you need more precision than that, not before.

  • Record taps on the number as an event.
  • Ask every caller how they found you, and log it consistently.
  • Note the page they mention if they remember it.
  • Compare that log quarterly against your analytics.

How Licheo approaches calls

We record taps on the phone number as a matter of course, since it costs nothing and captures a large share of call intent, and we make sure the number is visible and tappable on every page.

Where a business genuinely needs call tracking, we set it up so the site remains consistent with the map listing, and we say plainly what the arrangement can and cannot tell you.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Website ROI. The other parts:

Questions people ask

What is call tracking?
Giving the website its own phone number that forwards to your normal line, so any call to it is known to have come from the site. More advanced versions swap the number by traffic source, at extra cost and complexity.
Is call tracking worth it for a small business?
It is when calls are most of your enquiries and you are spending money you need to judge. If you simply want to know whether the site produces calls at all, recording taps on the number and asking callers is usually enough.
Will a tracking number hurt my local search?
It can if the new number spreads inconsistently across directories and your map listing. Keep your main number everywhere else and use the tracking number only on the website, then document the arrangement.
Can I record calls?
Often, but it is regulated and the rules vary by country and region. Check the current requirements where you and your customers are, announce recording clearly, and store recordings securely for a defined period.
What is the cheapest way to measure phone leads?
Record taps on the phone number as an event, and ask every caller how they found you. That combination costs nothing and answers the question most owners actually have.

Know where your calls come from

Taps recorded as standard, the number visible on every page, and call tracking set up properly when your business genuinely needs it.

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