Google Analytics is installed, and the reports show visitors arriving every day. But when you try to answer the question you actually care about, how many of those visitors filled in the enquiry form or tapped “Call now”, the numbers are missing, or they look suspiciously high, or they do not match the enquiries in your inbox.
That gap is conversion tracking. Installing GA4 tells you who visited. Tracking conversions tells you who did something useful. This post covers the second part. If you have not installed GA4 yet, start with how to add Google Analytics to WordPress and come back.
What counts as a conversion for a small business
A conversion is the action that means a visitor became a possible customer. For most small business websites, that is one of a short list:
- A contact or quote form submitted successfully. Not started, not clicked: actually sent.
- A click on a phone number, which on a mobile opens the dialler.
- A click on a WhatsApp button that opens a chat with you.
- A completed purchase, if you sell online.
- Sometimes a booking confirmed, or a brochure or price list downloaded.
Pick the two or three that matter. Tracking twenty things makes the reports harder to read without telling you more.
How GA4 thinks about it: events
Everything GA4 records is an event. A page being viewed is an event called page_view. A scroll is an event. A form submission, a phone click and a purchase are all events too, as long as something on your site sends them to GA4.
Some events GA4 collects by itself. Others you have to set up. Then you tell GA4 which events matter to your business by marking them as key events.
Conversions are now called key events
This catches people out because so many guides still use the old word. GA4 used to call these “conversions”. In 2024 Google renamed them key events inside GA4. The idea is the same: an event you have flagged as important.
Google Ads still uses the word “conversions”. If you run ads, you can bring GA4 key events into Google Ads, where they are counted as conversions for your campaigns. So when you read “conversion” in one tool and “key event” in the other, they are usually describing the same action.
To mark an event as a key event, go to the Admin area of your GA4 property and find the events list. Each event that has been received can be marked as a key event there. One thing to know: marking an event does not go back in time. GA4 starts counting it as a key event from the moment you mark it, so set this up before you need the numbers.
Enhanced measurement, and where it falls short
GA4 has a setting called enhanced measurement, switched on per data stream, that collects some events with no extra setup. These include scrolls, outbound link clicks, site search, file downloads, some video engagement, and form interactions.
It is useful, but it is not conversion tracking done. Two parts need care.
Form interactions are unreliable. GA4 tries to detect when a form is started and submitted. In practice it can record a submission when someone presses the button and the form then fails validation, and it can miss forms that send without reloading the page, which many WordPress form plugins do. Use it as a rough signal, not as your enquiry count.
Phone and WhatsApp clicks need checking. A WhatsApp link that goes to another domain may show up as an outbound click, mixed in with every other link that leaves your site. Phone number links are not something enhanced measurement is designed to pick out as calls. Do not assume either is being counted until you have seen it in your own data.
Reliable ways to track the actions that matter
A thank-you page for forms
The simplest reliable method is to send people to a dedicated page, such as /thank-you/, only after the form has been sent successfully. Most WordPress form plugins have a setting to redirect to a page on success instead of showing a message.
Then, in GA4, you can create a new event based on page_view where the page address contains your thank-you path, and mark that new event as a key event. Because the page is only reached after a successful send, the count reflects real enquiries rather than button presses.
Keep the thank-you page out of your menus and sitemap so nobody lands on it another way, and give each form its own thank-you page if you have several.
Google Tag Manager for clicks and form success
For phone clicks, WhatsApp clicks and forms that do not redirect, Google Tag Manager is the usual tool. It sits on your site and fires a GA4 event when a condition is met: for example, a click on a link whose address starts with tel:, or on a link to wa.me or api.whatsapp.com.
For forms that stay on the same page, the dependable approach is to fire the event on the form plugin’s own success signal, not on the button click. Many form plugins provide one, though the details differ between plugins, and some need a small piece of code. If your form has its own problems with sending, sort those first: WordPress contact form not working walks through the usual causes.
Purchases
For online shops, GA4 has a recommended event called purchase, which carries the order value, currency and a transaction ID. Ecommerce integrations for WooCommerce and Shopify can send it for you. Use one integration only, and make sure the transaction ID is included, as it helps GA4 avoid counting the same order twice.
Test before you trust it
Never assume tracking works because a setup screen said “saved”.
- Realtime report. Open your site in another tab, submit a test enquiry or tap the phone link, and watch the Realtime report in GA4. Your event should appear within a short while.
- DebugView. Found in GA4’s Admin area, DebugView shows events from a single test device one by one, with their details. It needs debug mode switched on, which Tag Manager’s preview mode or Google’s Tag Assistant can do for you. It is the clearest way to see exactly what fired and when.
- Compare with real life. After a week or two, compare the key event count with the enquiries you actually received. They will rarely match exactly, because some visitors block analytics, but they should be in the same range. A big gap means something is wrong.
Standard reports can take a day or so to catch up with Realtime.
Common mistakes
- Tracking the button click instead of the success. People press “Send” on forms with errors, or press it twice. Counting clicks inflates your enquiry numbers.
- Counting page loads twice. If GA4 is installed by a plugin and also pasted into the theme, every page view, including your thank-you page, is counted twice. Check that only one copy of the tag loads.
- Thank-you pages that can be reached directly. If the page is linked from the menu or indexed by Google, visits to it are not enquiries.
- Marking page_view itself as a key event. That turns every visit into a conversion and makes the report meaningless.
- Counting your own tests. Test submissions from you and your staff add up. GA4 lets you define and filter internal traffic, which is worth setting up.
- Setting it up once and never checking again. Changing a form plugin, a theme or a button can quietly break tracking. Re-test after any change to how people contact you.
If you run ads or social posts, tagging your links helps you see which campaign led to each key event. Our free UTM builder makes those links for you.
If you would rather have someone set this up and test it properly, Google Analytics Setup is one of our one-time website services, from ₹1,499 onwards. We start by agreeing which actions are worth tracking on your site.
Next in this series: Meta Conversions API: Why Facebook Ads Report Fewer Sales
