How to Tell If Your Website Is Actually Working (Without Being a Data Person)

You have a website. People can probably find it. But is it actually doing anything for your business?

Most small business owners open their analytics once, see a wall of charts, and close the tab. This guide covers the nine numbers worth checking, where to find each one in Wix and in Google’s free tools, and what they actually mean. At the end, there’s a 10-minute monthly checklist you can save and reuse.

 

Before you start: where the numbers live

 

You’ll be looking in two places:

• Wix Analytics, which is built into every Wix site. Go to Analytics in your site’s dashboard.
• Google’s free tools: Google Analytics (GA4), which shows what visitors do on your site, and Google Search Console, which shows how you appear in Google before anyone clicks.

Not on Wix? The Google paths work for any website, whatever platform it’s built on. In Google Analytics, every path below starts from Reports in the left menu.

 

Tip

If your site shows a cookie banner, Wix Analytics only counts visitors who accept analytics cookies. Your numbers will be partial, and that’s normal. Focus on trends over time, not exact totals.

 

The 9 numbers worth checking

 

1. Unique visitors

 

What it is: the number of different people who visited your site in a given period. One person who visits five times counts once.

 

Where to find it

Wix: Analytics → Traffic Overview.

Google Analytics: Reports snapshot (shown as “Users”).

 

What it tells you: whether your reach is growing. Compare this month to last month, and to the same month last year if your business is seasonal.
Steady or slowly growing is a good sign. A sudden drop is worth a look: it can mean something broke, like a disconnected domain or a page that disappeared from Google.

 

Tip

Compare your site to itself, not to other businesses. Traffic numbers vary wildly by industry, location, and how people find you.

 

2. Where your visitors come from

 

What it is: the channel that brought each visit: Google search (organic), direct (someone typed your address or used a bookmark), social media, email, or referral (another website linked to you).

 

Where to find it

Wix: Analytics → Traffic Overview, in the sessions by source section.

Google Analytics: Acquisition → Traffic acquisition.

 

What it tells you: which channels actually bring people to your site, and which ones don’t. If you post on Instagram every day and social brings 3% of your visits, that’s useful information about where to spend your time.

 

Tip

A high “direct” number often means people already know your name: word of mouth, a business card, a referral from a friend. It’s a good sign, even if it’s harder to trace.

 

3. Inquiries and bookings

 

What it is: the actions that bring you business: contact form submissions, booking requests, purchases, or clicks on your email address or phone number. This is the most important number on the list. Everything else exists to explain this one.

 

Where to find it

Wix: Analytics → Behavior Overview (form submissions section). Your form submissions and Wix Bookings also appear in their own dashboard sections. For more detail, the Form Submissions by Traffic Source report (in Analytics → All Reports) shows which channels bring the people who actually contact you.

Google Analytics: Engagement → Key events. This report only shows data if key events have been set up for your site. If it’s empty, that’s usually why.

 

What it tells you: whether your website is bringing in business, not just visitors. Write the number down every month.

 

Tip

Add a “How did you hear about us?” question to your contact form. It fills the gaps analytics can’t see, like a recommendation from a past client.

 

4. What people search on Google to find you

 

What it is: Google Search Console shows what happens on Google before people reach your site: how often you appear in results (impressions), how often people click (clicks), and the exact words they searched (queries).

 

Where to find it

Wix: if your site is connected to Google Search Console, go to Analytics → All Reports and look for the SEO reports, like Top Search Queries on Google and Google Search Performance over Time. Connecting requires a Premium plan and a connected domain.

Google Search Console: Performance → Search results.

 

What it tells you: whether people find you for the right words. Many impressions but few clicks usually means you appear in results, but your page titles and descriptions aren’t convincing enough, or you show up too far down the page.

Searches you didn’t expect are worth paying attention to. They’re often great ideas for new pages or blog posts.

 

Tip

Look for searches that combine your service with your location, like “bakery in Austin” or “dog groomer near me”. Those are the people most ready to hire you.

 

5. Your most visited pages

 

What it is: a ranking of the pages people open most, and by omission, the ones almost nobody sees.

 

Where to find it

Wix: Analytics → Behavior Overview (top pages section).

Google Analytics: Engagement → Pages and screens.

 

What it tells you: what actually interests your visitors. If your homepage gets plenty of visits but your services page barely any, people may not be finding the link, or the homepage isn’t giving them a reason to click.

If an old blog post is one of your top pages, update it and add a clear link to your services. It’s already doing the hard work of bringing people in.

 

6. Mobile vs. desktop

 

What it is: the split between visitors on phones, computers, and tablets.

 

Where to find it

Wix: Analytics → Traffic Overview (sessions by device).

Google Analytics: User → Tech → Overview (users by device category).

 

What it tells you: how most people actually see your website. For many small businesses, the majority of visits come from phones. If that’s true for you, the mobile version of your site is the one that matters most.

 

Tip

Open your own website on your phone right now. Can you find your services, prices, and contact details in a few seconds, without zooming?

 

7. Engagement: do people stay?

 

What it is: whether visitors stick around and interact, or leave quickly. Google Analytics measures this as “engagement rate”: the percentage of visits where someone stayed longer than 10 seconds, viewed more than one page, or completed a key event. Wix shows how long visits last on average.

 

Where to find it

Wix: Analytics → Traffic Overview, and the traffic reports in Analytics → All Reports (average session duration).

Google Analytics: Acquisition → Traffic acquisition (engagement rate column), or Engagement → Pages and screens (average engagement time per page).

 

What it tells you: whether your pages hold attention. It’s most useful page by page: a popular page where people leave almost immediately may not be answering what they came for.
Context matters, though. A short visit to your contact page can be a success: someone found your email address and left to write to you.

 

8. Site speed

 

What it is: how quickly your pages load for real visitors. Google’s Core Web Vitals measure loading time, how fast the page responds, and whether things jump around while it loads.

 

Where to find it

Wix: Site Speed in your site’s dashboard. The Real visitor experience section labels each metric as Good, Fair, or Poor, and you can switch between Desktop and Mobile. Data only appears once your site has had 10 or more sessions in the last 7 days.

Any website: PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev), or the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console.

 

What it tells you: whether visitors might be leaving before they even see your content. Speed also plays a part in how Google ranks your site.

Focus on the mobile labels, and don’t chase a perfect score of 100. The usual culprits are oversized images, too many embedded apps or widgets, and videos that play automatically.

 

9. Conversion rate

 

What it is: the percentage of visitors who contact you, book, or buy. It brings numbers 1 and 3 together into a single figure.

 

How to calculate it

Inquiries ÷ unique visitors × 100

Example: 400 visitors and 6 inquiries in a month = 1.5%

 

What it tells you: how convincing your website is. There’s no universal “good” number, so track your own over time.

If visitors go up but your conversion rate goes down, the new traffic may not be the right audience. If visitors stay flat but your conversion rate goes up, your website is getting better at turning visits into business.

 

Numbers you can stop worrying about

 

Some numbers look important but rarely tell you anything useful. You have permission to ignore these:

• Total pageviews. One curious person clicking around can inflate it. Visitors and inquiries are more honest.
• Bounce rate on its own. A one-page visit can be a complete success: someone found your phone number and called. Google Analytics now leads with engagement rate for exactly this reason.
• Daily ups and downs. Traffic is naturally uneven. Look at whole months instead.
• Followers and likes. They live on another platform. They’re nice to have, but they don’t tell you whether your website works.
• A perfect speed score. “Good” on real visitor data is the goal. Going from 85 to 100 rarely changes anything for your business.

 

Your 10-minute monthly checklist

 

Pick a day, like the first Monday of each month, and go through this list:

• Write down your unique visitors for the month and compare them to last month.
• Check your top three traffic sources. Has anything changed?
• Count your inquiries and bookings, and calculate your conversion rate.
• Open Search Console and look at your top five search queries. Any surprises?
• Check your five most visited pages. Is your services page among them?
• Glance at the mobile vs. desktop split.
• Check Site Speed or PageSpeed Insights on mobile. Still Good?
• Write down one thing to change or test next month.

 

Tip

Keep a simple spreadsheet with one row per month. After six months, you’ll see patterns no dashboard shows you.

 

You don’t need to become a data person

 

You just need a handful of numbers, checked regularly, and the habit of asking one question: what does this mean for my business?

And if your numbers tell you something isn’t working, it’s often not a traffic problem. It’s a message or design problem: people arrive, but the site doesn’t give them a clear reason to get in touch. If you’d like help figuring out what’s going on with yours, that’s exactly what I do.