Set up homepage tracking before you launch

Key takeaways

Homepage tracking setup should happen before launch, because you cannot measure backwards. Connect GA4 and Search Console, mark enquiries as key events, track your main buttons, and handle consent properly. Without this, a new homepage goes live with no way to tell whether it is any better than the page it replaced.

• Install GA4 and verify Search Console before launch.
• Mark real enquiries as key events.
• Track primary buttons and tap-to-call.
• Set up consent correctly for your cookies.

What should you track on a new homepage?

Track what shows progress towards an enquiry: main button clicks, form submissions, phone clicks, WhatsApp clicks and visits to key service pages. Mark true conversions as key events in GA4. A small set of useful events is better than dozens that nobody will read.

• Form submissions, as a key event.
• Click-to-call and WhatsApp clicks.
• Primary button clicks.
• Clicks through to service pages.
• Booking or checkout starts.

• How to create a high-converting homepage for an SME
• GA4 setup for small business websites
• Track homepage button clicks in GA4

How do you record a form submission reliably?

Send people to a thank-you page after submitting, then count visits to it, or fire an event only after a confirmed success. Do not count button clicks as enquiries, as failed submissions would be included. Enhanced measurement can track some forms, but it is often inaccurate, so test yours.

• The thank-you page: the most ignored page on your site
• Test your homepage enquiry route from end to end

What about consent and cookies?

Under PECR, non-essential cookies generally need consent, and that has included most analytics. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 introduced exceptions for some statistical purposes, so check current ICO guidance. Your banner must work properly: tracking should respect the choice, and rejecting should be as easy as accepting.

• Cookie banners and chat widgets that cover your menu
• Clean homepage data: bots, staff visits and consent gaps

How do you test tracking before launch?

Use GA4's DebugView or Tag Assistant to confirm that each event fires once. Submit a test form and check that it appears. Exclude internal traffic, so that your own testing does not distort the first weeks. Test the live site too, because staging may use different settings.

• Tracking tags and pixels: how marketing slows your site

What should you record before going live?

Record your current baseline for sessions, enquiries, phone calls and conversion rate over several weeks. Without a before figure, you cannot judge the new page. If your old tracking was unreliable, note this and count enquiries by hand for a few weeks instead.

• Measure your website before a redesign
• A homepage dashboard: five numbers to check each month

When is this level of tracking too much?

It is too much if you have too little traffic to learn from it, or if nobody will look at it. A very small local business can count enquiries by asking 'how did you find us?'. Even then, tracking one key event takes little effort, and it pays off as you grow.

• Ask new enquirers what your homepage told them

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see after launches: an agency hands over a new homepage, and the first report shows a large rise in conversions, which turns out to be button clicks counted as enquiries. Checking one thank-you page count against the inbox would have caught this in minutes.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

Homepage tracking setup checklist

• Install GA4.
• Verify Search Console.
• Define your key events.
• Track phone and WhatsApp clicks.
• Test each event once.
• Exclude internal traffic.
• Record your baseline.

• The image people see when your homepage is shared
• A homepage for UK and overseas buyers

Next step

Compare last month's GA4 key events with the enquiries in your inbox. If the numbers do not match, fix that before you build anything new.