Key takeaway
A straightforward tracking setup can show which channels, campaigns and website pages lead to enquiries. Start with Google Analytics 4, track successful form submissions, capture source details with the enquiry and use tagged links for the marketing you publish. Add call tracking if telephone enquiries justify it.
Your website report says traffic is up. More people are reading the articles, LinkedIn is bringing visitors and the practice pages are getting attention.
But which of that activity is producing enquiries?
For a firm with greater marketing constraints, it helps you decide whether to commission another thought leadership piece, or put more budget behind a specific campaign.
The starting point is to connect what happens on the website with the enquiries reaching the firm.
Set up Google Analytics around enquiries
Google Analytics 4, usually shortened to GA4, can show where website visits come from and what people do during those visits.
If it is already installed, check what it measures. Page views and visitor numbers are useful background, but they will not tell you whether someone contacted the firm.
Ask your website developer or marketing manager to set up separate events for:
Successfully submitted enquiry forms.
Clicks on telephone numbers.
Clicks on email addresses.
Completed consultation bookings, if the firm offers them.
Google Tag Manager can help set up the tracking for these actions. A tag sends information about an action to GA4, while a trigger tells it when to run-for example, once an enquiry form has successfully submitted. You may hear this described as the tag “firing”.
Keep the actions separate. A submitted form is different from a telephone click: someone can click the number without completing a call. The same applies to an email link.
In GA4, mark the successful enquiry submission as a key event so it can be included in your acquisition reporting
Check that a form submission means the form worked
This is one of the first things we would check.
Tracking the submit button is easy. Unfortunately, the person might click it and then receive an error because a required field is missing. Counting that as an enquiry overstates the results.
The event should fire once the form has successfully submitted.
Test the whole process on desktop and mobile. Does the message reach the correct inbox? Does the confirmation appear? Does GA4 record the event once?
Include any embedded forms or booking tools. If someone leaves the website to book through another platform, the completed booking may need additional tracking.
A successful submission can still be spam or a supplier approach. Treat the analytics figure as the number of tracked submissions, then use the actual messages to establish how many were genuine enquiries.
Send source details through with the enquiry
Analytics can tell you that a campaign produced form submissions. It is more useful if the enquiry itself also carries the available source information.
Ask your developer whether the form can capture hidden fields for:
Detail | What it helps you understand |
Campaign source and medium | Whether the visit came through a tagged LinkedIn, email or other campaign |
Campaign name | Which particular activity brought the visit |
Landing page | Where the tracked visit began |
Submission page | Where the person completed the form |
These fields sit behind the form. The prospective client does not need to fill them in.
They can be passed into the notification email or the firm’s existing enquiry system, depending on the website and form software.
Capturing the landing page may require information to be retained as the visitor moves through the website. Agree with your developer whether the setup records the current visit or an earlier tracked visit, and label the information accordingly.
Some enquiries will have incomplete source details. Browsers, tracking permissions and the way someone arrives can affect what is available.
Use tracking links for the marketing you control
This is one of the most important aspects of tracking your prospects online. If you publish a LinkedIn post linking to an article, use a tagged link. Do the same for newsletters, event follow-up emails and other campaigns.
Google’s Campaign URL Builder adds UTM parameters to the website address. These identify the source, medium and campaign.
For a LinkedIn post promoting a shareholder disputes article, that might be:
?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=shareholder_disputes
The tags give GA4 a clearer way to identify those visits. If your forms capture campaign information too, the details can follow through to the enquiry.
Keep a short naming convention that everyone uses. Otherwise, “LinkedIn”, “linkedin” and “LI” can appear as different sources.
Just a point of note. Use tagged links to bring people into the website. Avoid adding campaign tags to links between your own pages.
This is particularly useful when several activities promote the same content. You can distinguish visits from the firm’s newsletter, its LinkedIn page and a partner’s post instead of grouping them together.
Separate Google Business Profile visits
People can find your firm through its Google Business Profile in Search or Maps.
Add a tagged website link to the profile so those visits can be distinguished from other Google traffic. For example:
?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=business_profile
That lets you review whether visits through the profile lead to tracked website enquiries.
Calls made directly from the listing need separate consideration. Google Business Profile’s call metric counts clicks on the call button, rather than confirmed conversations with prospective clients.
Look at the pages contributing to enquiries
Once the events work, review enquiries alongside the pages people visit.
Which practice pages bring people to the website? Which articles are associated with enquiry submissions? Where do people actually complete the form?
Keep the landing page and submission page distinct. Someone could arrive through an employment article, read about the team and then use the general contact page.
That does not prove the article alone generated the enquiry, but it does give you some useful evidence about the route taken.
Google Search Console adds another view by showing the searches that produce impressions and clicks for your pages. Use it alongside GA4 to understand which topics attract attention and whether the resulting visits contribute to contact.
For example, an employment boutique might receive traffic through an article answering “Can my employer dismiss me while I’m off sick?” The useful question is whether those visits lead to relevant enquiries about dismissal, discrimination or related work.
This is part of deciding which practice areas benefit from legal SEO. Traffic needs to be assessed against the services the firm wants to grow.
Add call tracking if calls are an important enquiry route
If the firm receives substantial telephone enquiries, form tracking will only explain part of the results.
A call tracking provider can help connect website calls with channels or campaigns. A typical setup displays a tracking number to visitors and forwards the call to the firm.
Before committing, ask what the proposed configuration will capture, how it works with your existing telephone arrangements and how you will distinguish genuine enquiries from other calls.
For a boutique firm in B2B practice areas receiving relatively few calls, asking callers how they heard about the firm may be sufficient initially.
Keep a simple way to record referrals
Digital tracking can’t tell you who recommended the firm.
Someone may receive a partner’s name from an accountant, search for it on Google and submit a form. GA4 could report organic search while the prospective client describes an accountant referral.
Keep an optional “How did you hear about us?” field on the form. Ask the same question naturally during telephone enquiries.
Record that answer alongside the digital information. It helps distinguish discovery through search from someone looking up a firm they already know about.
The website still has a part to play after the recommendation. Our Referral-to-Enquiry Test helps firms assess whether it gives referred clients the information they need to get in touch.
Put the useful figures in one report
A monthly report can be straightforward:
Genuine website enquiries, after removing spam and duplicates.
Tracked form submissions by channel and campaign.
Telephone and email clicks, shown separately.
Relevant call tracking results, where available.
Landing pages associated with enquiry submissions.
GA4 can provide the website reporting. Google Looker Studio is an option if you want a reusable dashboard bringing those figures together.
Use the report to decide what to do next. If a practice page contributes to suitable enquiries, consider how to strengthen its visibility. If a campaign generates visits but little contact, examine the message and page before increasing the spend.
Over time, you can connect enquiries with accepted instructions through the firm’s existing records. The first step is to establish dependable enquiry tracking.
Get the setup working, then build on it
Start with GA4 and confirmed form submissions. Add source details to the enquiry notifications and use consistent campaign links. Check Google Business Profile, then decide whether telephone tracking is worth adding.
Once those pieces work, you have a repeatable way to assess the marketing each month.
This is a key part of what a boutique law firm can outsource in marketing: the technical setup, testing and reporting can be handled externally, with the findings brought back to the partners.
Elmfields provides fractional marketing support for law firms, including enquiry tracking and reporting. Get in touch if you want to understand which parts of your digital marketing are bringing people to the firm.
About author
Mo leads our marketing strategy, with a focus on SEO, communications and lead generation bringing 9 years of B2B marketing experience. When he is not advising law firms on their marketing, he is (often painfully) supporting his beloved Fulham FC.
Mo Elmoussati
Director
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