Site tracking & attribution — roadmap
Business — core · biz/TRACKING-ROADMAP.md

Site tracking & attribution — roadmap

How we measure every client site so we can improve their business, run and prove marketing, and see how people arrive. Feeds the dashboard tracking panel and the client-facing analytics/advertising add-ons in process/05 — Services & integrations.

Created 2026-07-21.

Why (Daniel, 2026-07-21)

Put tracking on all our client sites so we can: (1) improve the client's business with real data, (2) do marketing for them and see whether it's actually working, (3) track how people arrive — traffic sources, referral links, SEO. It's both an internal capability (proof + upsell) and a sellable service.

The five things we track (per site)

  1. Baseline analytics — visits, pages, devices, geography.
  2. Conversion events — the actions that make the client money (enquiry, booking, WhatsApp click, checkout).
  3. Attribution — where visitors come from (direct / organic / social / referral / paid) + campaign tagging.
  4. SEO — is the site findable and healthy (indexing, Core Web Vitals, meta/OG, sitemap).
  5. Marketing performance — campaigns running, spend, results, ROI.

Tooling (chosen)

Tool Role Why
Cloudflare Web Analytics default on every site Free, privacy-first, no cookie banner, server-side (survives ad-blockers), and our sites already run on CF Pages. Visits / sources / Core Web Vitals.
GA4 added when needed Funnels, e-commerce, ad attribution. aerias already has GA4 (G-R4EP5H5QTF).
Google Search Console SEO truth Indexing, queries, clicks, coverage. One per site.
Lighthouse / CrUX performance Core Web Vitals baseline + ongoing.
UTM link conventions attribution Campaign & referral tracking, tool-agnostic (below).
(later) Plausible / Umami only if a gap appears Self-host a privacy-first event tool only if CF WA + GA4 fall short. Not now.

Attribution & referral links — the "how do people arrive" part

  • Traffic-source buckets — Direct · Organic search · Social · Referral · Paid. Both CF Web Analytics and GA4 report these out of the box.

  • UTM scheme — tag every link we or the client control (ads, social posts, the Bree referral loop, email footers) so arrivals are attributable and reportable:

    Field Example Rule
    utm_source bree, instagram, google, newsletter where the click came from
    utm_medium referral, social, cpc, email type of channel
    utm_campaign 2026-summer, launch, winback the specific push

  • Referral loop (Bree ↔ us) — tag links both directions so we can prove the two-way referral loop's value (aligns with the Bree partner row in PROSPECTS.md).

  • Per-client live links — keep a short table per site of live tagged links + where they point, so nothing goes out untagged.

SEO baseline (per site checklist)

☐ Search Console verified · ☐ sitemap.xml submitted · ☐ titles / meta / OG present · ☐ Core Web Vitals green · ☐ indexable at launch (remove the dev noindex!) · ☐ structured data where it helps (LocalBusiness for practices; Product for aerias).

Per-site rollout state

Site CF Web Analytics GA4 Search Console Conversion events SEO Marketing
berleinpsych.com ☐ add – ☐ ☐ enquiry submit ☐ –
aerias.co.za ☐ add ✅ G-R4EP5H5QTF ☐ ◑ checkout funnel ☐ –
mozguide (pre-launch) ☐ at launch – ☐ at launch ☐ WhatsApp enquiry ☐ remove noindex –
danielslater.dev ☐ (BOARD #7) – ☐ ☐ enquiry ☐ –

Rollout plan (phased)

  • Phase 1 — baseline (now): CF Web Analytics on every live site + danielslater.dev; Search Console per site; define the one key conversion event each. Cheap, no client blocker.
  • Phase 2 — conversions & attribution: wire the conversion events (enquiry / booking / WhatsApp / checkout); UTM conventions live; pull the aerias GA4 numbers (needs viewer access — open request).
  • Phase 3 — reporting & upsell: a monthly "how your site is doing" mini-report per client (the client-value story + the natural upsell to marketing); SEO baseline pass.
  • Phase 4 — marketing: campaigns with tagged links + performance tracking. Ties to the advertising add-on (process/05) — still Proposed / needs a pricing research leg, and it edges toward an ongoing time commitment, so keep it capped until validated.

How it feeds the business

  • Dashboard — the per-site state table above is the dashboard's tracking panel.
  • Case studies — real before/after numbers (the reference engine) come from here.
  • Upsell — tracking surfaces "X isn't converting" → the analytics/marketing add-on (process/05).
  • Client-facing framing stays outcome-led ("see what's working, get more of it") — no tool-speak, no dashboards-for-dashboards'-sake.

POPIA / privacy

  • CF Web Analytics is cookieless — no consent banner needed. If GA4 is used, the client needs a privacy/cookie notice.
  • Client submission data goes to the client, never copied to Daniel (POPIA — see the email section of process/05, berlein especially).

Open items

  • danielslater.dev CF Web Analytics (BOARD #7).
  • aerias GA4 viewer access (open request) to pull real numbers.
  • Advertising / marketing service — pricing + scope research leg (process/05, Proposed).