A few months ago, one of our web development clients asked a question we couldn't actually answer. They run a taxi service, and they wanted to know: "Is the phone number on our website even being used, or is everyone just calling the number they already have saved?"
We didn't know. We had built them a nice site, added their phone number to the header and a few service pages, and assumed it was doing its job. But assuming isn't the same as knowing.
That question is basically why ClickTrace exists now.
The Problem With Contact Forms Only
Most WordPress sites we work on lean heavily on contact forms for tracking enquiries, because forms are easy to count. Someone submits, you get an email, you log it somewhere. Simple.
Phone numbers don't work that way. Someone taps a number on their phone, it opens their dialer, and that's it. No email, no record, nothing in your dashboard. If half your business comes from people tapping the number instead of filling out a form, you're only seeing half the picture.
For a service business like a taxi company, restaurant, or trades company, phone calls are often the main way people actually book. So we built a small plugin to close that gap: ClickTrace.
What It Does, Practically
ClickTrace tracks clicks on phone number links and email links the moment you activate it, with no setup required. You can also add custom links, like a booking button or a WhatsApp link, and give each one a name so you can tell them apart later.
Every click gets logged with the page it happened on, roughly where the visitor was, and the time. You view all of this through a simple dashboard, added to any page with a shortcode.
Setting It Up
Download the plugin from our plugins page, then in WordPress go to Plugins, Add New, Upload Plugin, and select the file. Activate it.
At this point phone and email tracking already works. To see the stats, make a new page and add this shortcode:
[clicktrace]
That page now shows clicks for today, yesterday, the last seven days, this month, and last month, along with the percentage change month over month so you can tell if things are moving in the right direction.
Adding Custom Links
If you have a specific button you want tracked separately, like a "Book Now" link that goes to a third-party booking system, go to the ClickTrace settings page in WordPress admin. There's a simple table where you add the link's name and its exact URL. From then on, that link shows up as its own filter in the stats sidebar, separate from your general phone and email numbers.
We use this for a few clients who run Google Ads pointing to specific landing pages. It lets them see whether the ad traffic is actually clicking the call-to-action once they land, not just whether they showed up.
What We Actually Learned From the Taxi Client
Once tracking was live for about three weeks, the numbers were clear: the phone number was getting clicked noticeably more than the contact form was being submitted, especially from mobile visitors in the evening. That matched what you'd expect from a taxi business, most people calling last minute rather than filling out a form and waiting for a reply.
That one data point changed how we approached the site. We made the phone number bigger and more prominent on mobile, added a sticky call button, and left the contact form for people who preferred to book in advance. Small change, but it came directly from actual data instead of a guess.
If You Want to Try It
ClickTrace is free and open for anyone to use on their own WordPress site. If you already have a maintenance plan with us, we can set it up as part of your next update. If you're managing your own site and want a hand getting it running, or want us to look at what the data is telling you once it's collecting, get in touch and we'll help you make sense of it.