By Birth & Baby University · Last updated: October 2026 · 3 min read
Most doulas see only a handful of new clients per month, which makes marketing results noisy. A post that “performed well” may have produced zero inquiries; a quiet month may reflect births in your area, not your website. Good measurement for a small practice is therefore modest: define a few steps in the path from seeing you to booking, record them consistently and look for patterns over several months. This article explains what the standard tools actually measure and how to avoid common traps.
Key takeaways
- Google Search Console defines impressions (how often someone saw a link to your site), clicks, average position and click-through rate (clicks divided by impressions). It says to aim for meaningful impressions, not simply more.
- Google’s SEO guidance says changes can take hours to several months to show up, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging results.
- Google’s Analytics policy says not to pass personally identifiable information to Google, and notes that URLs, page titles, form entries and campaign parameters can contain it inadvertently.
- Website visits are not clients. Track the whole path: visit, inquiry, consultation, booking.
What the research and guidance say
What the tools measure
Google’s help page on impressions, position and clicks defines impressions as how often someone saw (or potentially saw) a link to your site, clicks as how often someone clicked a link from Google to your site, average position as a relative ranking where 1 is the topmost, and click-through rate as clicks divided by impressions. It says the heuristics are subject to change and that you should aim for being seen by people who will find your information useful. These are search data only; they say nothing about people who arrive from social media, referrals or a typed address.
Timing
Google’s SEO Starter Guide says every change takes time to be reflected, some within hours and others in several months, that you likely want to wait a few weeks to assess whether your work had beneficial effects, and that not every change will result in a noticeable impact. For a practice that books a few clients a month, a few weeks of data will rarely be enough to judge a change reliably.
Privacy in your data
Google’s best practices to avoid sending personally identifiable information say Google policies mandate that no data be passed to Google that Google could use or recognize as personally identifiable, give examples such as email addresses and personal mobile numbers, and point out that page URLs and titles, user entries in forms and search boxes, and campaign parameters can carry it by accident. It advises consulting an attorney in case of doubt. For a doula, a contact form that collects names, due dates or health details raises the stakes, so decide what your forms collect and what your analytics receive.
Planning to measure
The SBA’s business plan guidance frames planning around understanding demand, market and competition and keeping the plan useful as the business changes. A measurement habit is part of that review.
What this means for doulas
- Measure steps, not vanity. Impressions and likes matter only if they lead to conversations.
- Use a longer window. Look at quarters, not weeks, and compare similar periods.
- Add what tools cannot see. Ask every inquiry how they found you.
- Protect privacy. Do not send client details into analytics, spreadsheets that others can see, or ad platforms.
Putting the evidence into practice
- Keep a simple monthly log: website visits, search impressions and clicks (from Search Console), inquiries received, consultations held, bookings, and the source each inquiry reported.
- For each step, calculate a rate such as inquiries per hundred visits, but treat it as a rough guide when numbers are small. For illustration, two inquiries from a hundred visits and four from two hundred are the same rate, yet a single month of either tells you little.
- When you change something, such as a page title or a post series, write down the date and wait several weeks before drawing conclusions.
- Review the log quarterly with a mentor and decide one thing to keep, one to change and one to stop.
- Check your forms and analytics settings for personal data, and remove it from URLs, titles and campaign tags.
The bottom line
Marketing measurement for a small doula practice should be simple, patient and private. Track the path from search or referral to inquiry to booking, read the numbers cautiously and use them to decide what to try next, not to prove a method works.
Related reading: Search Engine Optimization for Doulas: How to Help Families Find Your Services; Social Media Marketing for Doulas: What Strategies Are Worth Your Time?; How to Measure Success in Your Doula Business Beyond Revenue.
This article is for professional education. It is not medical, legal, financial or tax advice. Check the standards of your certifying organization and the rules where you work.
Sources and further reading
- Google Search Console Help. What are impressions, position, and clicks? (page read October 2026). Read the source
- Google Search Central. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide (page read October 2026). Read the source
- Google Analytics Help. Best practices to avoid sending Personally Identifiable Information (PII) (page read October 2026). Read the source
- U.S. Small Business Administration. Write your business plan (page read October 2026). Read the source
Measuring marketing is about learning which efforts help families find you. Birth & Baby University’s For Doulas page describes training and mentorship for doulas building a practice. Keep what you measure simple, private and honest, and ask a qualified professional if you are unsure about privacy rules.
More for professionals: the Professionals Blog.
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