A submission attempt is not a successful inquiry
Measure a confirmed successful submission rather than the visitor's attempt to submit. Validation errors and network failures can prevent a clicked button from creating an inquiry.
Tracking should distinguish opening a form, attempting submission, validation failure and confirmed acceptance. An event tied only to the submit button can fire even when required information is missing or the request fails.
A worked example
A hypothetical form records 40 button clicks but stores 25 accepted inquiries. Some visitors retry after validation errors. Counting clicks as successful leads inflates the result and conceals a journey problem.
How to apply it
- Trigger success only after the system confirms the intended accepted submission.
- Test validation failures, server errors and repeated attempts separately.
- Verify notification and stored-record delivery using controlled labeled tests.
What the result can establish
Confirm that a refresh or retry does not create duplicate success counts. Avoid sending form contents or personal information into ordinary analytics events. Use the actual intake system to inspect inquiry details with appropriate access.
Reference: W3C WAI: validating forms.
Supporting documentation
W3C WAI: validating formsGoogle Analytics: recommended eventsGoogle Analytics: attribution overview