What is a goal?
A goal is a website page which a visitor reaches once they have made a purchase or completed another desired action, such as a registration or download. Before Google Analytics can calculate goal conversion metrics, you must define one or more goals. A goal is defined with the following information:
URL for the goal page: Specify a page that can only be reached by achieving a goal. In the case of a registration goal, for example, the goal page might be the Thank You page. If your goal page can be reached by visitors who have not completed the goal, your conversion rates will be inflated.
The name of the goal: Specify a name that you will recognize when viewing reports. Examples of names you might use include "email sign-up" and "article ABC download".
The defined funnel: You may specify up to ten pages in a defined funnel. A funnel represents the path that you expect visitors to take on their way to converting to the goal. Defining these pages allows you to see how frequently visitors abandon goals, and where they go. For an e-commerce goal, these pages might be the first page of your checkout process, then the shipping address info page, and finally the credit card information page.
The value of the goal: Google Analytics uses an assigned goal value to calculate ROI, Average Score, and other metrics. A good way to value a goal is to evaluate how often the visitors who reach the goal become customers. If, for example, your sales team can close 10% of people who request to be contacted, and your average transaction is $500, you might assign $50 (i.e. 10% of $500) to your "Contact Me" goal. In contrast, if only 1% of mailing list signups result in a sale, you might only assign $5 to your "email sign-up" goal.
In summary, a goal is something (a task) that you would like your web site visitors to do on your site. Setting up Goals in Google Analytics allow you to measure when and how often the various tasks are completed, sometimes referred to as the "conversion rate". Note that this conversion rate is not to be confused with conversion tracking in Google AdWords (click here for an article that describes conversion tracking).
As with conversion tracking, in Goals, we are tracking users as the land on a page on the site. However (and this one of the main differences between conversion tracking in AdWords and Goals), with Goals, we are also tracking HOW the users go to this page. We may also track how they gotto your site, for instance, from an advert, email or affiliate link. In these latter examples (how they got to your site), you will create a "virtual" page on your site. (These are actually JavaScript events, like "onClick." (or similar).
What is a Funnel?
In order to understand Goals, we need to introduce the idea of Funnels.
If a Goal is a page on your web site, then it is important to know how someone got to that particular page. Knowing how the visitor got to the Goal page will help you learn where visitors are leaving before they get to the page – Funnel Analysis allows you see where people abandon their effort. Once you know that, then you can amend the offending page to allow for the visitors to pass through to the next stage of the process in reaching the end Goal.
For example, the Goal page (the page that you want someone to reach) might be a "Thank You" page. This page might follow a "Contact Us" page. Perhaps, if you make the Contact Us page to difficult (for example if you ask for too much information), then you will see that the abandon rate is high on this page. Once you know that, you can change the Contact Us page to make it easier to complete.
The process of going through the process of getting to the end Goal page is called the Funnel. Once you have set up the funnel (the steps that you want a user to take as they navigate through your site, you can analyse where the blockages occur.
Shopping carts make excellent funnels, because they have clearly defined steps through the ordering process (e.g., Product, Shipping, Credit Card, Thank you, etc.)
Analysing the Funnels through your site is one of the most valuable and powerful analyses you can do. Goals are extremely useful as they enable you to measure success (and failure) on your site. It is a very powerful tool for bringing visitors smoothly through the site.
Creating Goals
To set up your goals, Enter Goal Information:
1. Log in to your Google Analytics account and click Analytics Settings.
2. Find the profile for which you will be creating goals, and click Edit.
3. Select one of the 4 goal slots available for that profile and click Edit.
4. Enter the Goal URL. Reaching this page marks a successful conversion. For example, a registration confirmation page, a checkout complete page, or a thank you page.
5. Enter the Goal name as it should appear in your Google Analytics account.
6. Turn the goal On or Off. This selection decides whether Google Analytics should track this conversion goal at this time.
Generally, you will want to set the Active Goal selection to On.
Then, Define a funnel by following these steps:
1. Enter the URL of the first page of your conversion funnel. This page should be a page that is common to all users working their way towards your Goal. For example, if you are tracking user flow through your checkout pages, do not include a product page as a step in your funnel.
2. Enter a Name for this step.
3. If this step is a Required step in the conversion process, select the checkbox to the right of the step. If this checkbox is selected, users reaching your goal page without travelling through this funnel page will not be counted as conversions.
4. Continue entering goal steps until your funnel has been completely defined. You may enter up to 10 steps, or as few as a single step.
Finally, configure Additional settings by following the steps below:
1. If the URLs entered above are Case sensitive, select the checkbox.
2. Select the appropriate goal Match Type. (Learn more about Match Types and how to choose the appropriate goal Match Type for your goal.)
3. Enter a Goal value. This is the value used in Google Analytics' ROI calculations.
4. Click Save Changes to create this Goal and funnel, or Cancel to exit without saving.
A goal is a website page which a visitor reaches once they have made a purchase or completed another desired action, such as a registration or download. Before Google Analytics can calculate goal conversion metrics, you must define one or more goals. A goal is defined with the following information:
URL for the goal page: Specify a page that can only be reached by achieving a goal. In the case of a registration goal, for example, the goal page might be the Thank You page. If your goal page can be reached by visitors who have not completed the goal, your conversion rates will be inflated.
The name of the goal: Specify a name that you will recognize when viewing reports. Examples of names you might use include "email sign-up" and "article ABC download".
The defined funnel: You may specify up to ten pages in a defined funnel. A funnel represents the path that you expect visitors to take on their way to converting to the goal. Defining these pages allows you to see how frequently visitors abandon goals, and where they go. For an e-commerce goal, these pages might be the first page of your checkout process, then the shipping address info page, and finally the credit card information page.
The value of the goal: Google Analytics uses an assigned goal value to calculate ROI, Average Score, and other metrics. A good way to value a goal is to evaluate how often the visitors who reach the goal become customers. If, for example, your sales team can close 10% of people who request to be contacted, and your average transaction is $500, you might assign $50 (i.e. 10% of $500) to your "Contact Me" goal. In contrast, if only 1% of mailing list signups result in a sale, you might only assign $5 to your "email sign-up" goal.
In summary, a goal is something (a task) that you would like your web site visitors to do on your site. Setting up Goals in Google Analytics allow you to measure when and how often the various tasks are completed, sometimes referred to as the "conversion rate". Note that this conversion rate is not to be confused with conversion tracking in Google AdWords (click here for an article that describes conversion tracking).
As with conversion tracking, in Goals, we are tracking users as the land on a page on the site. However (and this one of the main differences between conversion tracking in AdWords and Goals), with Goals, we are also tracking HOW the users go to this page. We may also track how they gotto your site, for instance, from an advert, email or affiliate link. In these latter examples (how they got to your site), you will create a "virtual" page on your site. (These are actually JavaScript events, like "onClick." (or similar).
What is a Funnel?
In order to understand Goals, we need to introduce the idea of Funnels.
If a Goal is a page on your web site, then it is important to know how someone got to that particular page. Knowing how the visitor got to the Goal page will help you learn where visitors are leaving before they get to the page – Funnel Analysis allows you see where people abandon their effort. Once you know that, then you can amend the offending page to allow for the visitors to pass through to the next stage of the process in reaching the end Goal.
For example, the Goal page (the page that you want someone to reach) might be a "Thank You" page. This page might follow a "Contact Us" page. Perhaps, if you make the Contact Us page to difficult (for example if you ask for too much information), then you will see that the abandon rate is high on this page. Once you know that, you can change the Contact Us page to make it easier to complete.
The process of going through the process of getting to the end Goal page is called the Funnel. Once you have set up the funnel (the steps that you want a user to take as they navigate through your site, you can analyse where the blockages occur.
Shopping carts make excellent funnels, because they have clearly defined steps through the ordering process (e.g., Product, Shipping, Credit Card, Thank you, etc.)
Analysing the Funnels through your site is one of the most valuable and powerful analyses you can do. Goals are extremely useful as they enable you to measure success (and failure) on your site. It is a very powerful tool for bringing visitors smoothly through the site.
Creating Goals
To set up your goals, Enter Goal Information:
1. Log in to your Google Analytics account and click Analytics Settings.
2. Find the profile for which you will be creating goals, and click Edit.
3. Select one of the 4 goal slots available for that profile and click Edit.
4. Enter the Goal URL. Reaching this page marks a successful conversion. For example, a registration confirmation page, a checkout complete page, or a thank you page.
5. Enter the Goal name as it should appear in your Google Analytics account.
6. Turn the goal On or Off. This selection decides whether Google Analytics should track this conversion goal at this time.
Generally, you will want to set the Active Goal selection to On.
Then, Define a funnel by following these steps:
1. Enter the URL of the first page of your conversion funnel. This page should be a page that is common to all users working their way towards your Goal. For example, if you are tracking user flow through your checkout pages, do not include a product page as a step in your funnel.
2. Enter a Name for this step.
3. If this step is a Required step in the conversion process, select the checkbox to the right of the step. If this checkbox is selected, users reaching your goal page without travelling through this funnel page will not be counted as conversions.
4. Continue entering goal steps until your funnel has been completely defined. You may enter up to 10 steps, or as few as a single step.
Finally, configure Additional settings by following the steps below:
1. If the URLs entered above are Case sensitive, select the checkbox.
2. Select the appropriate goal Match Type. (Learn more about Match Types and how to choose the appropriate goal Match Type for your goal.)
3. Enter a Goal value. This is the value used in Google Analytics' ROI calculations.
4. Click Save Changes to create this Goal and funnel, or Cancel to exit without saving.
posted by SEO Expert
@ 7:24 PM
permanent link | |
<< Home