Why Your Website Should be Using Google Analytics Goal Reporting
If your website is using Google Analytics, then it should have goal reporting set up. Goal reporting is the best way to determine if your website is engaging your site visitors.
Defining a Goal
A goal in Google Analytics is synonymous with conversion. If one of your goals is to have a customer download a pdf on your website, then by completing that download they have converted. It is important to note in Google Analytics that a visitor can only convert once per session. For example, if your website has 5 pdf’s available to download and a goal is defined as any pdf download (using regular expressions it would look like this *.pdf), then that visitor could download all five pdf’s during their visit to your site and Google Analytics will only count it as one goal conversion.
Example Goals
When you look at your website you should consider what the main goal of the website is. Is your website a lead-generation website, content website, or e-commerce website (e-commerce reporting requires additional steps in Google Analytics and is outside the scope of this blog post)? Once you have identified the main goal of the website you should consider what steps visitors might take to get to that final goal. The vast majority of visitors will not complete the main goal, so there needs to be smaller incremental goals to gauge the success of your website. Some examples of these smaller goals can be page views, time on site, pdf downloads, subscribing to your e-newsletter, adding a blog comment, logging in, or registering with your website.
Why Set up Goal Reporting?
Defining website goals is probably the single most important step you take in setting up Google Analytics. Goals provide a way to measure the success of your website. Goal reporting unlocks additional reports within Google Analytics that help you better understand your potential visitors. The obvious report within goal reporting is conversions and conversion rate. You would probably be shocked how many business owners don’t know their sites conversion rate. E-tailing group estimates that 19% of e-commerce website owners don’t know their conversion rate. These are site owners that are very familiar with the idea of conversions. For lead-generating and content websites I would guarantee that percentage is substantially higher.
Other reports goal reporting unlocks are:
- Reverse goal path – Previous three url’s before the goal page. Very helpful in identifying funnels.
- Funnel visualization – Shows the conversion process graphically helping you to identify problem steps.
- Goal Value -You should assign a goal value to every goal you set up. Monetizing your goals will help you see how your individual web pages contribute to the conversion process.
Regardless of what type of website you own, it has goals. Tracking those goals is a critical step in understanding your visitors and making improvements to your site. Goals give you direction in your actions and unlock a level of information that every website owner needs to make informed decisions.
