Google Analytics is a powerful tool that allows website owners to track their website’s performance. One of the most important tasks when setting up Google Analytics is to correctly set up goals and conversions. With the right goals in place, businesses can measure and track the performance of their websites and take appropriate steps to improve online success.
What are Google Analytics Goals?
Goals are specific, measurable objectives that businesses can set up in Google Analytics to track and analyze website performance. Goals can have various types and can be related to the performance of specific pages, or user actions, for example a user performing an event, a transaction, or reaching a specific destination page.
Setting up goals is an essential part of a business’ marketing strategy as goals can be used to track which website elements are delivering the desired results, as well as inform the user experience.
The Importance of Setting Up Goals
When set correctly, goals can provide valuable insights into the performance of a website and its visitors. Goals can help businesses track user interaction and conversion rates, measure the impact of their marketing campaigns, identify inefficiencies, and assist businesses in creating a more relevant website user experience.
When goals are set, businesses can track the performance of their website and identify potential problems in ways that would not be possible with the Goals message alone. By setting up goals for the different website elements to be tracked, businesses can measure the performance of each element and find ways to optimize the user experience and site performance.
How to Set Up Google Analytics Goals
The first step to setting up goals in Google Analytics is to log in to Google Analytics and create an account. Once the account is created, the next step is to select the website for which goals have to be set and then click the ‘Admin’ button. Then the ‘Goals’ tab in the View panel will need to be clicked.
Now, the next step is to hit the ‘New Goal’ button. In the ‘Goal setup’ section, there are four options: template, custom, destination, and duration. Businesses will have to select one of these options as per the goal they want to set.
Template Goals
Template goals are Ideal when setting up goals for an e-commerce website. This option allows businesses to easily set up goals connected to user actions like product purchases, and allows for easy tracking of the conversion rate, average order value, and return on investment.
Custom Goals
Custom goals are used when there are no suitable templates for the goal. For example, if a business wants to track a user event like views of a specific page or interactions with a sign-up form, this is the best goal option as it provides more customization options.
Destination Goals
Destination goals are used when a specific page is to be reached as a goal. When the defined page is reached, it will be classified as a conversion. This can be useful when a business wants to track user interactions with specific content, or when a conversion like a purchase is made.
Duration Goals
Duration goals are used to track the time a user spends on the website within a specific time period. This can be an effective way to track the engagement level of website visitors and can give valuable information about user behaviour.
Measuring Goals and Conversions in Google Analytics
Once the goals are set, businesses can track the performance of their website and measure the impact of marketing campaigns or other strategies. The ‘Goals’ section in the ‘Reports’ tab is used to see the number of conversions and conversion rate. Trending information can also be obtained to see how goals are performing over time.
In addition to the ‘Goals’ report, businesses can use the ‘Multi-Channel Funnels’ report to see the impact of marketing channels on goals and the ‘Ecommerce’ report can be used to see revenue and transactions.
Conclusion
Setting up goals correctly in Google Analytics is a crucial step for businesses to track and understand the performance of their websites. Goals can be used to track user interactions, track the impact of marketing campaigns and assist in creating a more relevant user experience. By setting up goals in Google Analytics, businesses can easily track performance and take appropriate steps to improve their online success.