Setting Up Goals in Google Analytics - Tip #5

In a previous tip I briefly touched on Optimizng AdWords ROI which helped measure your Pay Per Click Program's performance within Google Analytics by applying cost data and auto tagging destination URL's to allow for better PPC Optimization. So now that you have more information in Analytics on how your paid programs are doing, how about we discuss setting up Goals in Google Analytics to measure your organic and referral traffic?

What is a Goal?

Goals are a way within Google Analytics to measure activities or conversions that take place on your website.

What to Measure?

What can you measure by setting up Google Analytics Goals? Well the possibilities are almost endless but some of the common goals measured include product purchases, downloads and contact forms. Each activity usually ends with some sort of "thank you" page telling the visitor that they have competed an action on your site.

The Set Up Process

There are different ways to set up goals depending on the needs and complexity of your site. So below are simple steps to setting up and creating a simple goal in Google Analytics.

1) Log into Google Analytics and click on the "Edit Settings" link.

2) Navigate to the "Conversion Goals and Funnel" box and click Edit in the settings column for Goal one (G1).

3) This will bring you to the Goal Settings interface which will allow you to set up your first goal. On this page you need to make sure the Active Goal radio button is set to On. Next you need to set the "Match Type" settings. You have several options to choose from, the most basic being "Exact Match" which is used if the goal URL is not dynamic. If your goal URL is dynamic you need to switch the setting to "Regular Expression Match" and leave out the unique values at the end of the URL such as user id's. If you are using different sub domains and want to track trailing parameters or a particular stem within a URL then use "Regular Expression Match." For most users, the basic match type setting will suffice.

4) From here you need to paste the Goal Page URL you wish to track into the Goal URL field. This Goal URL should be after the user on your site has completed an action like a thank you page, registration confirmation page, completed checkout or any other completed action you wish to track.

5) After that is done you need to name your goal. Name your goal after the type of action you are tracking so that you can distinguish it in the actual Google Analytics interface.

6) Define a value for your goal. Do you want to assign a basic monetary value to each whitepaper downloaded? Or do you just want to track the number of completed contact forms?

That's it, you have completed setting up a basic goal within Google Analytics. Setting up more advanced goals using "Regular Expression Match" or ecommerce tracking can get a bit more complicated. You can also take the basic goal process further by defining a "funnel" for your goal. We will touch on that area another day.

Filtering Internal Traffic - Google Analytics Tip #4

Alright you have set up Google Analytics, but the key is to get the most accurate data possible. Excluding yourself and/or your company, or any one who is working with on or with your site is going to give you a more accurate picture of how your site is performing?

How do you know if you have already filtered internal traffic?

Well if your domain name is something like www.sellbluewidgetstoday.com/ and you have tons of direct traffic to your site, than odds are you have not filtered out internal traffic as not too many visitors are going to be coming from type in traffic.

How do you filter internal traffic from Google Analytics?

Well there are two ways to do this. The first, and broadest, way to filter internal traffic is by setting an exclude filter for your company?s IP address. This will filter out all traffic in Google Analytics from that specific IP address.

The second way, which is a bit more complicated, is to set up a custom user defined filter. There are two steps to setting up a custom user defined filter. The first step is to add a custom segment cookie to any and all computers that you wish to exclude from Google Analytics. This can be done by creating an HTML form that you upload to your server. All employees you want to filter out must then use this form. The second step is to create the custom user defined filter in Google Analytics. You can do this by navigating to the ?Filter Manager? section within Google Analytics and selecting add new filter. Then select a custom filter type in the drop down menu. Continue to set up as defined below. Make sure you use whatever you type in the "filter pattern" field below is the same field you use in your form.

Optimizing AdWords ROI - Google Analytics #3

Do you use Google AdWords? How do you measure your programs success? Well if you use Google AdWords and you don?t measure any performance metrics than now is a good time to setup Google Analytics on your site. Once you set up Google Analytics on your site configure it to measure your Google AdWords programs.

How do I set Google Analytics to Measure Google AdWords?

Well first off if you already have a Google AdWords account, the best place to set up Google Analytics is through Google AdWords. Doing this links your AdWords and Analytics data automatically which saves you the time of tagging all your PPC landing pages URL's.

1) Log into your Google AdWords account and click on the Analytics tab in the interface.

2) Choose "Create My Free Analytics" account.

3) Fill in Website and URL and Choose an Account name.

4) Before completing set up make sure the two radio buttons "Destination URL Auto-tagging" and "Apply Cost Data" are checked.

The last step listed is the one that will help you optimize Google AdWords ROI in Google Analytics. The reports within Google Analytics will show you cost data for each key word you buy as well as your specified performance indicators or goals. Just make sure you have set up Google Analytics Goals so you can properly measure AdWords performance.

Google Analytics Tip #2 - Researching Popular Pages

The last post on Google Analytics Link Tagging showed you how to measure any outgoing links, downloads, emails, etc. Today I would like to show you how to judge the current content on your site.

Have you ever wondered what the most popular pages on your site are? With Google Analytics you can easily navigate to the most popular pages on your site. Here's how:

1) On the Left Navigation in the interface click > Content

2) Then Select > Top Content

This will give you a list of the most popular URLs / pages on your site.

Why do I need to know this?

Knowing your most popular pages lets you know what visitors are looking for on your site. When you know what visitors are looking for on your site, you can give them more of what they want. You can expand on your most popular pages, write more relevant content about these topics or strengthen your selling proposition.

Google Analytics Tips #1 - Link Tagging

So you have migrated from your expensive, non-functional, Analytics software to the free Google Analytics software. But now what do you do? There is a lot of information that you need to absorb when learning analytics, but how do you take advantage of it all? First off I recommend reading through the Google Analytics Support Center. There is tons of information here filled with interesting tips and tricks you can do with Google Analytics. So I thought I would save you some time learning analytics and share some interesting tips and tricks you can perform with Google Analytics to better track what is going on with your site.

Link Tagging in Google Analytics

Google Analytics offers a link tagging feature that let's you tag any link on your site. How does this help? Have you ever wondered how many visitors leave your site from Downloads, Outgoing Links, PDF's or even outgoing emails? Well with a simple piece of code you can do just that.

If you have noticed I began all link tags with "outgoing". Why did I do this? This can help you to sort all outgoing links within the Google Analytics interface. Where do I see this data within Google Analytics?

1) Log Into Your Account
2) On the Left Navigation in the interface click > Content
3) Then Select > Top Content
4) Then in this search box at the bottom type in whatever outgoing links you are looking for. So if you are looking for outgoing emails search outgoing_email and this will give you all instances of people using your email.

Why is this Helpful?

Tracking outgoing links, email, pdf or other downloads can help you get a handle on what people are looking for when they come to your site. It can also help you place the outgoing links, email, PDF or other downloads in better spots on your site, allowing you to have better control of the Usability of your site. After all, you don't want people leaving your site if it has no benefit to you!