Kenson Goo - Internet Entrepreneur

Google Analytics is the best free visitors analysis software that you can find online. Besides tracking how many visitors your website got, you could set up “Goal” and “Funnel” so that you know why and how your website generates sales. Here is the tutorial from Google Analytics blog that teaches you how to set up “Goal” and “Funnel”.

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: For e-commerce goals, Google Analytics can use the actual value of the purchase. To allow Analytics to do so, leave the Goal Value field blank and set up your purchase receipt page as described in How do I track e-commerce transactions?

For non-e-commerce goals, 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.

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.
   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.
4. Enter the Goal name as it should appear in your Google Analytics account.
5. 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.
2. For example, if you are tracking user flow through your checkout pages, do not include a product page as a step in your funnel.
3. Enter a Name for this step.
4. If this step is a Required step in the conversion process, select the checkbox to the right of the step. Your Defined Funnel Navigation report uses this setting to count visits through your funnel steps - it has no effect on the number of goal visits (conversions) reported in your Goal Tracking reports.
5. 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. Enter a Goal value. This is the value used in Google Analytics’ ROI calculations, and can be either a set value for the page, or a dynamic value pulled from your e-commerce receipt page. If the former, enter the amount in the field; if the latter, leave this field blank and refer to How do I track e-commerce transactions?
3. Click Save Changes to create this Goal and funnel, or Cancel to exit without saving.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.