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Goals in Google Analytics: Why Do They Matter?

One of the greatest features of Google Analytics is its ability to track "goals." But, what are they and why are they so great?

What is a goal?

A goal describe the completion of task that you would like your site users to accomplish. When you set up goals in Google Analytics, you can measure how often the task is completed, often called "conversion rate.

A goal always marks a user's arrival at a webpage. For example, when a user arrives at your "Thank you" page, this marks the completion of a sale, a subscription, or the generation of a lead.

Many times you won't have an actual webpage to measure. For example, the goal might be that someone:

• Clicks on an external link to your Feedburner feed,
• Clicks on an advertisement, or
• Clicks on an affiliate link.

In those cases, you create a "virtual" page -- something that looks like a page, because Google Analytics demands the name of a page for a goal. For the more technically inclined, those virtual pages are usually JavaScript events, like "onClick." (For more information on this technique see: John Cow, "Google Analytics - Advanced Tracking with JavaScript Events," JohnCow.com, 28-July-2008. http://www.johncow.com/google-analytics-advanced-tracking-with-javascript-events/  )

What is a funnel and how do you it relate to a goal?

The pages that lead up to your goal page are often very important, because they help you learn where and why people might be leaving at the last minute.

For example, you'll have a Contact Us form followed by a "Thank you for your message, we'll be getting right back to you" page. The Thank You page marks the goal, but the Contact Us form is the first step towards the goal.

Notice that each of the steps leading up to the goal must also be a page. When a goal has steps leading up to it, we refer to the whole thing as a "funnel," so called because many people start at the top and fewer end up coming out at the bottom. Shopping carts make excellent funnels, because they have clearly defined steps through the ordering process (e.g., Product, Shipping, Credit Card, Thank you, etc.).

Funnel analysis ("Did they leave at the shipping page? Where did they go?") is one of the most valuable and powerful analyses you can do.

Why are goals so useful?

Goals are useful because they enable you to measure success on your site -- and failure, too, when people start a funnel and don't finish.

But they also enable you to segment your success and failure in Google Analytics. For example, the Traffic Sources reports all have tabs that enable you to look at Traffic Source by goal achievement. They help you learn what turned into successes -- whether sources or campaigns, or other ways of defining traffic. Knowing this, you'll be able to do more of what works and less of what fails.

There are other reports in Google Analytics that use goals, too. You can segment your on-site search by goals, for example. You can even segment some of your visitor information (browser type and user defined variable) by goal achievement. Note that there is not a report that enables you to look at goal by traffic, or goal by on-site keyword term. It is always the other way around: traffic by goal, keyword term by goal, on-site search term by goal, etc.

How do you create a goal?

To create a goal:

1. Define the goal by walking through the steps yourself. As you do each step, capture the name of each page's URL and paste it into a notepad of some sort.
2. Create the goal in Google Analytics. If you have administrative access, you can sign into Google Analytics, select a profile, click on Edit, choose an unused goal "slot," and click Edit again. Note that you only get four goals in each profile. Paste your URLs into each step, being sure to have your final goal at the top. (The directions will lead you through the process.) For match type, choose "head match" -- you'll be safest with that. You can give the goal a monetary value if you know it, but most people don't know their goal's value, in which case you're better off entering just the numeral "1."
   
   If you have created a new profile to do this work in, you will feel the most secure doing this work. With a new profile, you can make all the mistakes you want, and it won't affect any of your previous work. Creating goals is a learning process, so don't feel afraid to make those mistakes up front.

The hour or two you spend defining your goals and then setting them up in Google Analytics can pay big dividends by yielding clues that show you how to avoid problems and improve your site's conversion rate.

Robbin Steif is CEO of LunaMetrics, a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant. Come to LunaMetric's Google Analytics Training Day in Washington, DC, October 3. Learn how to get insight from all that data, tips and tricks for using GA, how to optimize your AdWords, and even how to set up your Google Analytics.