So if you read our little cheat sheet on Google Analytics (if not, you can read it here!), we’re going to jump right in and show you how you can track your conversions. Remember, conversions are some action that your intended audience takes to push them further down the funnel – such as completing a purchase or filling out a form. What Google Analytics allows you to do is track the number of conversions you receive from your website! And it’s super simple too. 🙂
So the first thing we want to do is check to make sure the link we’re going to use to set up the conversion is valid. Basically, we want to check that Google Analytics can measure the traffic flowing through it.
When you first log into your Google Analytics page this is the set up you’ll see. So you want to go the the site you’ll be working with (in our case, it’s Megan’s ol’ blog, Megabites Louisville!). We’re going to click on the highlighted link – the one that is furthest down the chain.
For those of you who haven’t used Google Analytics before – what you’re viewing is all the traffic that is coming to your site. We’re going to turn our attention to the left hand side of the page and scroll down to [Behavior] > [Site Content] > [All Pages].
What you’ll want to do now is scroll down to this section, and pay attention to the search box highlighted here. This is where you’re going to put the site you’re going to track. However, you’re not going to put the entire URL – instead you’re going to put whatever comes after the “/”.
This is the example site we’re going to be tracking. In this case, our conversion is someone filling out this form. If you look at the URL , the highlighted section is what we’re going to fill on the Google Analytics page.
So I’m going to type in /send-us-a-bite/. And ta da! We can see that traffic is coming into this site. STEP ONE COMPLETE!
Now we actually want to set up the Conversion. Look at the top of your screen and click on [Admin] > [Goals] > [Create a Goal].
So now is where you’re going to set up your goal to track your conversions! For this first step fill in the appropriate information. Give your goal a name – such as “Filling out a form” or “Tickets bought”. Something that traces back to the conversion you want to track. Then select the type. Destination – are you measuring your conversion based on how many people are entering a specific page on your site? Duration – are you measuring your conversion based on how long people send on a page on your site? Pages/screens per session – are you measuring your conversion based on how many pages people visit on your site? Event – are you measuring your conversion based on something your customer does on your site – ie. plays a video, clicks a button?
The most common type you’re going to want to pick is Destination.
After you have filled out that page, click [Next Step]!
Now, next to the “Equals to” button, enter the URL you checked earlier! Remember, it’s not the entire URL, just what follows the “/”. Then you want to click [Verify this Goal] to make sure the data you put in is accurate. If Google gives you a conversion rate back, then click [Create Goal]!
You’re now redirected back to the Create a Goal Page and you can check out how your conversions are doing! These are just sample sites – but if you’re getting conversions, you’ll see the highlighted numbers rise!
Track on!
