What it is
How does visitor behavior connect with business value? This is something you can begin to understand with goal tracking. Goals in Google Analytics allow you to assign an estimated monetary value to interactions as well as set up funnels to track start-to-finish interactions that lead to value for the business.
Why it matters
Goals are vital as the top level KPI (key performance indicator) and help us track the extent to which users are completing the actions we desire. Future split-testing and analysis will look to moderate goals (i.e. increase the percentage of users booking relative to the current site.) Of course, it is possible to get this information without setting up goals but the beauty of tracking this kind of tracking is that conversion rates for different traffic sources, landing pages, and demographics can be seen at a glance.
What to do
Define a collection of goals that reflect key performance indicators. 20 goals are available for each Google Analytics view.
A view of any page can be set as a goal (for example a confirmation or thank you page), or an event used as the trigger. Simple metrics like a minimum session duration or number of pages viewed can also be goals.
Suggested goals will vary from site to site but may include:
- Mailto click
- Download PDF
- Media Interaction (e.g. video play/watch to end)
- Click to Call
- View Contact Us page
- Submit Contact form
- Start Checkout
- Add Product to Cart
- Sign up to Newsletter
- Social Share
- Initiate Chat
- View Get Directions
- Use Store Finder
- Leave Comment
- Use Tool.
Transactions are usually tracked separately through the Google Analytics Ecommerce system.
