Google Analytics is a great way to monitor who is on your site, for how long, and what they do while they’re there. Yes, there are other analytics service providers out there but Google can’t be beat for free, robust data.

If you’re like most users, you add the Google Analytics code to your site and visit your Analytics account page from time to time to see who’s visiting. Lots of colorful charts and eye candy, and some helpful stuff too!

But if you’re not using one specific Google Analytics feature, you’re missing out! We’re talking about the "goals" feature.

Setting up goals helps you to track progress through your site (which you could already do, of course) but with an eye to watching specific interactions that your visitors are having on your site.

Let’s say that you want to measure how many people are clicking from your welcome page to your products page then to a specific product then through to purchase. Of course, you could just look at the stats for each page and compare it to purchases, but there is an easier way that gives you some real numbers to work with.

By creating a goal and a funnel, you tell Google what steps you want it to watch for and it measure how many people click from one to the next to the next. So you would notice if lots of people are visiting your welcome page then your products page but few people are going beyond that. (Hint: there’s a problem with your products page). By having your funnel and goals all set up you can make changes and see how traffic is impacted as a result.

Google also lets you assign a dollar value to your goal. So, let’s say that you have a 3 step funnel where people can

(1) view some information,

(2) request information, and

(3) see a thank you page. And you know that by the time people see the thank you page, they are likely to spend $100 in the next year, you can make some good estimates. If you can find a way to get more people to click "submit" when they request information, there’s a likelihood of increased revenue.

Contemporary VA

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