Welcome to Day 19 of the Internet Marketing Makeover (#31DIMM for short)!
Throughout this process, we’ve optimized our site for popular keywords, created content, set up a bookmarking process for our content and implemented a lead generation funnel.
The end goal is, of course, to make some money.
And we need to know where are conversions are coming from to do so.
Today we’ll start the process of tracking where our visitors come from and which of those convert to email subscribers or product buyers so we can better optimize our site for those profitable visitors.
DAY 19 OBJECTIVE
Implement goal tracking in Google Analytics.
DAY 19 ASSIGNMENT
You previously installed Google Analytics on your domains, and today we’ll use a feature called “Goal Tracking” to find out which keywords and referring sites send us the best traffic.
You’ll log into you Analytics account and click “Edit” next to the site you want to track a goal for.
From the “Edit” screen you’ll see a section for “Goals” – click “Add Goal”.
You’ll see the following on the “Add Goal” screen, I’ll walk you through each step:
Give your “Goal” a name. In this case, I’m tracking new email subscribers, so that’s what I called it. You might track a new product sale.- Set the Goal to “Active.”
- Goal Position – it’s your first, so leave it at 1.
- Goal Type -Select URL Destination.
- Match Type – Head Match
- Goal URL – This should be the URL of the place people reach when the goal is completed. It might be your “Thank You” page people come to after buying a product. In my case, I created a “Thanks for Subscribing” page that people are sent to after being added to my email list and used that as the goal URL.
- Case Sensitive – Leave unchecked
- Goal Value – I set it at $1 for a new subscriber, since there’s no actual money being exchanged it doesn’t matter. If you’re selling a product you would enter in the cost of the product that you earn every time someone buys.
- SAVE GOAL!
Now you’ve got a Goal!
But it’s the reports you get once you have a goal that are really cool.
After your goal has been running for a bit, go to the “View Reports” section in Analytics to see how your goal is doing.
Go to “Traffic Sources” and select “Referring Sites.” From there you’ll get a chart of all the sites that have referred traffic to your site. But what’s cooler is that now you have a goal – and you can see which of those referring sites actually convert visitors! Click the “Goal Set 1″ link right under the Referring Visitors chart and you’ll see how each of your referring sites converts visitors into your new goal!
Another place to look is in “Traffic Sources” and then “Keywords.” From here, click on “Goal Set 1″ again and you can see which individual keywords that brought people to your site convert highly.
Those that you don’t rank #1 for but that bring you high Goal conversions are the keywords you want to focus your link building efforts on, as they give you more bang for your buck.
This kind of information just makes a marketer GIDDY! You know exactly where your best customers/subscribers are coming from and you can optimize for them, ramp up your efforts in that area and cater to those profitable traffic sources even more. It’s not a shot in the dark anymore (”I think this keyword will convert“) but a laser targeted marketing effort where you know exactly where your money is coming from so you can go get more!
The intelligence you’ll get from implementing Goals in your marketing will sometimes surprise you, but it will always show you where you should be focusing your efforts. Enjoy the data you’ll get and capitalize on it!
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I like how you talk about Goal Tracking, but I think a good way to improve the article would be also to talk about visitor management. Set up a funnel in Google Analytics and see how far visitors get through the action process (sign up or final sale). If any part of that chain has a high bounce rate, focus on fixing the usability of that step. This may include reducing information on page or fields to fill out.
@Sean – Yeah, of course – given the constraints of this 30 day course, it’s impossible to fully explain and utilize all the tools available. Those interested can and should look at their whole funnel, and Google provides great instructions on doing so.