As with any aspect of a web site, it is easy to get lost in the data. Webmasters can spend hours in their Google Analytics account examining the charts and graphs, but still not come to any conclusions about what is working and what needs to be improved upon. When measuring the success or effectiveness of a site, the term “conversion rate " is often used. The conversion rate is based on the number of users who complete a desired action on the web site, whether it be completing a purchase, submitting a form, or downloading a file. The purpose of this article is to explain how to use Google Analytics as a tactical tool to provide insight into strategic objectives such as increased conversion rates. For beginners, be sure to read “Introduction to Google Analytics " before continuing.

Google Analytics makes it easy to track the number of conversions on your site, as well as the path the user took to convert, through their conversion goals section. A user can set up to 4 goals for any given profile, each with its own funnel path. To track a goal, there should be a specific page on your site that only displays once the desired goal or conversion has taken place, this is most often a confirmation page or “Thank You" page.

Simple site tracking programs allow users to see the total number of times this page was loaded, but this is not a complete picture. Google takes it one step further, and incorporates the path the visitor took to convert. This path can be used to qualify the user and confirm theories about how and why the user converted.

By defining the path that a user is expected to take to get to the goal, the data takes on more meaning. Analytics allows for up to 10 URLs to be included in the funnel and shows where along the way users abandon the goal and where they went. This tool can be very helpful to improve on the usability of a particular page, if users are frequently abandoning the conversion path at the same page there may be a weak call to action or another path that is more prominent on that particular page.

Because sites can have multiple types of goals, Google assigns a numeric value to each. A site may consider someone who requests a company representative to contact them to have a higher sales potential than someone who signs up for the monthly newsletter. The user who signs up for the newsletter has still converted, but the value of this goal would not be as great as the user who requested direct contact.

Determining the value of a goal can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you have a long sales cycle or a broad range of product prices. The important thing to remember is to make them as relative as possible and monitor the conversions, its easy to adjust the value after some data has been collected. This goal value is used to calculate ROI, Average Score, and other metrics within Analytics.