[info]How useful is that new website page you added ?[/info]

There should be goals on your website, because ( obviously ) your website has a purpose.

You need to know if people are reaching a goal so that you can tell if a page is any use.

… Someone lands on the page, then hopefully they take the steps you have in mind and reach the goal ( usually another page ). This is called a conversion.

Google Analytics provides a way to measure how effective a page is in getting you the conversions ( if you don’t yet have a Google Analytics account, then sign up at http://www.google.com/analytics/ ). You’ll need to get a bit of code into the top of your website pages ( if you get stuck & need advice email me at support@spellboundweb.com ).

Then do this …

The website bit

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  • Decide on a goal. For this example, it can be someone leaving you their email address so that they can download a report.
  • Create a page on your website that describes the report and has a form field for them to enter their email address, and a button to click.
  • Create a page where they can get the report.
  • Send them to the report page. When someone submits their email address, then send them to the page where they are given the report.

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The Analytics bit

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  • Log into Google Analytics.
  • Click Admin in the top horizontal menu.
  • Choose the Account, Property and View for the website that has the goal.
  • Click Goals and then the red + NEW GOAL button.
  • In this case, under Goal setup we’d take Engagement > Sign up.
  • Give the goal a description and choose Type: Destination.
  • Enter the destination page, which is the one that people are sent to after the opt-in to pick up the report.
  • Because we’re sending people to the report page from a specific landing page, click the Funnel optional to On and add the initial landing page address as the preceding step. Also, I like to leave Required to No so that I can see the other routes people take onto the goal page.
  • Create the Goal.

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Watching the results

You’ll need to allow a bit of time to accumulate some data, but after that you can see the results in the reporting section of Google Analytics. This option is a top-navigation link :  Home – Reporting – Customisation – Admin.

After you get there, a good place to look first is ( in the left-column options ) Conversions > Funnel Visualisation to see what’s happening.

[info]If you’re interested in learning more about this type of thing, you might be interested in www.marketing102.com.[/info]