Google Analytics: Main goals and their types

It is common to stick to the certain plan by creating a site. All resources, in fact, are unique and each serves a specific purpose, whether it is the sale of goods, services, or a blog resource. With a deeper analysis of the goals, they will lead to one and only one — every site owner wants to receive only the right actions from guests that will help achieve one single main purpose.

Let’s take blogging as an example. The owner of this resource wants to get as many subscribers and readers as possible. The owner of an online platform with an online store achieves an increase in the number of customers viewing the product and the sale of these products. Google Analytics helps resource owners track specific goals.  It is equipped with the main functionality for obtaining information both about the goals themselves and about the actions taken by users, which made it possible to implement the main idea. The options of this program also include tracking traffic that could help the user get to the target site.

Fixing goals in Google Analytics helps to track the correct movements on pages, determines and analyzes the percentage of visitors who have reached the target resource as a percentage. After analyzing the number of visitors who have reached the main goal, we can both conclude about the effectiveness of the project itself and start its modernization in a timely manner for high-quality promotion in the Internet environment.

«The conversion rate is the main metric for Google Analytics by determining the effectiveness of the goals of different resources»

In addition, the so-called “sales funnel” (Conversion Funnel) is not the last in importance in the procedure for establishing an effective project work. Consider an example of an online store site. The main operation to achieve the main goal for the store will be the purchase of products. The action that lead to the achievement of the goal will be the process of placing an order in the shopping cart.

Google Analytics characteristic to consider

Creating a «sales funnel» in order to track and provide information about the achievement of the target point, it must be taken into account that there may be circumstances where the user visits several more web pages before reaching the target page.

For instance, let’s take an average user who is looking for a particular goods store. A query is entered into the search engine, but for some reason, after the search page is displayed, the hypothetical user is distracted and moves away from the computer. After a while, returning, he nevertheless reaches the final goal and goes to the site. In this case, the report will record the second visit, and the Conversion Funnel with the goal funnel will not be displayed. It means, in order to be fully displayed in the Conversion Funnel, it is necessary that the user goes through the goal funnel in one visit.

Using Google Analytics allows you to track the number of website visitors and analyze step by step at which specific step the refusal to complete the main operation occurs. This, in turn, gives an understanding of the main difficulties of completing the operation and helps to rebrand the resource on time based on the needs of the target audience. In most cases, a couple of easy steps to improve the footprint of the problem area will lead the website to reduce performance with the potential to attract more users.

Rebranding will eventually lead to increased sales and, consequently to profits. For example, if a large stream of customers leave the project while viewing and making a request for the delivery of products, it is worth considering changing the service provider. It is obvious that the quality of work does not meet the expectations of customers.

The right marketing move would be:

• provide potential customers with an extended list of transport companies;
• add a pickup option or offer free shipping if certain criteria are met, such as an order for more than the declared amount;

That is, for the effective operation of the resource, it is necessary to achieve the final results. Building a competent organization of the website is necessary for setting goals in Google Analytics. Goal tracking helps in gathering not only averages of users and page views, but also to improve performance — that is, the performed operations.

Main types of goals

The program includes 4 main types of goals with the ability to track and analyze. The relationship with the main goal of a web project determines the type of goal.

Navigate to a web page address after a click

This type of goal requires the user to end up visiting a specific page on a website. As an example, let’s take the Thank You page for the purchase in online store, which the user gets to after making an order.

The time interval of the user’s stay on a particular page

This goal is typical for projects whose main task is to arouse the interest of visitors in the content of the resource. Through the goal, it will be possible to track the specific time interval spent by visitors on viewing the pages of the site, as well as develop a strategy to keep the attention of the target audience for a long time.

Number of pages viewed by a user per visit

The goal is used when you need to convince visitors to open the maximum number of pages on a website. Using this goal makes it possible to track the number of views completed by each individual user.

Events

The event is the most complex of all the previous goals, as the process of measuring user actions takes place. Using this goal, you can accurately determine the amount of time spent by users studying certain products, photos, videos and other site content, determine the amount and frequency of downloading resources, how often transitions to other social sites occur by clicking on advertising links.

Any type of goal can be assigned a goal value (a quantitative worth that shows relevance, worth and importance). This feature gives a visual demonstration of key terms, as well as shows the traffic sources that bring the most value to increase the effectiveness of the resource. That is, the value of the goal provides a demonstration of the practical benefits of the transformation. Goal setting is optional. But from the practice of the owners of web resources, we can conclude that it is useful, since the assessment of the profitability of a project is much easier with the availability of statistical data.

Obtaining information about conversions is possible after setting up Google Analytics and adding the appropriate hich ar necessary for analyzing a specific project. In total, you can add up to 20 targets per analysis. If there is a need to add more, you have to create a new view or disable unnecessary targets before running the analysis.

Summing up:

Choose goals responsibly and only those that are most necessary for the analysis of your project. The correct selection of goals and competent setting is the key to the success and prosperity of any Internet project. Working together, web analytics and goal analysis will give an answer to whether the web project is moving in the right direction, and will help you understand on time when you need to implement website optimization projects.

We at Rescanners can set up all the necessary business goals in your Google Analytics, and we also recommend that you conduct a comprehensive audit of your site and your competitors in order to adjust the strategy in the best possible way and, as a result, invest in promotion as profitably as possible, increasing your sales as quickly and payback as possible.

Find out how we can help your business growth, click here