Setting up goal tracking for your web marketing site is straightforward — if you know the goal page in Google Analytics. Broken or badly configured shopping carts where the last checkout page was viewed aren’t so easy to track. Be sure to test and verify that your goal page really is unique within your site, and that multiple goals don’t share a single page.
In a program like Google Analytics, you identify the goal page to the program, and it does the rest. Here’s how:
Log in to Google Analytics.
Select the website for which you want to track the goal.
At the upper-right of the screen, click Admin.
Click Goals.
Click +Goal under any goal set.
Open a new browser window and go to your website.
Complete the form, checkout, or other process you want to track.
Copy the address of the final page in the process.
It’ll usually be a Thank You–style page.
Paste that address into the Goal URL field.
Name the goal, leave the other settings alone (you find out more about those in Google Analytics Help, later), and then click Finish.
After your goal is configured, Google Analytics reports all goal completions.
You can then compare paid search keywords, organic search keywords, advertising, e-mail campaigns, and most other aspects of site traffic in the context of goal conversion.
You can also use Google Analytics to set a minimum time on site, page views/visit, or a specific JavaScript-fired event.
