Using Goal Conversion Unlocks Useful Information About Your Traffic

Tracking your websites traffic is very important. Knowing where your traffic is coming from, what visitors are doing on your site and which keywords are driving traffic is a key metric. The thing is, most websites we see stop measurement there and that is keeping you from literally some of the most import information you can get, conversion keywords. These are the words people typed into the search engine that eventually bought something, or submitted a lead. It is actually very easy to setup and can be used in a variety of ways.

Goal Conversion Can Guide Your Marketing Efforts

Tracking which words end up getting leads is one way to build your PPC keyword list. If you already know which words are producing leads from organic traffic it makes sense to also bid on those same words in pay per click advertising.

By the same logic, as your website gets more and more long tailed traffic, you can start to break down long search terms and concentrate on commonalities in your link building and content creation efforts. As you notice traffic trends that produce a good amount of leads, you will be able to flex your organic efforts to also include highly converting keywords.

Many people use PPC to discover which words convert to leads and eventually sales. This is a great way to get your answers quickly. That said, if you don’t have the cash or already have a bunch of existing traffic, setting up goal conversions in Google Analytics can provide an equally clear picture.

What is Goal Conversion Anyway How Do I Set It Up?

Goal conversion is as simple as placing a thank you page on your website. Simply put, sometimes people fill out a “contact us” form. A lead such as this is the simplest form of a conversion. It isn’t necessarily a sale, but knowing which keywords are used by people that submit leads shows you who your captive audience is. After they submit the form you need just setup the form such that they are automatically redirected to for example www.yoursite.com/thankyou.html. All you need to do next is setup the conversion in analytics and it will begin tracking the keywords people use that end up filling out that form.

You can have multiple conversion setups on your site and name them each something different. Each conversion will require its own specific thank you page, and other than that you are all set. Maybe you have some form of contact us and also something people can buy right from your website that would represent two kinds of goals, both a lead and a sale.

Setting up goal conversions in your Google Analytics account is quick and easy. After maybe a few hundred conversions you will have a good enough sample to start making decisions. It is, of course, all relative to the amount of traffic you are getting in a day. If you are getting 100 conversions a day, maybe you want 1,000 before you make a decision, maybe 10,000. The longer you wait, the more secure you can feel in the decision you make.