Google Analytics is a free tool that is used to analyze your business’s data. You can use goals in Google Analytics to measure how often people do certain things. Goals measure how well and if your business is working towards its objectives. Google Analytics is so useful to business owners because all of the various sets of data that you might have can be found all in one place. Therefore, it is a very convenient tool to use because you don’t have to look at various tools to find all of your data.
In this article, you will learn how goals in Google Analytics work, the four main types of goals, how to set up your goals, and what a Secondary Dimension in Google Analytics is.
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Setting Up Goals in Google Analytics
Setting up goals in Google Analytics is a simple process. Before learning how to set up your goals, you should have a clear understanding of how goals work and the four main types of goals available. Once you completely understand the impact and importance of creating goals in Google Analytics, then, you can move forward with actually setting up the goals.
How Do Google Analytics Goals Work?
You can apply Google Analytics goals to specific pages or screens that people might visit, how many pages or screens that people visit every time they visit your website or app, how much time they spend looking at your website or app, and what actions they might take as a result of looking at your website or app. Every goal that you set has a monetary value. This means that you can see how much each goal is worth to your company. This feature is helpful because you can see what is doing well on your site versus what needs some work.
As a result, you can choose to focus on the higher value goals since those goals are actually helping your business grow versus the lower value goals. When someone visits your website or app and they do one of the actions that you listed as a goal, Google Analytics will save that action as a conversion. That conversion is then used to create many different reports for you to look at and analyze.
4 Main Types of Goals in Google Analytics
Next, we will go over the four main types of goals in Google Analytics.
Destination Goals
Destination goals allow you to track users’ activities if they go to a specific page on your website. In other words, destination goals rely on specific locations to track data. The way it works is quite simple. All you have to do is copy and paste the URL to that specific page into your Google Analytics to set it as a goal.
Then, Google Analytics will track that specific page as a conversion for whenever someone visits that page. Destination goals are great for pages that allow users to sign up for a newsletter or subscribe to emails. For example, say you have a thank you page for people who do choose to sign up for the newsletter or subscribe to emails.
By creating a destination goal for that page, you can see how many people chose to sign up and subscribe based on the number of views the thank you page receives. Now that you see why destination goals are so useful, let’s look at how to actually set up your own destination goal. First, select the URL and assign a monetary value to the conversion. Choosing a monetary value is perfect for eCommerce business owners who want to be able to track the number of purchases. Once you verify your destination goal, make sure to click the “Save” button.
Duration Goals
Duration goals allow you to see how much time people are spending visiting your website. These kinds of goals are useful for tracking user engagement. For example, through duration goals, you can see how many people actually stay on your site for more than a few minutes, read your content, and engage in various activities. While setting you your specific duration goal, you can set the exact time limit you want to track. If you are not sure how many minutes, seconds, or hours you should set the goal at, look at the average time each person spends on the website. From there, you can choose a realistic time limit.
A great tip on making people want to keep looking at your website, which will increase user engagement and the amount of time people spend on the website, is to create interesting content. If you struggle with creating content that draws people into your website, you can always work with companies, like SEO Design Chicago, that will help you create unique and effective content.
Pages/Screens per Session Goals
These kinds of goals are similar to duration goals. Pages/screens per session goals allow you to measure user engagement. Unlike duration goals which focus on how much time a person spends on the website, pages/screens per session goals focus on how many pages someone visits before they exit the website. Pages/screens per session goals are helpful to improve the overall performance of your website. Obviously, you want people to visit as many pages as possible before leaving the website. By setting various goals, you can see what areas your site needs to improve upon. While setting up this type of goal, you can set how many pages or screens a user must visit before Google Analytics counts it as a conversion. For example, if you set the number at over 5 pages or screens, then you are tracking the more engaged users.
Event Goals
Event goals allow you to track the various actions that visitors to your site perform. These goals are helpful if you want to find out how many people play a video, click a link, fill out a form, or download a file. These actions are not automatically tracked in Google Analytics which is why you have to create event goals.
How to Set Up Goals in Google Analytics
Now that you know the basics of how goals work and the four main types of goals, it’s time to learn how to actually set up goals in Google Analytics.
Step 1
Create your Google Analytics account if you do not have one already. Sign in to your Google Analytics account. Then, choose the website that you want to create a goal for.
Step 2
On the left-hand side, click the “Admin” button. Then, in the “View” column, click the “Goals” button.
Step 3
Click the “+New Goal” button to create a new goal.
Step 4
Follow the instructions on the screen to create the new goal. It will tell you to type in the description and details of the goal. You will also pick the appropriate goal type. As explained earlier, the four types of goals in Google Analytics are destination, duration, pages/screens per session, and event goals.
What is a Secondary Dimension in Google Analytics?
Secondary dimensions are a helpful feature in Google Analytics. A secondary dimension allows you to define a primary dimension and view the data through a secondary dimension that is in the same table. In other words, primary dimensions are the main focus of the report. So, whatever you choose on the navigation menu is considered a primary dimension.
Essentially, a secondary dimension is just another piece that you can choose to give you a more detailed report of data. For example, secondary dimensions can help you better understand keywords. Keywords are very important for your business because they help increase website traffic. Therefore, it is important that you understand the importance of keywords. Luckily, secondary dimensions can do that for you. Basically, secondary dimensions can help you figure out the traffic source of keywords. Once you have data concerning keywords, you can adjust your business strategy to improve your keyword search results. Overall, secondary dimensions will help give you an overall better understanding of your data from Google Analytics.
How to Use the Secondary Dimension
Adding a secondary dimension in Google Analytics is a pretty simple and easy process. How to use the secondary dimension feature in Google analytics is so easy and short to do that it only takes two clicks to complete the action. In the reporting tab, look at one standard report. Then, all you need to do is click the “Secondary Dimension” drop down tab. Then, choose the dimension that you want to compare to the default dimension. There aren’t many steps to use the secondary dimension feature, so there should be nothing stopping you from taking advantage of that useful tool.
Now that you know how Google Analytics goals work, the functions of the four different goal categories, how to set up your goals, and how to use the secondary dimension feature to your advantage, create your Google Analytics account today. After reading this informative article, you have seen the many benefits of using goals and the secondary dimension tool in Google Analytics, so now it’s time to apply those useful tools to your business today.
Reach out to SEO Design Chicago today if you need help getting started on your Google Analytics journey.
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