Google Analytics Discoveries

**brian.mark** · #1 (**permalink**) 01-08-2006, 12:45 AM

Recently, I've been paying attention to some different metrics on our parts site. The first is non-us based visitors. Amazingly, we see very little traffic from outside of the US. That's fine, since we currently don't serve any other geographic areas.

Of course, I'm tracking conversion rates at a keyword level. But my real question is this: It tracks 4 goals. Obviously, a sale is going to be our top priority. Does anyone have suggestions for other goals to track? I've been looking at possibly tracking the "Contact Us" page or the "Order Tracking" page. Maybe I could even call a schematic view a goal, but that doesn't really seem like a worthwhile goal to track... I suppose that would tell me if people are finding their way around the site.

I'm looking for suggestions here. Analytics are great, but I'm at a loss for what to track other than sales.

Brian.

kgun · #2 (**permalink**) 01-08-2006, 01:48 PM

Possible to track bahaviour on the site?

1. How long does people stay on the site?
2. Where do they come from?
3. Where do they leave?
4. Why do they leave? Possible to find it out?
5. Wich browser do they use? May indicate something about who use the site.
6. When do the buy? First or second visit? Logging IP addresses, cookies, GeoUrls ...
7. Any important different behaviour (aside from buying) between people that buy and people that leave without.

My proposals.

P. S. Amazon seem to know nearly everything about your behaviour on their site. They must have a good DBMS.

**brian.mark** · #3 (**permalink**) 01-08-2006, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kgun

Possible to track bahaviour on the site?

1. How long does people stay on the site?
2. Where do they come from?
3. Where do they leave?
4. Why do they leave? Possible to find it out?
5. Wich browser do they use? May indicate something about who use the site.
6. When do the buy? First or second visit? Logging IP addresses, cookies, GeoUrls ...
7. Any different behaviour (aside from buying) between people that buy and people that stay.

My proposals.

P. S. Amazon seem to know nearly everything about your behaviour on their site. They must have a good DBMS.

All of those are already handled by Google Analytics. I'm looking for additional goals to set witthin their system.

Oh, and Amazon uses custom built stuff to relate visitors to products. We don't have the development staff nor the database storage capacity to do what they do.

Brian.

kgun · #4 (**permalink**) 01-08-2006, 02:03 PM

All of those are already handled by Google Analytics. I'm looking for additional goals to set witthin their system.

Then ask on Google (related) groups / forums / blogs. I do not know GA, so I can not "help" you more.

**brian.mark** · #5 (**permalink**) 01-08-2006, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kgun

All of those are already handled by Google Analytics. I'm looking for additional goals to set witthin their system.

Then ask on Google (related) groups / forums / blogs. I do not know GA, so I can not "help" you more.

Goal tracking is the same regardless of analytics package, which is why I've asked in an analytics forum. I've just never had any goals in mind other than sales, so I'm looking for suggestions there.

kgun, you don't seem to understand goal tracking, so don't feel obligated to respond to this thread any more.

Brian.

kgun · #6 (**permalink**) 01-09-2006, 03:53 AM

I've just never had any goals in mind other than sales

1. That should be the overall goal.

2. Subgoals may help fulfill that goal.

Example: Security metrics. If your system is not secure, your sales may halt. Example your servers break down and online sales stop for a periode.

Tracking spider / bot behaviour (that steals bandwith).

Intrusion attacks, hacker attacks, port analysis, (you do not want your site stolen)

Other security and vulnerability measures.

Of course, I'm tracking conversion rates at a keyword level. But my real question is this: It tracks 4 goals. Obviously, a sale is going to be our top priority. Does anyone have suggestions for other goals to track? I've been looking at possibly tracking the "Contact Us" page or the "Order Tracking" page.

Tracking the order page, should be very important in my view. How many started orders are cancelled? If that percentage is large, it may indicate that you should improve your order systems.

Every activity on your page that requires user input (and is sales related directly or indirectly) should be tracked for percentage of activity cancelled. High percentage may indicate wrong user interface.

**brian.mark** · #7 (**permalink**) 01-09-2006, 11:49 AM

That's handled already. Goals are the end. There can be up to 10 steps set up to achieve a goal. I have one starting with add to cart and tracking each step to purchased finalized.

I am in the process of setting up a goal now of search and find. Basically, how many users search via our model search, and how many find a schematic based on that search. It should help analyze the effectiveness of our search, which will help with the before and after analysis of our google mini implementation.

Brian.

kgun · #8 (**permalink**) 01-09-2006, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brian.mark

That's handled already. Goals are the end. There can be up to 10 steps set up to achieve a goal. I have one starting with add to cart and tracking each step to purchased finalized.

I am in the process of setting up a goal now of search and find. Basically, how many users search via our model search, and how many find a schematic based on that search. It should help analyze the effectiveness of our search, which will help with the before and after analysis of our google mini implementation.

Brian.

My underlines.

1. Excellent.
2. Possible to try other models, not necessarily on the whole site?

P.S.
Make the order process easy. Every day new users enter the web, not necessarily so many in the USA. My experience, it can not be made easy enough.

texxs · #9 (**permalink**) 01-10-2006, 12:25 AM

For 4 different goals perhaps you could set it up the goals as 4 differnet products or 4 different categories of products. If you have four or more that is. That may hep you determine how your marketing is effecting different products?

JuniorOnline · #10 (**permalink**) 01-10-2006, 03:13 AM

one of the goals I aim for is to get my visitors to follow the route of information provided for a specific product. For example:

how many landed on the into page and went to the second relevant page? how many jumped straight away to prices? and so on. This tells me if my visitors know alot about my product or not? and also if they are very price oriented.

noel_x99 · #11 (**permalink**) 01-10-2006, 11:24 PM

I set PDF downloads as a goal on a few sites. That may or may not be applicable to your site.

I also set the confirmation page on the contact form as a goal. That way I saw who "successfully" contacted us.

The schematic downloads might be interesting - if you have pages pushing users to view the schematics or if you think viewing the schematics is likely to convert the reader to a buyer.

**brian.mark** · #12 (**permalink**) 01-11-2006, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noel_x99

I set PDF downloads as a goal on a few sites. That may or may not be applicable to your site.

I also set the confirmation page on the contact form as a goal. That way I saw who "successfully" contacted us.

The schematic downloads might be interesting - if you have pages pushing users to view the schematics or if you think viewing the schematics is likely to convert the reader to a buyer.

Actually, they're schematic views that I would be collecting data on. Since we sell parts off of the schematic view pages, it seems like a very important step.

You can see an example here.

I'm still working on getting that goal totally set up and working like I want, but it seems worthy of setting a goal. The more I consider it, the better it seems.

Brian.