Announcing a Premium Webinar on Local SEO and Google Analytics for Search, G-Squared and The Marketing Spot Team Up

February 1, 2011 By Glenn Gabe

When speaking with local businesses about digital marketing, there are two topics that consistently come up (and for good reason). First, with the importance of SEO for generating new local business, companies want to know how to rank highly in local search (and across engines). Strong local rankings can often lead to increased exposure, more targeted traffic, and more revenue. Second, both small and large businesses want to know how to analyze the impact of their online marketing efforts, which can be a daunting experience if you don’t understand the foundational aspects of tracking and analytics.

So, based on the importance of these two topics, I’m happy to announce that I’ve partnered with Jay Ehret of The Marketing Spot to offer a premium webinar covering Local SEO and Google Analytics for Search. Jay is a small business marketing expert and has been helping companies expand their businesses for the past 15 years. He’s a really smart guy, a savvy small business marketer, and I’m excited to be working with him on this webinar. The 90 minute webinar is on February 24th at 1PM ET and you can register now via EventBrite (by using the link listed above).

Google Analytics for Search
My section of the webinar will cover Google Analytics, the powerful (yet free) web analytics package from Google. If you’ve read my blog before, then you know how important I believe tracking your digital marketing efforts is. Without a robust tracking solution in place, you will have no way of understanding the true ROI of your efforts. And if you can’t optimize your campaigns based on performance, you will essentially be flying blind. Please don’t fly blind… there’s no reason to, and it’s why I write extensively about web analytics on my blog, my Search Engine Journal column, and my contributions on other industry blogs.

During the webinar, I will cover a number of important topics, including:

An introduction to Google Analytics and the importance of tracking your digital marketing efforts.
How to analyze and understand your current SEO performance.
How to access important Search-related reports in Google Analytics in order to better analyze search engines, keywords, landing pages from organic search, etc.
How to filter both paid and organic search to better analyze your Search efforts.
How to easily track your Google AdWords campaigns in Google Analytics.
An introduction to the (new) Google AdWords reporting in Google Analytics.
How to use Campaign Tracking to identify campaign performance within Google Analytics.
An introduction to Conversion Goals and Events, along with how to set them up for your own business.

As I mentioned above, Jay Ehret from The Marketing Spot will be covering Local SEO with a focus on Google Place Pages. His section of the webinar will cover:

Website optimization for Local Search.
An introduction to Google Place Pages and why they are critically important for local search.
How to optimize your Place Page.
Local reviews and how they can help your business.
Understanding outside influences to local search, and what you need to do in order to benefit from them (including data sources, inbound links, etc.)

Pricing, Downloads, and Bonuses – What You’ll Get With The Webinar
Jay and I want to make sure that webinar attendees are in good hands both during the webinar and after. We know that there will be a lot of information shared, along with several tactical lessons included during the 90 minute session. With that in mind, we’ve decided to include the following items with registration:

A downloadable video of the 90 minute webinar.
A comprehensive workbook with step-by-step instructions based on the lessons provided in the webinar.
Bonus 1: A free copy of my online marketing ebook “Taking Control of Your Online Marketing”, a $50 value.
Bonus 2: One month free membership to Jay Ehret’s new membership site: The Entrepreneur’s Edge, an archive of marketing resources and tutorials for small business owners, a $69 value.

Webinar Pricing:
The webinar is $79 and you can register now by visiting our registration page on EventBrite.
Early Registration Discount Code: As part of the kickoff, we are offering a special discount code for early registrations. If you register by Sunday, February 13th, you will receive a 30% discount. This means you’ll get access to the premium 90 minute webinar and all of the extras listed above for only $55.30. Yes, that’s a strange total price, but still an incredible value. :)

Webinar Registration:
So don’t hesitate, register for the webinar today:
Use the following discount code to receive 30% off: GSQi_13
Register for the webinar: Local SEO and Google Analytics Webinar

I look forward to seeing you on the 24th!

How To Use Matched Search Query Reports in Google Analytics to Improve Your AdWords Campaigns

July 7, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Last month, Google Analytics released a new version of AdWords reporting to all accounts. This was much-needed and Google did a great job with adding the new reporting functionality. There are some great additions to the reporting that can really save you a lot of time, while also helping you enhance your current AdWords campaigns. One of the new enhancements is the ability to dimension your AdWords reports by a number of options, including Matched Search Query. Viewing matched search queries essentially lets you see the actual keyword that someone entered in Google that triggered your ad. To clarify, it’s the query that someone entered that mapped to one of the keywords you are bidding on.

For some people new to paid search, this can be an eye-opening report to view. You basically get to see the actual keywords that are triggering your ads and generating click-through. A quick example would be if you are bidding on the keyword Callaway golf clubs and you see a Matched Search Query of where can I buy used Callaway golf clubs. Based on what you find in the Matched Search Query reporting, you might choose to make several modifications to your campaigns and ad groups. I’ll explain more about those modifications soon, but viewing this data can definitely help you enhance your campaigns. Let’s start by finding the reports in Google Analytics (via the new reporting that was released last month).

Side Note: Prior to the new AdWords reporting, you could always run a Search Query Performance Report in AdWords to view your keyword data. That said, there are many people that didn’t even know the report was available (since it was buried in the reporting tab within an AdWords account). You can also find this keyword information directly through the AdWords interface by clicking the “See Search Terms” button within a specific ad group. But, you won’t be able to analyze the various site performance metrics that are available in Google Analytics (including conversion metrics.)

Finding the Matched Search Query Report
When accessing your reporting in Google Analytics, you can click the Traffic Sources tab on the left side of the interface and then the AdWords tab (which has a “beta” label right now).

AdWords New Reporting in Google Analytics

Once you click the AdWords tab, you can click the Campaigns link to view a list of your AdWords campaigns. After you click a campaign, you will see the ad groups that are part of that campaign. Clicking through an ad group will show you the keywords that are part of that ad group. These are the keywords you are bidding on, and not the raw queries that are triggering your ads. There’s a big difference. You will see two dimension dropdowns in this view. The first dropdown will have “Keyword” selected already. The second dropdown is where you can further dimension your reporting. If you click that second dropdown, you will see “Matched Search Query” in the list. If you select that option, then Google Analytics will show you all of the raw queries that matched the keywords you are bidding on.

At this point, you should probably take some time and view the list of raw queries for the ad group at hand. My guess is that you will be surprised by some of the keywords that led to click-throughs… You might also be interested in reviewing the variations of keywords that led to click-through (the long tail keywords that are triggering your ads). Both topics will be covered below and can definitely help you enhance your campaigns.

Finding Negatives Via Matched Search Query
Many experienced search marketers already know the power of negative keywords. A thorough and detailed negative keyword list can greatly improve the performance of your campaigns. If you are unfamiliar with negatives, a negative keyword will tell Google not to show your ad if that keyword is part of the query. This is extremely useful, especially in a Quality Score-driven world.

For example, let’s review the query I used above (where can I buy used Callaway golf clubs). If you remember, the keyword you were bidding on was actually Callaway golf clubs, and not the longer tail keyword that triggered your ad. Now, let’s say you don’t sell used Callaway golf clubs. You only sell brand new sets. In this situation, you can use the negative keyword used to keep Google from showing your ad when someone uses that word in their query. For example, the following queries would not trigger your ad, “buy used Callaway golf clubs”, “where can I find used Callaway golf clubs”, etc. Since the word used is part of the query, Google should not show your ads.

Quality Score and Wasted Clicks
Finding negative keywords helps you on several levels. First and foremost, it saves you money. If you don’t sell used Callaway golf clubs, then people searching for used Callaway golf clubs will never buy from you. Every click that comes through from people searching for used golf clubs will be wasting your budget. So, using a thorough list of negative keywords saves you money.

In addition to saving wasted clicks, using negative keywords can help your Quality Score. If you’re not familiar with the concept, Google actually determines a Quality Score for each of your keywords. Your Quality Score is directly tied to the performance of your keywords (with a heavy focus on click through rate). There are several factors involved with determining Quality Score, including how relevant your keywords are to your ad text and the user’s query, the quality of your landing page, etc. Each keyword in your ad group is given a Quality Score from 1-10. In general, a higher quality score will yield ads that trigger in a higher position and at a lower cost per click. The lower your Quality Score and your ads will show up in lower positions and will cost you more per click.

Quality Score in Google AdWords

As I explained above, Quality Score is heavily impacted by click through rate. So, if your ads are showing up for queries that aren’t targeted (like if you don’t sell used Callaway golf clubs), then you run the risk of negatively impacting your Quality Score. And, if you negatively impact your Quality Score, you might have to pay more per click. So, using negative keywords to make sure your ads don’t show up for untargeted searches is very important. One way to find negative keywords is by analyzing matched search queries. As you scan the list of matched search queries, you will probably come across several words that can be used as negatives. It’s somewhat time-consuming to do this, but can pay off huge dividends in paid search.

For example, if your Callaway ads say “New Calloway Golf Clubs”, then people searching for used clubs will probably never click through to your site. This will lower your click through rate, which will lower your Quality Score. If you lower your Quality Score, then it could impact your campaign performance by increasing your cost per click (CPC) and lowering your return on investment (ROI). You want to avoid this situation, if possible.

I recommend running the report the way I explained above and then exporting that report as a csv for Excel file. Then you can work in Excel to analyze the data, pick and choose your negative keywords, and create a final list that can be uploaded to your AdWords account. I recommend starting with your core campaigns and ad groups, with the ultimate goal of completing this process for all of your active ad groups.

Quick Tip: Make sure you have the right timeframe selected in Google Analytics in order to view a good number of matched search queries. For example, if you only select one or two weeks, you might not have enough data in your matched search query reporting. If you haven’t run this report yet, then definitely try and view a few months of data, if possible.

Enhance Your Keyword List With Longer Tail Keywords
You can also use Matched Search Query reporting to find new keywords for your ad groups. For example, you might find dozens of quality keywords (or more) matching a single, broader keyword that you are bidding on. If you continually analyze matched search queries, then you can find longer tail keywords that you can add to your campaigns. These new keywords may very well be less expensive than the broader keywords you were originally targeting. It’s not uncommon to add numerous keywords to your campaigns on a regular basis by checking matched search queries.

As a simple example, let’s say you were bidding on a broad keyword like LCD HDTV. When you run matched search queries, you might find a long list of keywords that matched your broad keyword. You might find manufacturer names, model numbers, colors, features, etc. Depending on your specific business, you might want to include these keywords in your ads groups. You might even find ideas for creating new ad groups. In paid search, you typically want to create tightly-focused ad groups with highly-relevant ads. Your ad text could then address the specific queries that people are entering versus being more generic. Remember, Quality Score is heavily impacted by click through rate. High quality ads that are extremely relevant to searches help gain higher click-through. This can increase your Quality Score, which can lower your cost per click.

Similar to what I listed above in the section about negatives, I recommend exporting your matched search queries as a csv for Excel file. Then you can work in Excel to analyze and break down the reports. Once you have a new list of keywords, you can upload them to your AdWords account. Adding these new keywords can help you target less expensive, longer tail queries, which can help boost the ROI of your campaigns.

New AdWords Reporting = New Ways to Enhance Your Campaigns
As you can see, Matched Search Query reporting in Google Analytics can be a powerful way to enhance your campaigns. It’s a relatively simple way to help you find the right negatives for your ad groups, while also helping you find more targeted keywords to run. This can help increase your Quality Score, lower your CPC, and increase your ROI in paid search. And that’s a pretty darn good combination. So go ahead and run the reports. You won’t be disappointed.

How To Track Elapsed Time (or Time to Complete) in Google Analytics Using TimeTracker [TUTORIAL]

June 2, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Tracking elapsed time in Google Analytics via Time Tracker Over the past few years, conversion optimization has become an incredibly important service that I provide for my clients. Sometimes in order to improve conversion, there are times that I need to analyze a multi-step process that occurs on one page. A good example of this would be an elaborate form that visitors need to fill out (without linking to additional pages). Or, I might be tracking a multi-step process that spans several pages, but want to know more about each specific step. If you run into situations like these, then it might not be sufficient to simply track how many people converted. You might want to analyze how long it’s taking for those visitors to complete a certain process (in order to identify obstacles along the way). This is when using tracking functionality like TimeTracker in Google Analytics can come in very handy.

What is TimeTracker in Google Analytics?
TimeTracker extends event tracking in Google Analytics and enables you to track elapsed time, or Time to Complete. I’ve found that many people aren’t familiar with TimeTracker, don’t use it much, or don’t know how to properly set it up. So, I’ve decided to write this tutorial to walk you step by step through the process of setting it up. Then I’ll quickly show you how you can check the event tracking reporting for TimeTracker in Google Analytics.

For our purposes, TimeTracker will enable us to trigger the start of a process (like clicking a button, entering text, or selecting a checkbox). We will start a timer at that point. Then it enables you to trigger the end of that process (again by some action taken by the user). At the end of the process, we will stop the timer, record the elapsed time, and then communicate with Google Analytics to track the result as an event (via Event Tracking).

Let’s get started. Open up your html editor of choice and get ready to use TimeTracker.

1. Define What You Are Going to Track
For this tutorial, I’m going to keep the process and form simple so you can clearly understand how to use TimeTracker. I’ll show you how to start the timer with the first click of a form element and then how to stop the timer and send the data to Google Analytics when users click the submit button. Again, this will be a basic setup so you can easily follow along. You will probably want to write some custom logic for your own projects, based on the specific process you are going to track.

2. Adding The Form Elements
We’ll start by adding a simple html form to your webpage. In your form, add a group of radio buttons to enable users to select their age. Since this is the first form element, we’ll start the timer via TimeTracker when someone clicks a radio button. After adding the radio buttons, you can add several additional form elements, based on what you need to track. I won’t cover how to add the additional form elements, since they don’t impact TimeTracker. Basically, they can be standard html form elements (text boxes, dropdowns, checkboxes, etc.) At the end of our form, we’ll add a submit button for users to complete the process. The submit button will first stop the timer and then send the data to Google Analytics via Event Tracking. We’ll complete this via a custom JavaScript function that we’ll write later in the tutorial. Don’t worry, it’s a simple JavaScript function. :)

Radio Buttons Will Start Our Timer:

First, add your form, the radio buttons, and your submit button: We will add the TimeTracker code later in the tutorial.



    	18-24

        25-40

3. Download the JavaScript (or link to it from your code)
The TimeTracker JavaScript code can be found on the Google Code page for extending event tracking. You can either link to that code directly from your page or you can include the code in your own JavaScript file. I included the code in my own file by copying and pasting the JavaScript code into a new text file and saving it locally as “time-tracker.js”. Note, you will also need your typical Google Analytics snippet included in the page.

Click the TimeTracker() Title to Access the JavaScript Code:

4. Add the JavaScript code to your webpage
In order to add the code to your webpage, simply include the following line of code in the head of your html document.

Note, make sure you enter the actual location of the JavaScript file on your server and that you reference the correct file name. Replace “yourdomain.com” with your own domain.

5. Create Your TimeTracker Object
You will need to create a TimeTracker object in your JavaScript code, which we will end up calling from our form elements in order to start and stop the timer. The code will also send the data to Google Analytics (via Event Tracking). Add the following code below the code you entered earlier (where you referenced the TimeTracker JavaScript file).

6. Customize the JavaScript (Histogram for Time Intervals)
There is an optional array you can specify when you create the TimeTrakcer object. It’s called setHistogramBuckets() and it enables you to set the time intervals that get passed to Google Analytics (when the event is sent and tracked via Google Analytics). For example, you can specify the time intervals (the buckets of time) that Google Analytics will drop users into (based on how long they spent completing the process you are tracking). If you leave this empty, TimeTrakcer has default time intervals (which might not fit well, given your specific form or process).

The default buckets will start at 100 milliseconds and go up to 5000 milliseconds. In case you are wondering, there are 1000 milliseconds in one second. I highly recommend setting the time intervals, based on the specific process you are tracking. For example, if you think the process could take up to three minutes, then you would set up intervals leading up to three minutes. Three minutes is 180 seconds, or 180,000 milliseconds. For our purposes, we’ll set six intervals starting at one second and that go up to 25 seconds. If it takes someone more than 25 seconds, you’ll see it recorded as 25000+ in your reporting (so they won’t be left out). Here is the code you should add right below the code you added above (where you created your TimeTracker object). Note, add this code within the script tags you already coded earlier.

Specify your own time intervals via the setHistogramBuckets() function:

timeTracker._setHistogramBuckets([1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, 15000, 25000]);

The final block of code should look like this:

7. Add JavaScript to Start Your Timer
Now that you have your form elements in place and you’ve included the necessary JavaScript code, you’re ready to start your timer. In the first form element (the radio button), add a call to TimeTracker to start the timer.

Now here is the code for the JavaScript function called completeTracker(). Add this code to the head of your html document:

function completeTracker() { timeTracker._recordEndTime(); timeTracker._track(pageTracker, undefined, 'Lead From Page X'); }

The code explained:
The first line simply stops recording the time. The second line sends the data to Google Analytics via event tracking. The first parameter is your pageTracker object, which is created via your standard Google Analytics code snippet. The second parameter is optional and will enable you to customize the category of the event in your reporting. Categories are essentially the top-level name of an event in your reporting. The third parameter is also optional and will enable you to customize the label that is reported in event tracking. I added a label called “Lead From Page X”, so you could identify where the event was triggered. You would obviously want to replace X with the actual page name that contained your form. You can read my post about Event Tracking in Google Analytics to learn more about the various parameters involved with tracking events.

9. Upload and Test
When you upload your files, make sure you include both the html file and the external JavaScript file. Also, make sure you are referencing the external JavaScript file correctly or your code will not work. For example, did you upload the JavaScript file to the same directory, a code-only directory, etc? Make any necessary changes in your html code if the JavaScript file isn’t placed in the same directory as the webpage containing your form. If you are all set, then click away. I recommend going through the form numerous times from separate browsers and separate systems. Remember, the first radio button triggers the timer and the submit button stops the timer and then passes the data to Google Analytics via event tracking.

10. Wait and Check Reporting
You will probably need to wait a few hours before you can view the reporting in Google Analytics. After which, you can access the Content tab and then click “Event Tracking”. If you click the Categories tab, you should see a TimeTracker category. If you click that category, you should see the various times listed. These are the time intervals that we set using setHistogramBuckets(). If you click each time interval, you will see the specific form or page that triggered the event. For our purposes, all the events were triggered via one form and page. However, that might not be the case if you have multiple forms running on your site.

TimeTracker Events in Google Analytics:

Congratulations! You have just successfully tracked elapsed time (or Time to Complete) in Google Analytics. My hope is that you’re thinking of many more ways to use this functionality in your own projects. I recommend brainstorming several ideas for using TimeTracker to see the potential impact on conversion. I would start small and then increase the complexity of each project as you get more comfortable. As you can see, it’s relatively easy to set up and can provide insight into how long it takes visitors to complete certain processes on your site.

By the way, it just took you 10:42 to complete this tutorial. Just kidding. :)

A Baker’s Dozen: A Quick Update on Kati’s Kupcakes, The Winner of The Search a Small Business Holiday Giveaway [PODCAST]

April 25, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

If you’re a frequent reader of my blog, then you probably remember the Search a Small Business Holiday Giveaway I launched this past December. The purpose of the contest was to give an ultra-small business in New Jersey a free online marketing audit, which would produce plan for enhancing the company’s digital strategies.

I launched the contest because it didn’t seem fair that many small businesses lack the resources or budgets to tackle online marketing the right way. Many SMB’s move at light speed to keep their businesses running and simply don’t have time to keep up on the latest strategies and tactics. I opened the contest to any small business in NJ with less than ten employees (what I categorized as an ultra-small business).

The winner of the contest was Kati Angelini and she owns Kati’s Kupcakes, a gourmet cupcake business in Moorestown, NJ. Kati’s Kupcakes creates specialty cupcakes, cupcake towers, wedding cupcakes, etc. When I first spoke to Kati after announcing the winner, I could tell right away that she was passionate about her business, and was eager to learn more about SEO, Local Search, SEM, Web Analytics, etc. It also became apparent to me that Kati represented the classic case of someone that had serious skills and was extremely talented, but lacked the exposure she needed to rapidly grow her business. So, after my initial conference call with her, I got started on analyzing her business, her site, her current marketing efforts, etc.

What I Found and How I Helped (And We’re Not Done Yet…)
During my audit, I began to analyze Kati’s website, her presence in Local Search, her rankings in Natural Search, her tracking capabilities, etc. It didn’t take long to understand the path we needed to go down. In a nutshell, the content management system (CMS) Kati was using to run her website was wreaking havoc on her efforts. The website had a rudimentary design, it was riddled with technical problems, her content wasn’t optimized (at all), she had no presence in local search, and lacked the ability to quickly add new content or blog posts. For a local small business, the combination I listed above was causing serious problems for gaining exposure, rankings, quality visitors, and customers. When you boil it down, Kati needed to show up when people were searching for her services. At the time, she simply wasn’t.

The Marketing Spot with Jay Ehret
When I launched the holiday giveaway, Jay Ehret from The Marketing Spot reached out to me to learn more about the contest. In case you don’t know Jay, he focuses heavily on small business marketing and branding and he also runs a podcast called Power to the Small Business. Jay learned about the contest via Twitter (since we have been following each other for some time now). Jay recently invited me to be on his podcast to speak about the contest, the changes we implemented for Kati, and the results from our initial efforts. Both Kati and I were on the call and we had a great conversation with Jay about the project. The podcast launched today and you can listen to it now by visiting the blog post (listed below) or by downloading the podcast via iTunes.

Listen to the Podcast About Kati’s Kupcakes:
Local SEO Clinic: Improving Traffic, Improving Business

Kati’s Kupcakes: Highlights From Our Initial Efforts
Although we are only a few months in, there have been some great improvements marketing-wise. Kati still has a long way to go, but our initial efforts are definitely paying off. Again, you can listen to the podcast to learn more (it’s 30 minutes long). Here are some highlights from the project and I’m eager to keep helping Kati grow her business. By the way, you can hear Kati’s view of the projects on the podcast (including how they have impacted her business.)

I performed a thorough SEO technical audit, which revealed a number of technical issues impacting her performance in Natural Search. There were also a number of content optimization problems on the site (to say the least). The deck was 30 slides long…
We moved Kati’s website from a problematic content management system (CMS) to WordPress, which helped fix a number of technical problems inhibiting her efforts (usability, SEO, blogging, domain strategy, etc.)
Kati’s indexation (the number of pages indexed by the search engines) has increased from 12 unoptimized pages to 136 pages.
I developed a local search strategy for Kati’s Kupcakes in order for the business to show up for local searches. This included making a number of changes and additions across several websites and databases.
I started training Kati on best practices for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Kati is the person that would be creating new pages, new blog posts, etc. and needed to understand how to properly optimize those pages on her site. This took the form of multiple one hour training sessions (and the training is on-going).
I explained the power of the long tail of SEO, as well as how to target it. The long tail is incredibly powerful and businesses should avoid the long tail at their own peril. A bit dramatic? Sure, but definitely true. :)
Kati’s original website ranked for almost no target keywords. Since March 1^st, 622 keywords have led visitors to Kati’s website, 561 of those keywords were unbranded terms (not someone simply searching for Kati’s Kupcakes), and 128 of those keywords included a local qualifier. For example, using a town, zipcode, or state along with target keywords. Down the line, I believe that Kati’s website can rank for thousands of keywords, but 622 is a great start (and a huge improvement.)
We added Google Analytics for tracking site performance, which enables Kati to view granular reporting across traffic sources, campaigns, keywords, etc. I am going to help Kati develop an analytics strategy, including identifying conversions and events to track, so she can quickly and efficiently identify which efforts are paying off for her business.

A Good Start, But There’s Still A Lot To Do:
Although we have made a lot of changes and Kati’s business is seeing a nice impact, we still have some things to do marketing-wise. For example, there are several content optimization projects we need to perform on the site. I also want to help Kati learn more about paid search and understand how it can supplement organic search. I think Kati can have a stronger integration with Facebook and Twitter, and possibly start to use location-based services like FourSquare or Gowalla. And I want to keep training Kati on SEO best practices so she feels comfortable with making changes that will help her organic search efforts. In addition, I mentioned that I’ll be helping Kati develop an analytics strategy. That’s probably our next major step.

So, if you are interested in hearing more about the contest and the projects we tackled, head over to the Marketing Spot and listen to the podcast. Again, it’s about 30 minutes long, but contains some good nuggets of information for small businesses. Heck, put in on your iPod and listen to it during your next workout. :)

Conversion Goals and Events in Google Analytics: What’s The Difference and When To Use Them

April 19, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Conversion Goals and Events in Google Analytics As online marketing evolves, more and more companies are realizing the power of effectively tracking their marketing efforts via web analytics. I’m finding myself doing a lot more analytics strategy work for clients and I absolutely love it (on multiple levels). I’ve worked with a wide range of web analytics packages since 1995 and it’s amazing to see how the industry and technologies have progressed.

Assisting companies with Web Analytics is a core service of mine and I believe it’s critically important for understanding how your marketing efforts are impacting (or not impacting) your business. When I’m developing strategies for clients, I always begin by identifying various KPI’s for the site at hand. Then I develop a plan for tracking those KPI’s via a number of conversion goals and events. After I complete this process and present my plan, it’s not long before I hear the following question:

“What exactly are conversion goals and events and what’s the core difference between the two?”

It’s a great question, and I’ve received the question so often that I’ve decided to write this post to thoroughly cover the topic. For this post, I’ll focus on Google Analytics, although the core concepts are similar across web analytics packages. How you set up and track your conversions and events across packages is the main difference. Let’s begin with conversion goals.

Defining Conversion Goals
Conversion goals are success events that occur on your website. They represent key actions that users take on your site and they are typically represented by reaching a certain page. For example, a simple conversion to understand is successfully buying something on an e-commerce website. The “Thank You” page would be your conversion goal (page-wise) and can be tracked in Google Analytics by using the URL destination. Now, that specific conversion (a purchase) would be achieved after going through a multi-step process to reach the goal (a conversion funnel), and I’ll cover that topic in more depth later in the post. Note, you can also set up conversion goals that are engagement-based (time on site and number of pages per session), but I’m going to focus on conversions that are triggered by reaching a page on your site.

The Difference Between Macro and Micro-Conversions

When mapping out conversions for your website, you can identify and track both macro and micro-conversions. An example of a macro-conversion would be a purchase on your site or someone contacting you via a submit form. These are the critical conversions for your specific business. But not all conversions are as obvious (and important) as a purchase. For example, you might consider downloading podcast a micro-conversion for your site. You might also track RSS subscriptions and registering for an email newsletter as conversions. You can even track reaching an important page on your website as a micro-conversion. The exact conversion goals you decide to track will be dictated by your specific website and the goals of your business. That’s why you should develop an analytics strategy BEFORE setting up your conversions and events.

Conversion Funnels

Earlier I mentioned the multi-step process for buying something on an e-commerce website. The four required steps in that process can be tracked as a conversion funnel in Google Analytics. For example, Shopping Cart, Shipping Information, Billing Information, and Thank You Page. Using a conversion funnel enables you to analyze the process for reaching a certain goal. For example, do people significantly drop off after step two for some reason? Analyzing a conversion funnel can arm you with data to go and fix various problems that are present in the multi-step process. And fixing those problems can end up impacting a lot of revenue for your business.

A Sample Conversion Funnel in Google Analytics:

Conversion Funnels in Google Analytics

Virtual Pageviews and Conversion
What if I told you that you can track a conversion goal on your site by using a page that doesn’t actually exist? Well, using what’s called a “virtual pageview”, you can do just that. And there are times that using a virtual pageview makes complete sense. For example, let’s say you used a service like feedburner to manage your RSS subscriptions. Since your feed actually resides on another site, your RSS button could trigger a virtual pageview that can be tracked in Google Analytics just like the page actually was present on your site (when in reality, it doesn’t even exist.) Taking this one step further, you could use that virtual pageview as the URL destination for a conversion goal. Then you can view reporting for how many people are clicking through to your feed. You can use this approach to track any click off of your website as a conversion goal. It’s handy, to say the least.

Conversions Are Unique Per Session

I receive a lot of questions from marketers that see a discrepancy between pageview count and conversions (comparing the content reporting for the page that actually triggers the conversion with the number of conversions being reported in Google Analytics). For example, seeing a page that has 425 pageviews, but Google Analytics only shows 75 conversions. Theoretically, those numbers should match, right? Not so fast… The reason for the discrepancy is that Google Analytics tracks conversions uniquely by session. So if a person reaches Goal A during a visit, a conversion is triggered. But, if that person goes back through the site and triggers the goal again, it’s not counted as a second conversion. Therefore, if you need to see how many times an action is triggered, use events instead.

Number of Conversions Per Profile

Once clients get excited about the various tracking possibilities, I’m often asked how many conversion goals can be set up in Google Analytics. There is a limit of 20 conversion goals per profile. In case you’re wondering, that’s a good amount of conversion goals and most sites will fall short of requiring that number. Again, it depends on your specific site and business. That said, you can always create additional profiles and add more conversion goals if needed. For example, you could have two profiles with 40 conversion goals set up. I doubt you would need that many goals, but it is possible to set up, if needed. Goals are broken down in Google Analytics by “goal sets”, which include up to five goals per set.

Goals Are Organized by Goal Sets in Google Analytics:

Conversion Goal Sets in Google Analytics

EVENT TRACKING

Defining Events (and Event Tracking)

Events also represent important actions on your website. The core difference between events and conversion goals is that events are typically tied to website elements and not reaching certain pages (or URL destinations). Event Tracking has become more important in recent years as web technologies have evolved and websites now rely on non-pageview events more often. For example, tracking AJAX or Flash-based applications that don’t rely on refreshing the page. Instead, they load data on-demand via form elements or links. Event tracking enables you to tag specific actions on your site (such as links or buttons) and then view granular reporting for those actions. Examples of events include clicking a link to download a pdf, clicking the play button in a video, tracking specific form elements like radio buttons, clicking a link on a webpage that dynamically loads additional information, etc. Event tracking is extremely versatile and the strategies I develop often include a number of events to track (again, the actual events are based on the site at hand).

Categories, Actions, and Labels
One of the core benefits of event tracking in Google Analytics is the ability to categorize each event. When you tag an event, you can add a Category, Action, and Label in the code (with Category and Action being required). This enables you to logically categorize each event that’s triggered. For example, a rewind button in a video of a keynote presentation might be categorized like:

Category: Videos
Actions: Rewind
Label: Keynote2010

This would enable you to quickly view reporting for all video events, then rewind click actions across videos, and then which videos triggered those actions. A structure like this comes in very handy when you a lot of videos on your site and you want to view how many people are rewinding specific videos.

An Example of Event Tracking Reporting in Google Analytics:

Event Tracking in Google Analytics

Tracking Flash Applications Via The GAforFlash Component
If you are interested in learning how to track flash applications, check out my two part tutorial about using the GAforFlash component. Adobe has worked with Google on creating a component that lets you seamlessly track flash events via ActionScript. I think you’ll dig both the component and my tutorial. :)

Number of Events Per Session
Don’t go crazy with event tracking. Just because you can track many actions on your site doesn’t mean you should. There is a limit on the number of events that can be tracked per session in Google Analytics, which is 500. That should be plenty for most sites, but be aware of that number if you are triggering events programmatically.

Events Versus Unique Events

As mentioned above, conversions are unique per session and there are times that events make more sense (such as when you want to track how many times per session something is triggered). When you are reviewing the event tracking reporting in Google Analytics, the metric Total Events will give you the raw number of events triggered. For example, if someone clicked an important link 25 times in a session, then that would show up as 25 events triggered. However, you will also see a metric titled Unique Events in your reporting. This will show the unique sessions that triggered events. In my example above, a person clicked a link 25 times (which is 25 events), but that will show up as 1 Unique Event.

Summary: The Power of Using Both Conversion Goals & Events

I hope this post demystified conversion goals and events in Google Analytics. Both are important tools to have in your web analytics arsenal. If you are just getting started, my recommendation is that you thoroughly map out an analytics strategy. This will help you determine when conversion goals and events make sense. Without a solid strategy in place, you run the risk of tracking dozens of actions that have relatively little impact on your business. Definitely stay tuned if you’re eager to learn more about goals and events. I plan to write more about each topic in future posts. If you have any questions, please post a comment below. You can also read my previous posts about Google Analytics by visiting my tag page.