Setting Up Goals in Google Analytics

Lauren Owens - December 30, 2014

It’s Analytics 101: if you want to know how your content is performing, you have to set up goals. This is easy enough to do if you know where to go within Google Analytics, and what to use as appropriate goals once you get there.

To set up a goal in Google Analytics, navigate to the Admin view.

And select the web property you would like to set up the goal for. Then select the Goals option from the menu in the rightmost column.

From there, you will be given the option to set up a new goal.

You can track 20 goals at a time, ranging from a destination (your checkout, or thank you page, for example), a duration (time on site), an event (a video viewed, for example), and pages / screens viewed per session. The latter of which can be helpful for tracking whether or not your content is connecting with users in a meaningful way.

Decide what you want to track, and give this goal a descriptive enough name so that you can differentiate it from your other goals.

Finally, it’s time to add goal details. The most important (and necessary) detail to add here is the goal’s value. You should be able to ascribe a dollar value to the action the user performs to reach the goal. If you’re not selling anything on your website the goal can be harder to calculate, but there are ways.

In addition, you’ll want to add the goal URL and, if you choose, the URLs the user would have had to funnel through in order to reach your goal page. This is especially important for determining the value of your various marketing efforts.

Once you’ve created your goal, you can monitor it within the reporting section of Google Analytics. Simply navigate to Conversions and click into Goals. But be warned – goal tracking is addictive!