One of the most important foundations for the success of a WooCommerce store, or even any website of any type, is its connection to Google statistics. Therefore, it can be said that no website is complete without Google Analytics, and at the same time, the benefit of Google Analytics is not complete without using tracking objectives in it.
Accordingly, in this article, we will learn about the importance of tracking objectives in Google Analytics, their most important types, and we will explain how to set them and benefit from them.
Specifically, tracking goals in Google Analytics
The crucial role that Google Analytics plays lies in the WooCommerce store data it measures (metrics) because through it it is possible to know how the site is performing and its weak points and work to improve them. But the hypothetical data provided by Google Analytics remains general, and can provide an unclear picture of some finer points.
When you want detailed data about the selling performance of a product, for example, or the amount of people who took the required action on one of the landing pages , or the number of downloads of a specific file from your site, or the stage of the sales funnel in which customers abandon the shopping cart , or anything specific you want. measure it; This is where tracking objectives in Google Analytics come into play.
Goals in Google Analytics are customer interactions with a WooCommerce store that can be tracked and measured. Where you measure any activity that you specify and that customers complete on your site in order to obtain accurate data about this activity, the extent of its success, and to identify defects in it, if any.
The importance of choosing the right tracking targets
Choosing the right tracking goals in Google Analytics is the most important step in order to make the most of it. Tracking wrong or unimportant activities can be as useless as not tracking anything in the first place.
With the countless options you can set as goals, it’s very possible to misplace one of them. Tracking the number of visitors to the About Us page in your WooCommerce store will not be as useful as tracking the number of buyers, for example.
The objectives that must be tracked vary from one site to another depending on its type and the important procedures within it that must be monitored. Perhaps the most important question that you should ask yourself as a WooCommerce store owner , which will help you discover the goals that suit your store, is:
What is the best action or activity for a customer to do on your site in order to buy and do business with you? In the answer to this question you will often find the goal you should pursue.
At the same time, be sure to keep it simple and do not make it complicated with many goals, which will make the Google Analytics control panel screen filled with a lot of data. Focusing on tracking goals that represent the direct activity of a customer’s interaction with your store is easier and more beneficial.
How to create tracking goals in Google Analytics
The first step that must be taken, of course, is to register your site in Google Analytics. If you have not done so previously, you can follow the steps contained in our guide explaining the installation of Google Analytics for your WordPress site .
The next step is to complete the process of linking your Google Analytics account with your WooCommerce store and activate the e-commerce tracking feature in your store and in your Google Analytics account by following the steps in our guide on how to track your WooCommerce store data via Google Analytics .
If you are new to Google Analytics, you may be confused by the many charts and options that will appear in front of you in your account control panel. Therefore, we advise you to read our comprehensive article explaining Google Analytics to analyze your site’s data and develop its performance (a comprehensive guide) .
Now you’re ready to create your first goal to track your store’s data. From the Google Analytics control panel, go to the ( Admin ) section, and click on the ( Goals ) option.
From the next page, click on the ( + New Goal ) button.
Now you will see several options for pre-established goal templates, the most important of which for WooCommerce stores are:
- Bookings : Add a goal to complete the process of booking an appointment, for example.
- Checkout action: Add a goal to complete the purchase at the end of the customer checkout process.
- Show more: Set customer pressure to view product details as a goal.
- Contact Us: Set customer pressure to view contact information as a goal.
The rest of the settings are the same, whatever your choice is at this stage, but we will complete the explanation with the ( Custom ) option. Then click on the ( Continue ) button.
Then you must set up the goal by writing the name of the goal so that you can distinguish it from any other goals you add. Then you must choose the type of goal and press the Continue button .
Goals available in Google Analytics
1. Destination
This type of goal is used to track the number of visits to a specific page within the site. The most common use of this type of goal is on the customer thank you page that comes directly after completing the checkout process.
Google Analytics can track the achievement of this goal by entering the link to the target page without the site’s domain name (example: /thank-you/), in order to know the exact number of its visitors.
Through this goal, you can also track the customer’s progress through all stages of the sales funnel by adding the steps of the funnel through the (successful referral path) option. Thus, you can ensure that the funnel you have placed on your site is successful.
2. Duration
Duration goal is useful for knowing how much time customers spend on your site. This is done by measuring the duration of each session that occurs on your site. The duration goal is usually used by website owners that provide visual content (videos) or educational content.
3. Pages/screens in session
Through this goal, website owners can know the number of pages that the customer has visited on their sites, and this goal is useful for sites that display advertisements on their pages.
4. The event
An event target allows you to track all types of activities that can occur on your site. Such as clicking a specific button, downloading a specific file, purchasing a product, and you can even combine two goals together such as visiting a page and scrolling through it.
5. Smart Goal
This goal is based on Google’s artificial intelligence. It depends entirely on collecting data from your site to determine the most appropriate target for you, so you will not be able to choose it at the beginning because it takes time to collect data and make the appropriate decision.
You can set a specific value for the goal (of any type) to help you understand the progress of the goal, and for it to be considered a successful goal when reached.
You can test the goal before finishing by clicking on (Check this goal), where Google Analytics will measure the goal based on the data of the last week of your site, and will give you the conversion rate for your goal.
A conversion rate value that is equal to zero or that is very high may indicate an error in setting the goal and you must re-check its settings. But at the same time, if the activities you are tracking are new or your site is new, it is normal for the value to be equal to zero.
After completing, click the (Save) button to complete setting the target.
Test the targets and ensure they work properly
You can test the goals you set to make sure everything is working well. Of course, you must first perform the activity related to achieving the goal in order to record successful completion of the goal.
Immediately after you successfully complete the goal, go to the Google Analytics control panel , then to the ( Real Time ) section, then to ( Successful Conversions ). If you see the goal you just completed, it means the goal has been scored and everything is working fine. If you don’t see the target, then something is wrong.
How to monitor goal data
After you have set and saved goals, it is time to monitor how they are progressing and how successful they are. This can be done by going to the ( Successful Conversions ) section in the Google Analytics control panel, and then ( Goals ), where a list will appear containing the following sections:
- Overview: Here you will find timeline charts, and details about the goals you set such as the number of times you completed it, the profits you made from it (if it was purchasing a product, for example), and its conversion rate.
- Goal URLs: Here you’ll see links where those goals have been completed, such as when you select customer access to a page as a goal.
- Reverse Goal Path: In this section, you will discover which pages customers opened before arriving at the goal page; Which helps you know which content is best at achieving your goal.
- Funnel Visualization: Here you will see detailed data for how the sales funnel will perform if you add one when setting a destination type goal.
- Goal flow: Here you can make sure that customers follow the sales funnel as well, but highlight the problems in it if any.
You can monitor data for all goals in the previous way, but event -type goals are a little more complex and require some additional steps to monitor.
common questions
How to delete tracking goals in Google Analytics?
It is often not possible to delete goals after they are created in Google Analytics. All you can do is deactivate it . To do this, go to the ( Admin ) section of the Google Analytics control panel, and click on the ( Goals ) option.
You will see the list of goals you created. Press the ( On ) button next to the name of the target you want to deactivate, so that it changes to ( Off ) status.
Is there a limit to the number of goals I can create?
Yes, you can only create a maximum of 20 goals. Since you can’t delete goals either, as we mentioned earlier, the best thing you can do is reuse old goals that you no longer need. You can, of course, modify the complete data for any target, such as modifying its name, type, and all its details.
But assuming that your goals are many (more than 20) and you need them all; Of course there is a way around this problem. The trick is to simply create a new profile under the same site. You’ll then be able to create new goals in the new profile.
Do Google Analytics tracking goals measure historical data?
There is no retroactive effect to the goals you create; That is, starting to track data and record goals begins from the moment they are created onwards.
Which Google Analytics tracking objectives are appropriate for WooCommerce stores?
Before creating any goal to track your store’s data, you must first complete the process of linking your Google Analytics account with your WooCommerce store, and activate the e-commerce tracking feature in your store and in your Google Analytics account by following the steps in our guide on how to track your WooCommerce store’s data via Google Analytics.
Your goals should be focused on completing the purchase of products by customers, because the basis of a WooCommerce store is selling goods. You can also add goals to track upsells, cross-sells, and small extras you can add to increase profits. In general, you must track all stages of the purchasing process, whether individually or collectively in the form of a sales funnel .
With this, we have reached the end of our article in which we explained how to use tracking goals in Google Analytics and how to set them up and make the most of them to improve your WooCommerce store and increase sales and profits.
