Google Analytics has a feature called goals.  Goals enable you to count specific actions on your website.  These actions are also called conversions.  These goals could be when a person orders a product or signups for a newsletter.

The first step is to decide what actions you want to track on your website.

Goals are something called conversions.  This is because the rate of successful is referred to has a conversion rate.  This is simply the rate of change between the before and after state.  For a goal in Google Analytics, the before state could be the number of people who go to a web page that has a form to fill out.  The after state is the number of people you filled out the form and clicked the submit button.  The submit button loads a thank you web page.  The conversation rate is the rate of people you were displayed the thank you page.

Google Analytics goals also have the ability to track the steps in the conversion process or funnel.  This could be a series of web pages from the start page to the end page.  A data visualization image is displayed which shows were people stopped in the funnel.  This is helpful to learn if there may be a roadblock to completing the process.

The creation of a goal in Google Analytics involves selecting a template.  The key is to step from four type of actions.  That action include destination, duration, pages/screens per session or event.  You can select one action per goal.  The most common type is destination which can be a webpage that loads at the end of the goal.

Finally, you might need to add a web page to your website to help in configuring a goal.  This is most commonly in having a thank you web page that loads after someone completes a website form.

If you would like to learn more about how to setup goals in Google Analytics, check out a companion article on Digital Marketing Extreme.