Improve Conversions with Google Analytics
This article has been cross-published on Inside AdSense Blog.
Today, I’ll focus on ways to improve your site conversions using specific Analytics reports. Understanding exactly what drives conversions on your site is key to understanding important factors such as visitor intent and where you should invest in advertising. The following reports help you understand how to calculate page values, track conversions, and gain insights into visitor intent.
1. Calculate page values to understand which pages drive conversions and revenue
Page Value is a single number that can help you better understand which pages on your site drive conversions and revenue. Pages with a high Page Value are more influential than pages with a low Page Value. For example, e-commerce sites will usually notice that the most valuable pages on their site are their checkout pages. This makes sense because everyone needs to view the checkout pages before converting. Take a look for pages that get a lot of traffic (page views) but have a low Page Value. Why don’t these pages help conversion? Or should they? To answer some of these questions, get started by reviewing the Page Value column in the Site Content > All Pages report.
2. Use the Multi-Channel Funnels Report for better conversion tracking
Multi-Channel Funnels in Google Analytics let you look at interactions across different digital media and show how these channels work together to create sales and conversions. They also help you make crucial marketing decisions regarding advertising investments at the macro level (e.g. what channels) as well as the micro level (e.g. what keywords and ad placements). Your Multi-Channel Funnels reports can be found under the Conversions section in Google Analytics.
3. Use Site Search Report to get insights into visitor intent
Google Analytics Site Search reports provide extensive data on how people use the search engine on your site. With this report, you can see initial searches, refinements, search trends, which pages they searched from, where they ended up, and conversion correlation. Tracking how people use the search box on your site can provide you with important insights into visitor intent. Your Site Search reports can be found under the Behavior section in Google Analytics. If you’re not already using a search box on your site, take a look at the Google Custom Search Engine.
To help you understand your page values and conversions, I’ve created a custom Content Evaluation Dashboard for you to download. Once downloaded, just select which profile you’d like to import. You can access this dashboard any time by clicking the ‘Customization’ tab.
