RWT Webmaster Tools Blog

Google Analytics – Executive View – Conversion Summary

Google Analytics lets users set goals. A “goal” is a certain webpage within a website that a webmaster is hoping users eventually reach. For product based websites, webmasters hope users reach a thank you/checkout complete/registration confirmation page. Once a user has reached this page, the webmaster knows that a transaction has been completed. This transaction is typically the “goal” for the website.

The Conversion Summary report tracks how successful a website has been in converting users. Conversion means moving users along the process to actually complete the goal.

So in short, the Conversion Summary tracks the number of total Visits and how many of those visits converted (ie. reached the goal). The report displays a conversion rate: conversions divided by visits. What is a good conversion rate? It is website dependent. The key for any website is to improve on their own conversion rate. It doesn’t matter what Joe’s Doughnuts conversion rate may happen to be. What matters is whether your website can improve its own rate over the short and long term.

What about content based sites where there is no product involved?

Such sites can track a number of items. First, a site can track newsletter signups. Second, a blog can track if people add/read their RSS feed.

I am still playing around with this latter idea and will report back at another time. One potential problem is distinguishing between people who add the feed versus people who are accessing the feed.