Once you are comfortable with the basics of Google Analytics, and want to dig a bit deeper, setting up a few Goals for your online store is a great place to start.

When you log in to your Google Analytics, you’ll find Goals under Conversions on your left sidebar. If you’ve never set up a Goal, you’ll be instructed on how to do so when clicking here. If you have previously set up a Goal, you can find the data on those Goals here.

There is more than 1 type of Goal you can set up with Google Analytics. For the purposes of this article, we’re walking through how to set up a Goal that ends with an order confirmation/thank you for shopping with us-type page. This type of goal – a “destination goal” – will show you the percentage of website sessions that lead to a completed purchase.

Setting up a Goal in Google Analytics

Step 1: Goal Setup. If you haven’t declared an industry in your Google Analytics profile, you’ll need to do that first. You can follow these instructions on how to edit your property, if needed. If your industry type has already been set within your profile, your first step will look like this.

Select your Template from the list. Then move on to Step 2.

Step 2: Goal Description. Name your Goal, and then select the Goal type. Your options are: Destination, Duration, Pages per Session, and Event.

Step 3: Goal Details. This step is where you’d include the link of your “destination”. In this case, it’s the “Thank you for your order!” page. You should include everything that comes after your domain.

In the drop-down box next to the URL field, you can choose from: Equals to, Begins with, or Regular Expression. Equals to should be used for exact match URLs. Begins with should be used with trailing parameters. Regular Expression is good for URLs that may vary.

You have the option to assign a monetary value to your Goal. Using the Funnel option, you can set up a specific path you’d expect your website visitors to take while reaching your Goal. Neither are required options, but depending on the nature of your Goal, one of these options might make sense.

Step 4: Click to verify your Goal. Google Analytics will analyze your past 7 days worth of data to see if this goal was completed during that time.

Once verified, click to Create the Goal.

If you are having trouble verifying your Goal, try adjusting Steps 1, 2 or 3. For example, if I used “store/thank-you-for-your-order” instead of “/store/thank-you-for-your-order“, I wouldn’t be able to verify my goal.

For additional information on setting up Goals in Google Analytics, visit the Help link here.