conversion sciences-google analytics implementation guide

©2011 Brian Massey. All rights reserved.

Implementing Google Analytics

A Conversion Sciences Guide Brian Massey, The Conversion Scientist™

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Table of Contents

Why is Analytics is So Important? ............................ 3

The Conversion Sciences Helper Code ..................... 4

Visitors who click on links that take them to

another URL ......................................................... 5

Visitors who are taken to another web site when

they complete a form .......................................... 5

Visitors who download a file ................................ 5

Vistiors who login or complete a form ................ 5

Setting up Google Analytics Correctly ...................... 6

Signs your Google Analytics Isn’t Setup Right ...... 6

The Google Analytics Code Appears at the

Bottom of the Pages ............................................ 7

The “Asynchronous” version of Google Analytics

is Being Used ........................................................ 7

Implementing the Conversion Sciences Helper Code

.................................................................................. 8

The Conversion Sciences Helper Code ..................... 9

The Conversion Sciences Helper Code ............... 10

Tracking Links that Lead Off-site ............................ 11

Implementing Helper Code in Drupal .................... 12

Custom Code Snippets ....................................... 12

Implementing Helper Code in Wordpress ............. 13

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Why is Analytics is So Important?

We’re not using them right now.

Your analytics data is a database of behavioral

market research on your audience.

Once you have collected an entire year’s worth of

data, you can ask some very helpful questions,

questions you may not have yet.

“What pages make visitors run in fear?”

“Which topics are of most interest to my readers?”

“Which pages tend to increase purchases?”

“What makes visitors buy more than others?”

You may not have these questions today, but if you

instrument your site properly with analytics, you

can go back and ask any of these questions and

more.

It’s like asking your past visitors their opinion

without the delay and trouble of sending out a

survey.

Guessing doesn’t work. Think if the leads or sales

you’ll miss by guessing wrong.

Go ahead and add this free tool, Google Analytics

to your site, so you’ll be ready when you start

asking the hard questions.

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The Conversion Sciences Helper

Code

There are a few things that every site should

measure, so that when you start asking questions,

the data will be there to give you answers.

There are two ways to track visitor actions in

Google Analytics, and the helper code offers

functions to support them both.

1. Virtual URLs (or “Fake” URLs)

2. Events

We will use a combination of virtual URLs and

Events to track visitor behaviors.

We prefer virtual URLs when we want an action to

be included in a conversion funnel.

Figure 1: Funnel reports tell us when visitors leave the path toward conversion.

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The Conversion Sciences Helper uses both virtual

URLs and Events to track visitor actions. These

include:

Visitors who click on links that take

them to another URL We’ll want to know which page they left from, and

where they went, specifically.

Visitors who are taken to another web

site when they complete a form This happens frequently when your shopping cart is

on another domain.

Visitors who download a file We want to know when someone downloads a file,

such as a PDF. This is tracked as an Event.

Visitors who login or complete a form Visitors that login to our online system identify

themselves as existing customers or repeat visitors.

This is very helpful information to track.

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Setting up Google Analytics

Correctly

The first step is to create a Google Analytics account

and to set it up on your site correctly.

You can setup your account by visiting:

http://conversci.com/GoogleAnalytics

You must add some instructions, or “code” to each

web page on your site. To access the right code for

your site, start here:

http://conversci.com/GetStartedWithGA

Figure 2: Get Started with Google Analytics Help

Signs your Google Analytics Isn’t Setup

Right Google Analytics has changed over the years, and if

you have GA installed already, it may be out of date.

In particular, look for these things:

http://conversci.com/GoogleAnalytics

http://conversci.com/GetStartedWithGA

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The Google Analytics Code Appears at

the Bottom of the Pages Google Analytics used to be placed at the bottom of

the page so that the loading of the code didn’t

impact the load time of the page. Slow load times

will decrease your conversion rate.

Your GA code should be at the top of the page,

before the </head> tag. See Figure 3.

1. Open any page that has GA installed in a

browser.

2. Right-click on the page and select “View

Source” from the context menu that

appears.

3. Press Ctrl+F to open a page search dialog

box. Enter “_trackPageview”

4. If found, then you can see if it is near the

top of the page (before </head>) or near

the bottom of the page (before </html>).

The “Asynchronous” version of Google

Analytics is Being Used To check to see if you have the most recent version

of Google Analytics, follow the steps outlined

previously.

In step 3, enter “ga.async” into the search field.

If found, you have the “asynchronous” version of

Google Analytics.

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Implementing the Conversion

Sciences Helper Code

The helper code is designed to make it easier to tell

Google Analytics when a visitor takes an action that

can’t be measured. For example, when they click on

a link that takes them to another site, they

disappear and can’t be tracked.

Using the helper code, you can simply add a little

Javascript to the link and record a virtual URL or a

Google Analytics Event.

The Helper Code must go after the Google Analytics

code provided by Google, but before the </head>

tag on each page. See Figure 3.

Figure 3: The proper location of Google Analytics scripts on each Web page.

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The Conversion Sciences Helper

Code

The Conversion Sciences Helper Code can be cut

from this document and pasted into your pages or

page templates.

IMPORTANT: You must change the Google Analytics

ID, or “UA-Code” in the Helper Code to match that

of your site. Look for UA-#######-# in the helper

code and replace it with your UA-code.

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The Conversion Sciences Helper Code 

<script type="text/javascript">

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));

</script>




function recordOutboundLink(urlNext, urlCurrent, txtLink) {

var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-########-#");

var txtVirtualURL="/outgoing/"+urlNext+"//"+urlCurrent+"/<"+txtLink+">";

console.log("\nVirtual URL="+txtVirtualURL);

pageTracker._trackPageview(txtVirtualURL);

setTimeout('document.location = "' + urlNext +'"', 1000); }

</script>

<!—This script records actions on the site that don’t generate a new page -->


function recordAction(urlCurrent, txtDesc) {


var txtVirtualURL="/action/"+urlCurrent+"/<"+txtDesc+">";



}

</script>




function recordFormSubmit(urlNext, urlCurrent, txtLink) {


var txtVirtualURL="/outgoing/"+urlNext+"//"+urlCurrent+"/<"+txtLink+">";



}

</script> 

Download the script at http://conversci.com/GAHelperCode

http://conversci.com/GAHelperCode

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Tracking Links that Lead Off-site

Here are examples of how to implement each of the

functions found in the Conversion Sciences Google

Analytics Helper Code.

Links that take visitors way from measureable pages

are registered with the following code:

<a href=”http://domain.com/page”

onClick=”recordOutboundLink('/domain.com/pa

ge', location.hostname+location.pathname,'Visit

Domain.com')”>Visit Domain.com</a>

The script that intercepts a click on the page should

use the following function call to record a virtual

URL.

recordAction(“domain.com/page”,

('location.hostname+location.pathname,'See

List')

Sometimes form submissions take us to a third

party site. For example, “Add to Cart” may send the

visitor to a third-party shopping cart.

If we create a virtual URL for this event, we can

track it as a conversion.

Here is an example of the code to record this action.

<form action="/test-outbound.php"

method="post"

onSubmit="recordFormSubmit('/[destination.c

om]', location.hostname+location.pathname,'Submit

.frm');">

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Implementing Helper Code in

Drupal

Drupal versions 5, 6 and 7 have a module called

“Google Analytics” that performs all of the services

found in the Conversion Sciences Helper Code.

The module can be downloaded at:

http://drupal.org/project/google_analytics

To properly instrument the site, please ensure that

the following options are enabled:

Outgoing links are tracked.

Downloads are tracked

Mailto: links are tracked.

Custom Code Snippets In some situations, the Google Analytics plugin may

not record the information required. It may be

necessary to use one of the calls found in the

Conversion Sciences Helper Code.

The contents of the Helper Code should be pasted

as a custom code snippet and be made available for

specific uses.

http://drupal.org/project/google_analytics

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Implementing Helper Code in

Wordpress

The Google Analyticator plugin for Wordpress offers

an impressive implementation for tracking

downloads and off-site, or outgoing links.

The plugin site is at

http://ronaldheft.com/code/analyticator/

To configure the plugin for greatest impact, choose

the following settings:

Outbound Link Tracking Enabled

Event Tracking Enabled

Prefix external links: outgoing

Prefix download links: download

Additional Tracking Code (After tracker initialization)

Insert Helper Code

http://ronaldheft.com/code/analyticator/

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About Conversion Sciences

Conversion Sciences shows businesses how to

convert more if their visitors into leads and sales.

The firm works with analytics, best practices, testing

and excellent communication theory to deliver Web

sites that grow businesses and delight visitors.

Since 2006, Conversion Sciences has audited the

Web sites of hundreds of businesses of all sizes.

Industries include:

Health Insurance

Utilities

Retail Outlets

E-commerce

Real estate

Electronics

Weight Loss

Pet Relocation

Health supplements

Self-Storage

Digital Printing

Educational Sales

Consultants

Executive Coaching

Hosting

Law firms

University

Facilities Management

Contact Conversion Sciences

Brian Massey

[email protected]

www.ConversionScientist.com

512.961.6604

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.conversionscientist.com/

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