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The problem is most websites struggle to get any conversions. Before any conversions happen on a website, and I’m talking lead generation websites, you need to set up ‘Goals’ to see how the visitor is interacting and engaging on your website.
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Get my plan →If the visitor visits your website and bounces off after 5 seconds, they are very unlikely to convert, however, someone who stays on your website for 2 or more minutes, visits multiple pages on your website, they are more likely to convert or take the call to action you want them to take. So we need more of these visitors to our website who are likely to convert.
So how do we work out the engagement or the interaction of the visitor to our website? It is by setting up ‘Goals’. Just like everyone has a goal for their personal & professional life, a website needs to have goals as well.
Unfortunately, around 9o% of the websites I audit, they don’t have any ‘Goals’ and the business owners are frustrated that they don’t get much work or leads from their website.
Before we set up ‘Goals’ for your website, which I’ll show you how to do in a bit, you need to understand 2 types of ‘Goals’.
The first is ‘Micro’ and the 2nd one is called the ‘Macro’ goal.
To help you understand these goals, let me give you a simple analogy. A man walks into a bar and sees the woman of his dreams who he would like to marry. If he were to go up to her at the bar and ask her to marry him straight away, the answer will be a certain no. So let’s call this goal of marrying her as our ‘Main or Macro’ goal.
The reason he got a no as an answer is that the sequencing was wrong. What he needs to do first is to go up to her, introduce himself, offer to buy her a drink, start a conversation, spend some time talking and then perhaps ask her out for a coffee or to take her out on a date. This is what we call the ‘Micro’ goals which lead us to the macro goal.
They may then go out on a series of dates, become a couple, move in together at some stage, get engaged and then get married.
So you can see that without the series of these little or micro goals, the macro goal of marriage will never happen.
That’s where most website owners go wrong. They want the macro conversion but there are no micro conversions set up on their website. Not only the micro or macro goals not set up, there is also no tracking of how many micro & macro goals are being converted into goals.
Why would a cold visitor to a website convert into a lead when they don’t know you and your business, don’t know what you may offer and how good your product or service is. You need to build that trust first before someone will sign-up to your web form or call you.
How To Set Up ‘Goals’ For Your Website
To set up ‘Goals’ you first need to have Google Analytics set up on your website. Once you sign up to Google Analytics, you need to install a piece of code on all pages of your website. This can easily be done by your webmaster if you don’t know how to do it.
What Kinds Of ‘Goals’ You Should Set Up
Each website is different and every website has different ‘Goals’. I’ll show you the ‘Goals’ which we’ve set up on our website.
You see 3 ‘Macro Goals’ when someone visits the below page.
- When someone clicks the coffee cup, a web form opens up. This is a ‘Macro Goal’.
- The phone number is a clickable link on the mobile website. This is a ‘Macro Goal’.
- The video play button. This is a ‘Micro Goal’.
The reason why it is so important to track ‘Micro’ goals is, if someone is watching my video, he/she will be interested in listening to my message and that person is interacting on my website and consuming my content.
When someone scrolls further down the page, they see the below section which has 2 CTAs (Call-To-Actions). One is the ‘Get Started’ button which opens up a contact form and the other one is the video.
There is a big heading ‘Get Started With A Free 30-Day Trial’, a ‘Get Started’ button and a video – all 3 of these very close to each so the visitor reads the headline and takes the Call-To-Action to convert.
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We also have a ‘Goal‘ which tracks the % of visitors who scroll to the bottom of the page. We need to know this, because if we don’t know the % of visitors who scroll to the bottom of the page, then they won’t see my content and the Call-To-Actions I want them to take!
You also probably have noticed how we’ve locked the CTAs on the Navigation bar to be visible at all times.
Then at the bottom of the page, we have a ‘Micro’ goal for visitors who click on the button ‘More Success Stories Here…’.
This is a very important goal for us as we track the % of visitors who visit our Client Success Stories page. They are reading what others are saying about us and also starting to feel excited at possibly wanting to start working with us. Every website should have a Client Success Stories page like this which builds trust on autopilot!
So there are 8 Goals on this page. How many are there on yours? If you haven’t got any, here’s how to set up your 1st Goal.
How To Set Up Your 1st Goal In Google Analytics
Sign-in to your Google Analytics account. You must have Google Analytics set up on your website to be able to do this.
Click on the ‘Admin‘ on the bottom left column.
Then click on ‘Goals‘
Click on the red button ‘+NEW GOAL‘. You won’t see the list of goals as shown below if you haven’t set any.
You will see a list of pre-built ‘Goals’. For now, click on the Custom button and Continue.
Lets set up a ‘Goal’ for a visitor who stays on the website for 2+ minutes per session.
Name the ‘Goal’ as 2+ Mins / Session or something similar and select the Duration radio button. Hit Continue.
Enter 2 in the Minutes box and keep the Duration ‘Greater Than’. You also see a Verify this Goal link. If you’ve just installed the Google Analytics tag, then you won’t see any data when you click it. So ignore this for now.
Hit Save and congratulations! You’ve just installed your 1st Goal on Google Analytics. From now on, you can see the % of visitors to your website who stay for 2+ mins/session.
You also see a Value switch which you can on/off. For e-commerce websites, I would not switch it on as different products have different values. For lead generation, websites, you need to give a value for each Micro & Macro Goal.
I have created a mini eBook which shows you how to increase website conversions using goals! Just enter your email below and download the eBook instantly.
Written by Uzair Kharawala
Partner at SF Digital Studios, a Google Premier Partner agency. Uzair has been helping businesses grow with Google Ads since 2002 and teaches it every week on YouTube.
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