So you’ve got a website and you’ve installed Google Analytics. That’s a great start, but don’t stop there! With a bit of time and attention, Google Analytics (GA) can provide valuable information regarding conversions. Conversions are those key moments when visitors do something interactional or transactional on your site, e.g. complete a sale or donation, sign up for e-newsletter, etc. Basically, when they do those things that you really want them to do.
Links from mobile apps.
- Problem: Many mobile apps don’t send a referrer, and so traffic will look direct. (Some social apps will pass traffic through a shortened link, like twitter’s t.co, which helps, but doesn’t completely solve the problem.)
- Solution: Add campaign parameters to the URL.
Links from (non-web based) email programs.
- Problem: If someone opens up an email from Gmail, then yes, it will be a referral. But if someone opens an email in Mac Mail or Outlook, it will be direct because software programs do not pass referral data.
- Solution: Add campaign parameters to the URL.
Links from non-web pages.
- Problem: Links in PDFs, Word docs, Excel, etc. do not pass referral data.
- Solution: Add campaign parameters to the URL, or move the content from the files to webpages.
Pages with missing javascript file.
- Problem: Links on pages with a missing ga.js file.
- Solution: Make sure every page has a ga.js file.
Traffic from you. Yeah, you.
- Problem: There’s no “exclude staff” filter set up.
- Solution: We highly recommend setting up at least two profiles in your account. One with all raw data (no filters), and one to exclude traffic from your office(s) and from Clockwork. When viewing reports, it’s best to look at the “excluded staff” profile to ensure you are looking at the most accurate data.
The first two, in my opinion, are the worst offenders. And there’s a really easy fix: add campaign parameters to all shared URLs! Your web analyst will love you. And it’ll likely reallocate that bad direct traffic data to the correct source.
The even better news? No coding required! Use this handy GA URL builder for adding campaign parameters to your shared links.
Ultimately what I’m getting at is this: Once you determine the most successful path to your most-desireable conversion, invest your time there. Really, you have gold at your fingertips with some proper configuration.