8 Tips for Tracking With Google

If you are tracking clickthrus, events, conversions using Google Analytics here are a few tips, ideas and hints for tracking and then later on improving your webpage using Google tools : analytics, adwords and Google website optimizer.

New to Google Analytics is something called event tracking. Google events are slightly different than goals in Google analytics and while Google suggests that you track using events – I could find no easy way / interface to see which keyword is generating a desired event – like a click thru or a sale with events. This leaves  us with a  doing both tracking events and generating goals to have the best desired result.

1. Here are some ideas for best practices for click tracking on an affiliate website.

1. Install Jquery – this is easy to do ( 1 line of  lightweight javascript) . Why ? Because you can use jquery to track all similiarly named outgoing links. See how tiny jquery is by clicking here.
2. Redirect / rename all affiliate link simliarly –  I am using a plugin called gocodes – it seems pretty good and I am sure their are others. But the point is that you want to track every click thru and you want all the links you are tracking to look the same.  So you want all affiliate links to look  like /recommends/ or /go/ , etc. To be consistent but also because of the tracking code provided below and because of Tip number 3
3. Setup goals for click thrus on Google Analytics – If you are following point number two above you can easily set a goal for all links that match  /recommends/.+ ,  /go/.+ or whatever syntax you use.

   analytics goals

   Even better if you can track both click thrus and goals but for right now – just do clickthru tracking –  An article to reference — http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-setup-goals-in-google-analytics.html

4. Install this tracking code to track all click that match  your syntax.
   [cc lang=”javascript” tab_size=”2″ lines=”40″]
   jQuery(‘a’).click(function(){
   var $a=jQuery(this);
   var href=$a.attr(‘href’);
   if(href.match(/go\//))
   {var category=’outgoing';
   var event=’click';
   var label=href;
   pageTracker._trackPageview(href);
   pageTracker._trackEvent(category,event,label);}}
   );
   [/cc]
   This kind of tracking code matches all outgoing links with the keyword /recommends/ and will generate a goal proivded you did the previous steps for 2 and 3. To change this syntax to another naming convention is easy enough. This code also generates both a goal and an event in analytics.
   Thanks to  these contributers listed- for this idea — rebeccamurphey , think2loud and css-tricks
   If this is too complicated then manually insert page tracking — http://www.johncow.com/google-analytics-creating-goals/
5. To track conversions in adwords or to assign conversions to click thrus you could just click add this code snippet below[cc lang=”javascript” tab_size=”2″ lines=”40″]
   var image = new Image(1,1);
   image.src = “http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/XXXXXXX/?value=1&label=Purchase&script=0″;
   [/cc] This just initiates an image pixel so that a conversion in adwords is generated.

   So now you have tracking for goals, events and possibly adwords conversion events setup for your website done easily provided that you name , cloak and redirect your links in all the same fashion

6. Now if you want to try and improve your webpage – you might try this – Counting a conversion when a link is clicked with website optimizer Here is the essential code [cc lang=”javascript” tab_size=”2″ lines=”40″]Download the file[/cc]
7. If you are looking to improve , decrease page bounce rates – then you might try optimizing pages using webiste optimizer for a version that keeps people on your website longer — Here are the details – http://www.google.com/support/websiteoptimizer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=74345
8. Stuck with how to setup a landing page ? Here is a simple optin idea for lead pages – landing page generator – very simple but you get the idea here or even better monitor adwords campaigns that are working with a tool like traffic travis.

By implementing these tips you should be able to track and improve your webpage’s effectiveness with Google tracking tools.  Leave a comment below if this helps you!