There are a ton of potential uses for this, including using this method to track when visitors:

• Sign up for your newsletter
• Subscribe to your Aweber email list
• Subscribe to your site’s RSS feed
• Leave a comment on your site
• Click an ‘order’ link for any of your products
• etc.

I’m going to use this blog as a live example for this post by outlining how I track when any of my visitors subscribe to my RSS feed.

In case I have changed the design of this blog by the time you read this, here’s a screenshot of what my RSS subscription box looks like on the right sidebar of my blog:

As you can see, there are two ways for you to subscribe to my RSS feed — by either subscribing in an RSS reader or entering your email address to get posts straight to your inbox. I’m going to show how to a) create an RSS subscription goal in Google Analytics, and b) assign that goal to both sign up methods. You can then take this and apply it to track any click/action on your site.

Let’s get started.

1. Log in to Google Analytics, select Goals from the left-hand menu and then click Set up goals and funnels.

2. Under the Conversion Goals and Funnel section, click Edit next to Goal 1.

Here’s how you fill out the form:

Active Goal: On

Match Type: Head Match

Goal URL: This URL does not have to actually exist, we are only going to use it for tracking purposes. You can name it anything you want, although I suggest using a name that resembles the goal to make your reports easier to read. I used /goal/rss.html. Make sure it doesn’t point to an actual page on your site, because that could mess up your data. Whatever you call it, write it down as you’ll need it in the next step.

Goal name: Describe your goal as simply as possible.

Case sensitive: Unchecked, don’t worry about this.

Goal value: This is the monetary value of your goal. If you’re tracking email list sign ups and know that each person on your list is worth $10 to you, then you would enter 10.0. For our purposes, we are tracking an RSS subscription that doesn’t have a concrete dollar value. In this case, I recommend setting this at 1.0. This allows you to take a quick glance at future reports and know that each conversion equals a single instance of your goal being accomplished.

3. Scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes.

4. Now you have to get your hands dirty and make a quick edit to your site’s HTML. Open the HTML file containing code for the link(s) you want to track. For example, here is the HTML for my RSS subscription via feed reader link:

<a rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternetMegaphone">Subscribe in a RSS reader</a>

To tell Google Analytics to trigger my goal any time this link is clicked, I add this piece of code:

onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/goal/rss.html');"

The final product looks like this:

<a onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/goal/rss.html');" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternetMegaphone">Subscribe in a RSS reader</a>

You can also add the code to any button on your site. Here’s what it looks like when I add the same goal code to the Subscribe button to track RSS email subscriptions:

<input onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/goal/rss.html');" type="submit" value="Subscribe" />

Simply replace /goal/rss.html with the code for your goal. You can repeat this process as many times as you’d like (without exceeding Google Analytics’ maximum of 4 goals per profile).

If you have any questions, please post them in the comments and I’ll get back to you!

Related posts:

1. How To Track Form Submissions With Google Analytics Goals
2. Ditch Your Stone Age Business Email Address and Get a Contact Form
3. How To Use Google Conversion Tracking In Wordpress

In this post, I’m using a live example from a site I created for a counseling business that provides counseling services to Roseville and Sacramento residents in northern California called Windows Of Hope Counseling.

This is the lead form that I’d like to turn into a goal for conversion tracking purposes. Filling out the form is the number one action I want visitors to take on the site, so it’s important to be able to track when and where visitors fill it out. Using this information I can find out which pages of the site actually drive leads for my client’s business.

Let’s get started. Here are the steps:

1. Log in to Google Analytics, select Goals from the left-hand menu and then click Set up goals and funnels.

2. Under the Conversion Goals and Funnel section, click Edit next to Goal 1.

3. Here’s how you fill out the form:

Active Goal: On

Match Type: Head Match

Goal URL: This is the URL of my form’s ‘Thank You’ page.

Goal name: Describe your goal as simply as possible.

Case sensitive: Unchecked, don’t worry about this.

Goal value: This is the monetary value of your goal. If you’re selling a product for $19.95, you would write 19.95 here. For our purposes, we are tracking a form submission that doesn’t have a concrete dollar value. In this case, I recommend setting this at 1.0 so that you can take a quick glance at future reports and know that the final tally is how many actual times your goal was accomplished.

Scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes. You’re done!

Have a question? Ask it in the comments and I’ll get back to you!

Related posts:

1. How To Turn Any Link Into A Google Analytics Goal
2. Ditch Your Stone Age Business Email Address and Get a Contact Form
3. How To Use Google Conversion Tracking In Wordpress