How to Start Goal Tracking for Your Website

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Content Author:
Hannah Schultes

goal tracking cover


One of the first steps to building a website is to determine what the goals for that site will be. Before we begin, some basic webology:

Each time a visitor loads a page on your website, a pageview is tracked. If the visitor is a good fit for your website, they may begin performing actions. An action is when a visitor does something that takes them from one webpage to another webpage. Actions can be a pageview, site search, form submission, download, or even clicking a link to a different website. If the visitor performs an action that you desire, your website has achieved a conversion! A conversion occurs when a desired action takes place, fulfilling a goal for your site. Every website's content and structure should be built with the intent of getting the visitor to the desired action, CONVERTING!

Pageview: The number of times a webpage was loaded.

Action: Actions a visitor performs taking them from one web page to another web page.

Conversion: Completion of a desired action on your website, fulfilling a goal for the site. 

Website goals can be based on the desire to generate potential leads, increase brand exposure for your research, get students to apply for scholarships, or have visitors reach out for a campus tour. You may want to track visitors subscribing to your email communications where you share research updates on a monthly basis, the number of downloads a document gets, or how many people are registering for upcoming events on campus.

Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Determine your goals

The first step is to determine a goal for your website. Say you've been tasked with getting more current Iowa State students to apply for scholarships. You begin by checking your analytics for the Current Student Scholarships page and find that over the past year you averaged 200 pageviews a month, with 6 application submissions: a conversion rate of 3%.

Conversion rate: The number of conversions divided by the number of pageviews.

You look a little deeper and find that in the months of September and October, the pageviews spike to 450 a month; however, the total submissions are still averaging under fifteen. You decide to review the content on your Current Student Scholarships page and find that the call-to-action (CTA), in this case a red link, is very deep on your page and not standing out as an action item. You rework the page to include a button at the top of your page that immediately takes applicants to the form, and change the link at the bottom of the page to a button as well with the hope of increasing your page's conversion rate. 

Step 2: Document your goals

It's a good idea to make your website goals SMART. SMART is an acronym for specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, if a website's purpose is to increase awareness of your research, a SMART goal for that site might be to increase "project" pageviews 15% by December of that year. We've created a helpful worksheet to help you get started documenting your first SMART goal. Download the SMART Goals worksheet! 

You've got a goal for your site, but let's make it SMART!

SMART Goal Worksheet Example

Using SMART goals is a great way to get started, and for the more ambitions content editors, the Matomo Goals feature is a simple tool to help track how your site performs against multiple website goals.

Step 2: Set up tracking with your analytics system

Once a SMART goal is established, you may want to take it one step further by setting up goal tracking in your analytics system. This would allow you to get a report in your monthly analytics email that is specific to the conversions of your goal. Ready for some good news? The CALS/LAS web team will do it for you! Contact us at websupport@iastate.edu and let us know your SMART goal. We will load it into Matomo for you! Below is a snapshot of what goal tracking in Matomo looks like!  You can select how the goal is triggered, how often a user can trigger it, and even set a specific revenue amount for each goal completed. 

Goal Setting in Matomo


Step 3: Track goal progress

DON'T FORGET ABOUT YOUR GOAL!! Whether you are tracking in Matomo or not, it's a good idea to keep a log of each of your goals and include the start date, starting metrics, end date, ending metrics, and any notes you may need to make along the way. You can use our free SMART goals worksheet to keep a log of this data. Sometimes goals aren't performing as well as we hope for. Your website may require content alterations to increase goal conversions. Try moving the location of the desired content. Update the formatting. Update the wording. A website is never a set-it and forget-it project!

Your site is a powerful tool. Don't let it go to waste! Spend time determining what goals you have for the site and make content improvements when needed. We promise you'll be happy with your results!

Contact the CALS/LAS Web Team for support with your SMART goals!

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