» Goal Conversions in Google Analytics

Posted: June 11th, 2008 | Sammy Russo | Tutorials, Web Resources

One of my clients decided that we they needed to start tracking certain goals or conversions on the website via Google Analytics. So I set up the the allotted conversion goals / funnels, but I needed more.

According to Google Analytics documentation or Help Center, they say that if you need to more than four goal conversions… set up additional profiles. So I did.. I took the snippet of java script code (we’re using the Legacy Tracking Code – urchin.js) and pasted it along side the other script. I waited a couple of days and noticed that the second profile wasn’t collecting data.

Troubleshooting Round 1
So I started examining the code snippets… I noticed they were out of sequential order according to the user account # associated with this site profile ex.. _uacct = “UA-8XXXX2-3″;. So I put them in sequential order and all of a sudden the second profile started registering data… sweet I figured out.

My code looked something like this…

A few days later, colleague and friend, Search Master Jamie Low called me and said Google Analytics stopped tracking our account. What happened was once I switched the code around it activated the second profile but deactivated the first.

Troubleshooting Round 2
I’ll admit.. I’m terrible with javascript.. I can install them but have no idea what any of the code means.. but I have worked with them so I should have used a little more common sense. First I fixed the issue by removing the call to the second profile. But I still had find the solution to track both.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the answer on Google anywhere so I sat an pondered the code for a little while. All of sudden I started thinking back to the validation and calendar scripts I install on client forms and how those calls to scripts are structured. I had it all wrong I needed to combine the two scripts into one.. not use two separate ones so it would like this…

After double checking things this afternoon it appears that both sites are now tracking data. I will post a follow up in a few days with final results to let you know how its going and if I really fixed it.




Now What?


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17 Responses to “Goal Conversions in Google Analytics”

  • Sammy Russo Says:
    June 13th, 2008 at 4:15 am

    I’ve watch Google Analytics Reports for 2 days now and the solution above DOES NOT work. If anyone has the answer I’d be thrilled to know.

    Back to the drawing board…

  • Sammy Russo Says:
    June 27th, 2008 at 5:06 pm

    I’ve worked out the solution.. at least is seems to finally be working properly. Read Follow Up to Goal Conversions in Google Analytics

  • What Do You Blog About? Says:
    August 3rd, 2008 at 10:48 pm

    [...] tuning. I also post various other web tips and resources as I stumble upon things… like my trial and error escapades with Google Analytics goal conversions. Sometimes I blog about things that I come across or address on the Wordpress Support Forum like [...]

  • Zac Says:
    December 5th, 2008 at 10:49 am

    There are plenty of excellent SEO and PPC blogs out there, check out SEO.MOZ which i think has the Google Analytics answer

  • Sam Says:
    February 13th, 2009 at 11:29 am

    Thanks Sammy that solution has worked for me. It is working fine.

  • webhostingpro Says:
    February 14th, 2009 at 3:48 pm

    Its new for me, but i will try it.
    Thanks for the info.

  • Paul Myatt Says:
    March 10th, 2009 at 2:15 pm

    Does this still work with the latest versions of WP e.g. 2.71?

  • Sammy Russo Says:
    March 11th, 2009 at 6:59 pm

    Hi Paul,

    This implementation isn’t dependent on Wordpress by any means. In the instance that I was working out the solution, I was doing so for a non-wordpress website.

  • Siemens S7 Says:
    March 18th, 2009 at 5:24 pm

    hi

    Thanks Sammy

    siemens s7

  • Martha Says:
    March 18th, 2009 at 10:26 pm

    Hi

    I did all the stuff you said to. And now when i go to change my theme it says “template is missing”.
    How do i fix that? heres the beggining to my css.

    /*
    Theme Name: Skipster
    Theme URI: don’t copy
    Description: design by me with dreamweaver
    Author: Martha
    Author URI: skipstermag.com
    Template: WordPress Default
    Version 1.6
    */

    I made the template in dreamweaver though and just used your codes above.

    whats wrong with it?

  • Sammy Russo Says:
    March 18th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

    Hi Martha,

    Try removing the line in the stylesheet that says…
    Template: WordPress Default

    Also be sure that you css file is named style.css

    I’ve run into this problem once before but it was so long ago I forgot the actual fix is.. try the above and post back with your results.

    Thanks

  • Martha Says:
    March 19th, 2009 at 3:01 am

    Thanks!

    Now I’m just trying to get the rest to work. I was sort of confused with where to copy and paste the above stuff. Maybe you could post an example? or screen shot of before and after?

    at least my wordpress is now recognizing that i made a theme now!

    thanks!

  • Martha Says:
    March 21st, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    “Don’t forget to carry over the associated styles”

    where do i find those?

  • Martha Says:
    March 21st, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    also what does this mean?

    0. Merge your head content from the Kubrick header.php file into the Dreamweaver Template so it can filter out to all associated pages. Be sure not to over write or mess up and of the Dreamweaver Template tags.

  • Sammy Russo Says:
    March 21st, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    Hi Again Martha,

    Ok.. wordpress loop or meta code you take from any theme, whether its the Default Kubrick or another one.. you need to inspect all that code and make sure you carry of the asscoiated styles form the style sheet.

    For example in the Default theme on the index page there is a snipped of code calling a p class of postmetadate.. look for those style in the style sheet and copy them over.

    As for your second question…

    Open the Default theme header.php file and you’ll need to copy over everything from the top of the page down through the closing of the head tag (I think).

    There are calls here for the stylesheet and rss etc that need to be included.

    Hope this helps. If not.. email me on Monday and I’ll see what I can do to help you out.

    me AT seachfriendlywebdesign DOT com

  • Nadja Says:
    March 27th, 2009 at 7:24 pm

    Hi,
    I’ve been following your tutorial on how to integrate the wordpress blog into my existing template – have gone through it 3 times and it still comes up as “template missing”. It recognises the name of the template (which is in the style.css file). if it can’t find the template, which file is it actually looking for? the index.php? I’m sure I’ve followed the tutorial correctly, don’t know where to look for the error…any tips?
    thanks so much!
    nadja

  • Sammy Russo Says:
    March 27th, 2009 at 8:35 pm

    Hi Nadja,

    Do me favor and give this a try…. CHMOD all of your template files to 777.

    To answer your question.. the minumum you need in the theme folder is index.php and style.css

    The reason I asked you to CHMOD the files is just today I was trying to apply a custom page template to a particular page. For the life of me I could not get Wordpress to recognize the new page template. The permission change allowed wordpress to now recognize that file.

    Please post back your results.. positive or negative. Thanks

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