Almost a year and a half ago, I posted a brief guide on the different match types that Google Analytics uses to define goals. For something that is so integral to a successful Google Analytics configuration, goals are easily one of the more confusing aspects of the tool, and we get more questions about goals than perhaps anything else.

Last week, Google quietly updated the Google Analytics Goal Settings page. They rearranged the order of the fields, and also clarified something that has long been somewhat under-emphasized. In the explanation text for the Goal URL:

For the goal page "http://www.mysite.com
/thankyou.html" enter "/thankyou.html"

Previously, the example text basically told users to just copy and paste the entire URL from their conversion page. Now, only the Request URI is required.

Actually, this isn't a change to the way that Google Analytics recognizes goals. It's always worked this way, targeting only the Request URI. It would simply discard anything in the Goal URL that wasn't part of the Request URI (anything after the dot-com, basically) and match what was left.

Now that the official recommendation is to use the Request URI, it looks like old-school goals are still backwards-compatible and will function with the whole URL. But for future reference, for a goal URL of:

http://www.mysite.com/thankyou.html

You only need to put:

/thankyou.html

Into the Goal URL field.

How do you use Google Analytics' Goal Matches? Are you a regular expressions junkie, or do you stick to tried-and-true exact match? Leave us a comment!

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You've probably played around with the Default Page setting in Google Analytics. In many cases, this is definitely the way to go, as it will prevent your home page from showing up in different ways in your Google Analytics reports (as / and /index.html for example).

But you need to be careful when you set the default page, as it will not only affect your home page, but any page that ends with a forward slash ('/').

What do I mean by this? It's pretty simple - if you set the default page to index.html, it will not only change any future / entries into /index.html, but if you have another page ending in /, say /blog/, it will change that to /blog/index.html too. But what if your blog's default page is actually /blog/index.php? Well, then you have a problem.

If you have several such subdirectories or pages, then you have several problems. The good news is that there is a simple way to create a simple filter that only replaces the home page.

Continue reading "Default Page vs. Home Page" »

Welcome back to another episode of ROI Revolution's Funny Adwords Contest. We're pleased to announce the arrival of the next wave of ads that have been collected over the last several months.

You can see the Round 1 Winners here.

The rules: Read the ads and post a quick comment to declare your winners for the top 3 funniest Adwords Ads. You can just put the ad numbers in your comments, but clearly label each ad 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. If you enjoyed this post, forward the link to people you know and encourage them to vote too. The more votes we get, the more indisputable the winners are.

The point system will be as follows:

• 1st place vote = 3 points
• 2nd place vote = 2 points
• 3rd place vote = 1 point

Round 2:

The more votes we get, the better, so pass it on. Later on, we'll announce the winners, losers, whatever. The funniest.

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