Today, we’re going to take a look at the simplest way to use the Pageview Tracker aka _trackPageview feature in Google Analytics. I’m joined by Luci Smethurst, one of our senior web designers.

Pageview Trackers let you record hits in Google Analytics on elements that are contained ‘within the page’. For example, the number of times a link to a download is clicked, the amount of clicks on a specific button, or infact any javascript controlled event such as jQuery Tabs, Show/Hide Sliders and ‘One-Page’ Wizards.

Variations of the _trackPageview Code

• Tracking Link Clicks: <a title=”Name of Link” onclick=”_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/linktype/linkname']);” href=”http://www.domain.co.uk”>Name your Link</a>
• Tracking Button Clicks: <input onclick=”_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/submit/contact-form/']);” name=”submit” type=”submit” value=”Submit” /></code>
• Tracking an Impression: <script type=”text/javascript”>pageTracker._trackPageview(“/page/impression/”);</script>

You can also setup Goals specific to your Pageview Trackers; E.G. Tracking the user behaviour and conversion rate of ‘One-Page’ Checkouts and Contact Forms, useful for quantifying the success of SEO Campaigns. Not sure on how to setup a Goal? Checkout our blog on Goals in Google Analytics.

There is one thing to warn about. By using an extra Page Tracker, as GA tracking is already in place – your Analytics of course will show 2 hits instead of 1 for the same page. It all depends on what you’re tracking, but this could result in your GA showing inaccurate data. You can curveball this issue by using an alternative Event Tracker.

After working hard getting page 1 position 1 listings for your clients or your own website, what is the next logical step? Today’s video will show you how to drill down the information provided by Google Analytics to illustrate the conversion rate and therefore ROI for 2 different dimension. The first dimension is keywords, allowing you to clearly see which keywords generates the most goal completions and the conversion rate of each keyword. The second dimension will allow you to see the trends of how particular regions or countries use keywords and your website to completing your goals. Both the keyword and area dimensions are designed to allow you to adapt and improve your strategy for optimizing your website. The idea behind custom reporting is that each client will have different objectives, the custom reports will show you any information you require and that cannot be found in the default analytic’ settings. You can also add any custom reports you create to the dashboard or apply them across multiple website profiles allowing you to feedback valuable information to your clients. Thanks for watching.