Conversion Tracking in WordPress for Small Business Success

A website conversion refers to the desired action that a visitor takes on a website, aligning with the business or website owner’s goals. It represents a successful outcome, demonstrating that a user has moved from being a mere visitor to actively engaging with the site in a meaningful way. Conversions can take various forms depending on the nature of the website and its objectives. Conversion tracking is the process of measuring engagements to see which ones are successful. Here are some common examples of website conversions:

1. E-commerce Purchase:
   • For an online store, a conversion occurs when a visitor makes a purchase. This is often the primary goal for e-commerce websites, and tracking these transactions provides insights into revenue generation.
2. Form Submission:
   • Conversions can involve users filling out and submitting forms. This could include contact forms, lead generation forms, or subscription forms for newsletters.
3. Account Creation or Registration:
   • Some websites aim to convert visitors into registered users or members. This could involve creating an account, signing up for a membership, or joining a community.
4. Downloading a Resource:
   • Conversions may involve users downloading a file, such as an e-book, whitepaper, software, or any other valuable resource offered by the website.
5. Clicking a Call-to-Action (CTA):
   • Clicking on a specific button or link that prompts a desired action, such as “Buy Now,” “Sign Up,” or “Learn More,” can also be considered a conversion.
6. Engagement Metrics:
   • In some cases, conversions may not be directly tied to a transaction but could involve meaningful engagement metrics. For instance, spending a certain amount of time on a page, viewing a certain number of pages, or interacting with multimedia content.
7. Phone Number Click:
   • If one of the primary goals of your website is to get people to call you, tracking phone number clicks on your website can be a good conversion measurement.
8. Clicking an Affiliate Link:
   • If a website is part of an affiliate marketing program, a conversion might involve users clicking on affiliate links that lead to external websites where they make a purchase.

Understanding and tracking website conversions is important for businesses because it provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your online presence and marketing strategies. By analyzing conversion data, website owners can identify what is working well, optimize their approach, and enhance the overall user experience to drive more successful outcomes.

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Understanding Conversion Tracking:

Conversion tracking involves monitoring and analyzing user actions on your website that align with your business goals. These actions, known as conversions, can vary from making a purchase and filling out a contact form to signing up for a newsletter. The goal is to measure the effectiveness of your online efforts and identify areas for improvement.

A lot of people don’t actually take the steps necessary to set up official conversion tracking, and instead just rely on their own perception of how their website is doing, gauging the number of form submissions they get or the number of sales, etc. But I would say that it’s super important to set up actual conversion metrics in Google Analytics. This gives you real data, without the user-error or user-perception mistakes that human people make.

Before setting up conversion tracking for your website, first decide what you want to track. What would signify to you that your website is working? One of the first questions I usually ask a potential client is how they would measure success of the website, and often times their answer is that it looks good or that it’s easy to use. And those are not bad goals, but they aren’t really measurable goals. What can we measure? I’m going to give a few examples of things we can measure, and how to set up Google Analytics conversion tracking for those measurable goals.

First, you actually have to have Google Analytics set up and working on your website. This is a pretty important step. Even if you don’t set up conversion tracking, having analytics working should be one of the first things you do when your site is launched. The easiest way in a WordPress site is using the SiteKit plugin from Google.

Setting Up Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics:

Conversion tracking has changed since the switch from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4, but they’ve got a set of guides to help you set up conversion tracking for a variety of different website measurements.

• Set up a conversion for when a form is submit. To set up this conversion, when people submit a form on your website, then they need to be redirected to a landing page or thank you page after they hit submit on the form. And, if you have multiple forms, you may want to have multiple thank you pages so you can track which form is getting the most action. Read the Google directions on how to set up this conversion tracking.
• Set up a download conversion. This is a conversion that you track when someone downloads a file from your website. If you have a download available, tracking how many people are downloading it is important so you know if your call-to-action is engaging. Read the Google directions on setting up conversion tracking for downloads.
• Set up a conversion for when a registration form is completed. If you have a membership site, tracking registrations is important. Read the instructions on how to set up conversion tracking for website registration.
• Set up an add-to-cart conversion. There are a lot of e-commerce conversions to track, and actual sales is just one. Having an add-to-cart conversion is an interesting metric that will let you see how many people add-to-cart versus how many people actually check out. Check out the directions on tracking this type of conversion in Google Analytics.
• Set up a conversion for when an online sale occurs. This is conversion tracking for when someone completes a purchase on the website, and it works pretty much the same way as a form submission, because it tracks the final destination URL for that sale. It’s important to know the final URL of the sale, and you can find the checkout endpoints in the Woo documentation. (For orders received – /order-received/) and then you can set up GA4 tracking using these directions. You can take this further even and set up amount tracking so you can get an actual ROI on each conversion.
• Set up a conversion for when you receive a phone number click. This means that if someone clicks on your phone number, that click should be tracked. Keep in mind that it doesn’t necessarily mean you got a phone call, as plenty of people may hang up before you answer. But it gives you some data that can be useful. Learn how to set up a phone number click conversion. (It does require using Google Tag Manager, which if you aren’t familiar with, can be more complicated than regular conversion tracking. But if phone calls are important, it’s probably worthwhile to set up.)

Make sure when you are setting up conversion tracking that you label your conversions so you know which conversions are hits and which are misses.

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What to do with your conversion data

Once you start getting data back on your conversions, you need to decide what to do with that information. The reason we collect data is so we can use that to improve your website. If you set up conversion tracking for your contact form, and nobody is contacting you, then the next step is WHY? Why is it not getting conversions? And what can we do to fix it?

Reasons people aren’t submitting your contact form

• The form doesn’t work. I had someone come to me once and say they weren’t getting any form submissions. I took a look, and their form was broken.
• The form is too long. The more fields you add, the less submissions you’ll get. Ask for the bare minimum information in order to respond properly to the inquiry. Studies have shown removing the phone number field can increase conversions by 5%.
• Lack of website trust. Does your website show your trustworthiness in some way? Does it look professional or homemade?
• Not mobile friendly. People fill out forms on phones too, so your form needs to be mobile-friendly.
• Slow loading website. If your form takes too long to load, people will go away.
• Poor form design. Is your form hard to read? Are the fields too small or hard to navigate?
• Unattractive offers. Do you have a compelling reason for someone to complete your form? You need to make it worthwhile for someone to submit that form.

These are just a few reasons why your forms may not be converting. Think about these and look at your forms. The next step is to make one or more changes and then continue tracking to see if form submissions increase.

Reasons people aren’t buying from your online store

• Products are priced too high. If prices are not competitive or if customers perceive better value elsewhere, they may choose other retailers.
• Shipping is too much. Unexpected or high shipping costs can lead to cart abandonment. Consider offering transparent and reasonable shipping rates.
• Website doesn’t seem trustworthy. Missing trust signals such as customer reviews, security badges, and clear return policies can make customers hesitant to make a purchase.
• Checkout process is too hard. A complex and lengthy checkout process, especially one that requires creating an account, can discourage customers from completing their purchase.
• Limited payment options. Offering only a few payment options may exclude potential customers. Ensure that your store supports a variety of payment methods.
• Poor Website Design. A poorly designed website with a confusing layout or slow loading times can deter visitors and lead to a high bounce rate.
• Inadequate Product Descriptions. Lack of detailed and persuasive product descriptions can leave customers unsure about the value and benefits of the products.
• Lack of Unique Selling Proposition (USP). If your store doesn’t offer a unique value proposition or if it’s not clear why customers should choose your products over others, it can impact sales. Why should they buy from you and not your competitor?

If you have traffic to your website, but you aren’t making sales, then take a look at some of these and make sure you aren’t falling into these pitfalls. Make adjustments and continue to track to see if you get some improvements. Consider adding A/B Testing if you aren’t sure which change is going to be best.

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The reason to track your conversions is so that you can continually make adjustments to your website to get more conversions. Knowing the data gives you the information you need to make informed decisions. If things aren’t working, make changes and continue to track. Knowledge is power!