Google Analytics Goal URL, recording ONLY the first time a user hits that page - google-analytics

In our user sign-up process, conversion is being defined each time a user completes 4 steps and lands on their individual user home page (/publications\/.*). The RegEx is functioning properly, however I realized that GA is registering a "conversion" every time a user signs back in and visits that same page for the second time, third time, etc., since that page is just each user's "home" page on return sign-ins.
Is there a way to force GA to recognize the visits ONLY the first time a user hits that page?
Thanks for your help in advance!

No. You better create a new url for when the process completes, or maybe fire a virtual pageview once the user completes registration.
You can also mark the first step of the process as a required step. You create a URL Goal but add the sign-up form as a required step. The problem with this setp is that it only applies to the funnel view. The total conversions would still count all of them, but when you look at the funnel view you would only see the conversions that went through the required first step.

There are a couple of ways I could think of:
Eduardo's virtual pageview recorded on a successful sign-up would be
my number one recommendation. This pageview will become your Goal
Conversion URL and will take care of the repeat offenders.
Set a cookie for your registered users and have that determine the conversion tracking.

Related

What pages led to Conversion

I am trying to create a "Custom Report" in Google Analytics but cannot get the dimension/metric to work. My goal is to retrieve all pages of a user that triggered an event(also a goal) on which pages before they converted(purchased - ecommerce)?
Like this:
1) User enters the main page ("/")
2) User goes trough 3-4 article pages (20 seconds activity triggers an event that also is a goal in GA.
3) User fills out form and submits (Enhanced Ecommerce - transaction)
My Goal is to list out either:
1) How many times a user triggered this particular event before purchasing
2) List all pages on where user triggered this particular event before purchasing.
My Custom Report looks like this:
But gives 0 rows in return.
This is caused by the filter that you are using, where you are trying to combine Hit level data with session data. Events are gathered at hit level, where as the question you ask needs to be looked at from a sessionalization perspective.
Let me describe what I believe is happening. Since a user on your website is browsing the articles page, they trigger an event called "Content viewed". Not sure how many times or the exact coding here, but let's say it triggered four times. This is then tied to the Event as a Hit to the page that it triggered on.
On the following page, the order page, they trigger the event "Order Completed" after they register, which again, the event is registered Hit level on that page. This means that on pages ABCD, they trigger the event for "Content viewed".
What you need is a segment to do this kind of analysis. A segment ties together sessions and users from Hit level data, so you can answer questions like: "Which Users have triggered "Content viewed" and then completed registration?"
Sessionalization works by creating sessions tied to a User (client ID) and what happened during that Session. A Session carries different Hits, which are then aggregated as a Unique Visitor, or User, over a number of sessions.
Hope my explanation helped!

Google analytics: Complete a goal when two events occur

There are two events.
User visit /point1.
User visit /point2.
If the events occur in this order, I want the goal to be hit.
I have created a funnel for this, but the problem is that even if the user does not visit /point1, and visit /point2, the goal is hit! (destination is point2..)
I want the goal to be hit only when the user visit /point1 and /point2 in that order.How can I accomplish this?
Basically you can't (not via configuration, that is). Funnels only affect the visualisation, not goal completion.
You can either do a workaround in code - set a cookie on /point1, then fire an event on /point2 only when the cookie is set, and change your configuration to use an event based goal.
If you do not need to actual goal conversion, but just want to know how many users completed the steps in the correct order, you can create a segment of the "sequence" type (step1 page equals /point1 followed by step2 page equals /point2), which will limit the data displayed in the standard reports to sessions where users visited one point after the other.

Destination Goal not taking funnel into consideration

I have a very basic site goal:
When someone gets to the '/my-account' page directly from the '/component/community/ajaxregister/ajaxregister' page, it needs to count it as a conversion (Registration).
I have a custom destination goal set up:
Destination = '/my-account'
Funnel: ON
Step 1 '/component/community/ajaxregister/ajaxregister' Requires? YES
The registration counts in my db do not match the goal count and the 'Reverse Goal Path' report shows that there are conversions being registered where the 'Goal Previous - Step 1' includes pages other than the registration page.
Any ideas on how to make this goal register only when one lands on my-account from the registration page?
The "required step" merely affects funnel visualization, not goal conversion. So by default there is no way not make this count only when people come from the registration page.
To solve this in code (and thus make the question on topic :-) ) you could
check the referring page on your goal conversion page, then
fire an event when the referrer is the registration pages, and
then switch to an event-based goal in the GA backend
That way you would not have a funnel (does not work with event based goals), but at least you'd have the "correct" number of conversions.

How do I calculate conversion rate using Google Analytics?

I have created a goal in Google Analytics that is met when the user completes the sign up process. The page that they end up at is
http://my_url.com/?just_signed_up=true
In order to calculate my conversation rate, I need to do this calculation:
goal (sign ups) / new visitors
I know that in order to use new visitor numbers, I can either set up a profile with a new visitor filter or just apply a new user advanced segment on my normal profile.
My problem is that the Google Analytics tracking code is on every page in my site, including my landing page. The sign up process goes like this:
Landing page -> Sign up form -> http://my_url.com/?just_signed_up=true
When the user ends up at the URL above, am I correct in thinking that Google Analytics will no longer consider them a new user, as they would have the cookie from when they landed on the landing page at the start of the sign up process? If so, then there will never be a new visitor that meets the goal. How would I calculate my conversion rate in this scenario?
A returning visitor is someone who starts an additional Google Analytics session while using your site. To start a new session they need to close their browser or stop using the site for a period of at least 30 minutes. Browsing around your site clicking links isn't considered stating a new session. This means that, in most cases, signups from new users will be from people (or at least browsers with a set of cookies) who have not visited your site before.

Google-Analytics: How do I add an e-mail link as the final step of a goal?

I send a confirmation link via e-mail (in multiple places) but it seems Analytics doesn't recognize those clicks (given URL is visited) unless the visit immediate. I am guessing the last part is about session expiration.
How can I define my goal funnel so that confirmation page landings are recognized even after a day or two?
My confirmation URL is in following format:
"http://<domain_name>/confirmation/<10_char_hex_confirmation_code>/"
You can't. All the steps of a goal funnel must occur in the same session.
You could always have one goal for signing up (i.e. sending the e-mail), and another goal for the confirmation landing page. Then compare these goal conversions, and you'll get the same story.

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