Understanding goals and conversions
A goal describes an action whose success you want to measure on your website. Set it up in the Project Manager, then explore recorded events under Goals in the Analytics App. A goal does not automatically mean a sale or a successfully processed request.
For creation and website code, use Set up and install goals.
Impressions and conversions
A conversion is a recorded goal action. Its meaning depends on the goal type. For goal types that support them, an impression records that the tracker found a marked element at tracking startup. It does not confirm that someone saw the element.
| Goal type | Impression | Conversion |
|---|---|---|
| Page view | No separate goal impression. | A matching page rule is satisfied at tracking startup. |
| Click | Marked element exists at tracking startup. | A click on the marked element. |
| Form | Marked form exists at tracking startup. | An observed submit event; not proof of successful processing. |
| Visible section (scroll) | Marked element exists at tracking startup. | The marked section is observed in the viewport. |
| Manual event | No separate goal impression. | The installed tiTrack call runs while tracking is active. |
A page view is therefore not automatically a goal impression. Page and manual goals can have conversions without impressions. Dynamically inserted elements can also lack an impression because initialisation has already completed.
What happens with repeated actions?
Analytics count stored events, not unique people. The browser tracker suppresses repeats for each goal and event within the same tab session. Clicking the same goal several times there does not automatically count several times. Reloading alone does not reset this protection.
Further conversions can occur across independent sessions. A conversion count therefore gives neither the total number of physical clicks nor the number of different people.
What is the conversion rate?
The rate is calculated per goal and date range from the stored events:
Conversion rate = conversions ÷ goal impressions × 100Example: 20 conversions from 200 impressions give 10%. The denominator is impressions of that goal in that period, rather than all project page views, visitors or sessions.
Without impressions, the rate cannot be calculated and is shown as —. This is particularly expected for page and manual goals and does not mean their conversions are missing. Values above 100% are possible and are not capped.
Distribution and individual goals
The distribution chart shows how recorded conversions are spread across goals. Its percentage share uses a different denominator from an individual goal's conversion rate.
For example, if a goal contributes 20 of 50 total conversions, its chart share is 40%. If it has 200 impressions, its conversion rate is still 10%.
The goal detail view shows the trend and associated pages for the selected goal. A missing page association does not prove that an event was not counted.
Archived goals
Archiving disables new goal events and preserves recorded measurements. Archived goals can appear in the app when they have events in the selected period. Changing the range can therefore change which archived goals are visible.
The setup guide explains reactivation and the difference from permanent deletion.
Period, comparison and data availability
Select the correct project and date range in the app. Daily values follow the project time zone. A day in progress may be incomplete. The range display also shows the selected comparison period.
Missing data is not a measured zero. — can indicate a missing data basis or denominator. Read the notices before interpreting comparisons. Find your way around the app explains percentage changes and percentage points.