Google Analytics Guide - Manual (Page 17)

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Where Visitors Enter and Leave Your Funnel
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Abandoning your site
Entering your site
Your defined goal
Make a donation
Donation page
View shopping cart
Reciept Page
Proceeded to donation page
Proceeded to View Shopping
Cart
Proceeded to Receipt Page
The path to your goal is called a Funnel Path. Technically speaking, a Funnel Path is a series of pages
through which a visitor is expected to pass before reaching the conversion goal.
The Funnel Path is like a video game where the player has to pass through specific doors to reach the
prize at the end. In this case, you just need to identify which doors, or pages in your site, the visitor
has to go through (visit) to get the prize (your goal of a donation, volunteer, newsletter sign up, etc) at
the end.
So, a visitor might come to your homepage through an AdWords ad and click on the “Make a
Donation” link, then go to your donation page, choose an amount to donate, go through the buying
process, and get your goal (or receipt) page to complete the Funnel Path.
In the Goal Funnel Report, the middle column of green funnels represent the steps in one of your
Funnel Paths, or the pages within your site on the way to your receipt or goal page. Overlaid on each
green funnel step is the percentage and number of visitors still in the funnel at each step.
On the right are the visitors who left the funnel (pages within your site) and where they went, whether
they left your site and went somewhere else on the web or somewhere else on your site.
Shown at left are the Entrance Points, points from which visitors arrive to the funnel. Again these
might be places on your site or other sites on the web.
This report can help you answer questions like:
•Where in the Funnel Path do people tend to leave?
•What is turning them away? Are there design elements that don’t work here?
•Which funnel paths convert the best?
Figuring out these details can help you focus your efforts on the best performing funnel paths and get
you the most conversions. That could mean more donations, volunteers, sign-ups or downloads for
your organization.