You've installed analytics. Traffic data is flowing in. You know how many visitors you get and which pages they view. But none of that tells you whether your site is doing what it's supposed to do. That's what conversion goals are for.
What is a conversion goal?
A conversion goal is a specific action you want visitors to take. Signing up for a trial, clicking "Add to cart", reaching the pricing page, or scrolling to the bottom of a key landing page. It turns raw traffic data into an answer: "Is this working?"
Start with the question, not the metric
Before setting up goals, ask: what does success look like for this page? A blog's success might be scroll depth (did they read it?). A pricing page's success might be a click on "Start free trial". A contact page's success is a form submission.
If you can't define what success looks like, you're not ready to set a goal. And that's fine – figure out the purpose first.
Three types of goals
| Goal type | Tracks | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Page visit | Visitor reaches a specific URL | Thank-you pages, confirmation pages, key content |
| Element click | Visitor clicks a specific button or link | CTAs, download links, outbound links |
| Scroll depth | Visitor scrolls past a threshold | Long-form content, landing pages with below-fold CTAs |
Avoiding vanity metrics
A vanity metric is something that looks good but doesn't tell you anything useful. "10,000 page views" sounds impressive until you ask "how many of those people did the thing we wanted?"
Goals fix this. Instead of "we had 10,000 visitors", you can say "we had 10,000 visitors and 340 signed up for a trial – that's a 3.4% conversion rate". Now you have a number you can improve.
Signs your goals might be vanity metrics
- The number always goes up but nothing else changes in your business.
- You can't explain what action the goal represents.
- Everyone nods at the number in meetings but nobody acts on it.
Reading your goal completion rate
Goal completion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete the goal. Context matters:
- E-commerce "Add to cart": 5–10% is typical.
- SaaS free trial signup: 2–5% from landing pages is decent.
- Newsletter signup: 1–3% from blog traffic is common.
Don't compare your rates to averages from different industries. Compare this month to last month, this page to that page, this campaign to that campaign.
Practical setup
- List your site's purposes. Each page type probably has one or two.
- Define one primary goal per page type. A landing page converts signups. A blog converts readers (scroll depth). A product page converts clicks to cart.
- Set them up. In Grandma Knows, open any website's dashboard, click the goal card, and pick a goal type. It takes about 30 seconds – no code needed.
- Review weekly. Goals are only useful if you actually look at them and ask "is this better or worse than last week, and do I know why?"
Grandma's take: Counting visitors is like counting how many people walked past your shop. Counting conversions is like counting how many came inside and bought something. Set up goals for what matters, ignore the rest, and check them regularly. Grandma always knows what she's measuring – and why.