The video is in the works. Until then, the guide will get you there.
Step-by-step guide
Where to find the Goals overview
In the side menu, click "Goals".
A submenu opens. Choose "Overview" there.
The Goals overview page opens.
What is a conversion?
A conversion is an action that was successfully completed. Nothing more, nothing less. A few examples make it clear right away:
- A visitor signs up for your newsletter. A conversion.
- Somebody fills out your contact form. A conversion.
- A customer completes an order. A conversion.
The key point: you decide in advance what counts as a conversion, nobody else. For one business it is the newsletter sign-up, for another it is the submitted cart. This page then shows you the results.
The period being analyzed always follows the date selection at the top. Set a different period there, and the entire report adjusts immediately.
And an honest word here: many people skip this step and spend years looking at nothing but visitor numbers. That is like counting how many people walk into your store but never how many make it to the register. The ten minutes it takes to create a goal are the most rewarding ten minutes in Trustlytics.
The four metrics
Four metrics sit at the very top. Your overview in three seconds:
| Metric | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Conversions | How many conversions were reached in total in the selected period, added up across all your goals. |
| Conversion rate | What share of your visits led to a conversion, in percent. Below it says "of all visits in this period". Example: 2.50% means that out of 100 visits, 2.5 turned into a conversion. |
| Revenue | How much revenue was generated with these conversions. But only if you have stored a revenue value with a goal. If it is missing, a dash "—" appears here. |
| Best goal | The name of the goal reached most often in the period. Below it says how often, for example, "42 conversions". |
One metric is worth a second look: the conversion rate. It is the honest counterpart to raw volume. 5,000 visits sounds terrific, but if none of them do what you were hoping for, that was expensive attention with no return. The conversion rate works out exactly that. Many visitors, few conversions, that is a signal that either the wrong visitors are coming or your page is not convincing them.
And what is a good rate? Honest answer: that depends entirely on your business. Far more visitors will complete a newsletter sign-up than an order worth a thousand dollars. So do not compare yourself with other people's numbers from the internet, compare yourself with your own previous month. The only direction that counts is your own.
The two charts side by side
Conversions per goal
A bar chart. Every bar is one of your goals, and the longer it is, the more conversions that goal brought in. The most successful one sits at the top.
The exact number is at the end of each bar. Hover over it with your mouse, and a small info window appears with the name and the count. That way you spot at a glance where your effort pays off most and where a goal is just puttering along.
A note on reading it: the longest bar is not automatically your most valuable goal. A hundred newsletter sign-ups are quickly reached, three completed orders may well bring in more money. If you have stored revenue values, it is worth comparing with the "Revenue" column in the table further down.
Conversion rate over time
A line chart. It shows for each day what share of the visits turned into a conversion. If the line rises, things are going better, if it falls, things are going worse.
Hover over the line with your mouse, and you see the exact date and the percentage for each day. This is exactly where you look when you want to know whether a change to your website did anything. Placed a new sign-up button, shortened a form, and rewrote some text? If the line rises afterward, you were right. If it stays flat, it was effort without effect. You can hardly measure it more honestly.
The heatmap
A heatmap is a table made up of lots of small colored squares. Sounds complicated, it is not:
- From bottom to top: the seven days of the week, Sunday through Saturday.
- From left to right: the 24 hours of a day, from 12 AM to 11 PM.
- The color: the darker a square, the more conversions there were on that weekday at that hour. Light squares mean few or none.
Hover over a square with your mouse, and an info window tells you exactly what it is about: which weekday, which hour, and how many conversions. Something like "Tue at 3 PM, 2 conversions".
And here lies the real benefit: you see exactly when your visitors are most ready to act. If the dark squares cluster on Tuesday morning, then that is when you send your newsletter, not on Friday evening when everybody is already into the weekend. A gut feeling turns into a decision.
Three things you can actually do with this:
- Time your newsletters and posts. Schedule the send shortly before your darkest squares, not right into the middle of them. Visitors should arrive when they are ready anyway.
- Spread your ad budget. If your ads run around the clock but the conversions all happen on weekdays between 9 AM and 5 PM, you are paying at night for clicks that never turn into anything.
- Check your availability. Most inquiries come in on Friday afternoons, but your team only answers on Monday? Then your best leads sit around untouched for two days.
A note on the times: the hours follow your own time zone, not the visitor's.
The table
At the very bottom sits a table with all your goals, one row per goal. It has six columns:
| Column | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Goal | The name of the goal. Below it, in small gray type, the "pattern", meaning the keyword or the page address Trustlytics looks for (something like /thank-you or Newsletter sign-up). |
| Type | A colored label showing how the goal is triggered: page view (somebody opens a specific page) or event (somebody clicks something specific, a button for example). |
| Conversions | How often this goal was reached in the selected period. |
| Rate | The share of visits that turned into a conversion for this goal, in percent. |
| Revenue | The revenue assigned to this goal, or a dash "—" if none is stored |
| Trend | A tiny mini chart across the days. That way you see at a glance whether a goal runs steadily or whether there are spikes. No data? Then it says "—". |
The mini chart on the far right gets overlooked a lot, and yet it is a small diagnosis. A steady line means: this goal runs on its own, day after day. A single high spike and nothing after it means: there was a campaign, and then it went back to sleep. A line sloping down from left to right is a warning sign you would otherwise notice weeks later..
What you can click in the table
Click on the name of a goal and the detail report for that one goal opens. There is a lot more in there: the full trend, a heatmap of its own and the latest conversions along with the visitor profile. The fastest route from the overview into the depth.
When there are no conversions
If there were no conversions in the selected period, the charts show a note instead of a diagram:
"No conversions in the selected period."
That is not an error either. Usually one of three harmless causes is behind it:
- The period at the top is set too tight. Set it larger, to the last month, for example.
- The goal was created only recently. Then there simply has not been any data yet.
- The goal is not set up cleanly and therefore does not trigger. A look at the setup is worth it, see below.
Aha moments you will recognize
The goals overview is often the page where a cherished assumption bursts. A few patterns you will recognize quickly:
- Lots of visits, but the conversion rate is in the basement. You are attracting visitors, just the wrong ones, or your page is not convincing them. Time to take a closer look at the form or the landing page.
- One goal carries almost everything on its own. Comfortable, as long as it runs. But if the one channel behind it falls away, your most important action stands still too. A second and third goal takes the pressure off.
- The heatmap shows a clear pattern. Everybody converts Tuesday around midday, hardly anybody on the weekend. From now on, you time your campaigns accordingly instead of guessing.
- A spike in the mini chart right after a change. You rebuilt something, and the trend picks up. Proof that the change worked, right there in the row.
- The number sits at zero even though sign-ups are obviously coming in. Almost always the goal is set up wrong and misses the action. Annoying, but fixed in five minutes.
What is in it for me?
The goals overview is your test bench for the only question that counts in the end: is my website doing what I have it for? It answers the essentials at a glance:
- Is anything happening at all? The conversions and the rate next to them always read together. A high number with a low rate means: lots of visitors and little effect.
- Which goal carries me? The "Conversions per goal" chart lines them up side by side, the most successful at the top.
- Did my change work? The trend shows it a few days later, more honestly than any gut feeling.
- When are my visitors ready? The heatmap shows weekday and hour, so you can time your campaigns instead of guessing.
- Which goal brings in money? The "Revenue" column, provided you stored values. Only then do ten sign-ups and three orders become comparable.
The real value is that you move from counting visitors to measuring results. Visitor numbers flatter you, conversions tell the truth. Anyone who only looks at the visit count sometimes celebrates an increase that gains them nothing. Anyone who looks at the goals sees right away whether attention is turning into something.
If you take only one thing from this page: create at least one goal that genuinely counts for your business. Without a goal, Trustlytics stays a nice visitor counter. With a goal, it becomes the instrument that shows you whether your work pays off.
Common questions
Where do I create new goals?
Under "Settings → Conversion goals". The detailed instructions are in the article Set up goals.
What exactly is a "conversion"?
An action that was successfully completed and that you flagged as important beforehand. A newsletter sign-up, a contact request, or an order. Which action counts is up to you.
Why is the page completely empty for me?
You probably have not created a goal yet. In that case the note "You have not defined any goals yet" appears with a button to get started. As soon as the first goal is in place and the first conversion is counted, everything fills up on its own.
I see sign-ups on my site, but it says zero here. What is going on?
Almost always the goal is not set up cleanly and therefore misses the action. Check under "Settings → Conversion goals" whether the stored pattern really matches the page or the event. A small typo in the pattern is enough for nothing to be counted.
What is the difference between "page view" and "event" in the Type column?
A page view goal triggers when a visitor reaches a specific page, your "thank you" page after a purchase, for example. An event goal triggers when somebody clicks something specific, a button for instance. Which one fits better depends on how your site is built.
Why is there a dash in "Revenue"?
Because no revenue value is stored with that goal. Revenue only appears if you deliberately assigned a value to a goal, USD 49 per order for example. Without a value, Trustlytics cannot calculate revenue and shows "—".
What do I enter as a revenue value if I do not sell anything?
Estimate what such an action is worth to you on average. If experience says ten contact requests turn into one job worth USD 2,000, then a single request is worth USD 200 on paper. That suddenly makes different goals comparable. The value does not have to be exact, it only has to get the proportions right.
Which time zone does the heatmap use?
Your own, not the visitor's. When it says "2 PM" there, your local time is meant.
Why does my conversion rate differ from the number in another tool?
Because not every tool calculates the same way. Trustlytics puts the conversions in relation to the visits in the selected period. Other tools sometimes use visitors instead of visits or a different slice of time. So small deviations are normal and not a counting error.
Does it count if the same visitor reaches the same goal twice?
Yes, every completed action is counted. If somebody submits two orders, those are two conversions. And rightly so, because two orders are two orders. With goals that somebody could trigger more than once by accident, by reloading a "thank you" page, for example, a critical look at the numbers is worth it.
How many goals should I create?
Start with one, the most important. Three to five is enough for most websites. Anyone who creates twenty goals ends up with twenty numbers and still no answer. Fewer, but the right ones.
How often should I look in here?
Once a week for the overview is usually enough. On top of that, it is worth a look whenever you have changed something on your website. Then the trend shows you after a few days whether the change did anything.