Once you’ve installed Google Analytics on your Zen Cart (covered here), the next step is setting the correct settings in your Google Analytics account. The Google Analytics settings for Zen Cart are required to ensure the data you want, the data you need, gets collected. You can’t run reports on data that does not get collected. Seems obvious, but you can’t go back and collect data on activity in the past so you want to set it up right from the beginning.
Once you log into your Google Analytics account, navigate to your Zen Cart profile (only necessary if you have more than one). Once there, click the Admin tab in the header. Once there, see the image below and click the View tab on the far right.
Once there, there are four items worth setting. See the image below for details. Item #1, turn on ecommerce tracking. This will record orders along with order totals, items purchased, etc. Item #2, if you’re using AdWords and have linked your account (another topic for another post) check the box to share the data between AdWords and Analytics. Item #3, turn on site search. This will record the search terms using by your site visitors. Very helpful data for various marketing activities and website improvements. Item #4, the Query Parameter to enter is ‘keyword’.
While you’re there, go ahead and set the Default page, be sure currency is set for your country (likely USD) and if you want to track category searches, you can enable that too.
With these settings and properly installed Google Analytics, you’re all set for some serious data analysis. Measure, tweak, repeat and you’ll be moving in the right direction. Don’t measure, stand still and your competition will pass you by. The saying ‘what doesn’t get measured, doesn’t exist’ is quite true. If you can’t, or don’t measure the before and after how can you judge whether the change was good or not? Measure, tweak, repeat.
Leave A Comment