How's Your Registration Rate? - Analytics Goal/Funnel

[Princeton]

I'm a big fan of Google Analytics. The stats it provides are key to our growth. Without it, I believe it would be difficult to make improvements.

With Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) you can write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.


Which brings me to this post...
The vBulletin multiple-page-registration process is one of the worst. Yet, I still see many sites requiring everyone to go through this process.

The problem with this is that I believe people hate going through these steps. Most end-users will probably exit the process before completing. I'm sure some people feel the same way ??

Maybe it's all in my head - maybe not.

Anyway if you track your registration rate via Analytics...
Can you share it (your conversion rate*) with the community? (go back just 1 month)
* those who actually completed the registration process

Better yet, take a screenshot of the Registration Goal funnel. (Jing (http://www.jingproject.com/)- free screenshot tool)

HERE'S MINE...

http://content.screencast.com/users/Joe_Velez/folders/Snagit/media/dfbaa7c4-1df7-45b2-a1a8-d83be92037bb/03.17.2010-11.13.13.png

I have a 1-page custom registration page. COPPA Registration is disabled.

The funnel provides some valuable information...
I'm getting over 60% conversion rate - is this good enough? Should I continue tweaking? hmmm

The other data on the page is also helpful - I've done some additional tweaking and plan for more.

How do I set up goals and funnels? (http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?answer=55515)



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Our job as administrators is to build an optimized registration process.

Some may already have an optimized Registration process but I bet the majority can be tweaked to return a higher conversion rate.


The goal is to compare rates with others. Hopefully, it will show you if your registration process is working or if it needs improvement.

[Alfa1]

My rate is at 33% but that is after email confirmation and stopforumspam and other anti spam hoops.

[Princeton]

thanks...

Are you happy with that number?

Are you using Google Analytics?
If yes, why not post a screenshot of your funnel?

[Alfa1]

Are you happy with that number?
Yes and no. Yes, because:

I stop virtually all spam bots
I avoid registrations with inactive email accounts. I have way to much problems with inactive email accounts and avoiding blacklisting by email providers.
Users are forced to read the rules. The group that does not take the effort to read them would cause problems after registration.
No, because the rate is pretty low.

Are you using Google Analytics?
If yes, why not post a screenshot of your funnel?
Yes, I am but the funnel data does not make much sense.


According to analytics, 8.328 users entered the register process in January.
2.643 (32%) agreed to the rules and proceeded to confirm their email, while 5.685 (68%) aborted.
2.643 users confirmed their email address and proceeded to the registration form. This is 100% of those that proceeded to confirm their email, while bounces show that many email addresses are not valid.
2.749 users completed the registration form. This is 106 users more than entered it. Mind that in reality a number of other scripts stop a substantial number of registrations here. My registration statistics in vbulletin state that 1.737 new members registered in January.

So the whole funnel is skewed.

[induslady]

Hello Princeton,

I have set up the goal tracking for registration process in Google Analytics with goal flow as below -

Step 1 - /forums/register.php
Step 2 - /forums/register.php?do=addmember
Step 3 - /forums/vbsso/vbsso.php?a=act&do=verifyemail

Yes I have a WP section in my site and vbulletin is integrated with WP through vbSSO.

Here is my goal funnel visualization -
149129

But my funnel result is skewed and here are some of the issues -

1) Why there are huge number of exits for the goal URLs - /forums/register.php and /forums/register.php?do=addmember at step 2. Almost 85% of the exit here ( 452 + 700 / 1346)
What could be the cause for this.

2)When I run the data in my forums for the same period as in the goal funnel I notice there is 1188 users who has completed the registration form and have submitted the data. But the funnel shows 106. Why there is such a huge discrepancy?

3)Is there anything basic in the goal set up process that am missing out on.

Thanks in advance for the earliest response.

[Max Taxable]

The vBulletin multiple-page-registration process is one of the worst. Yet, I still see many sites requiring everyone to go through this process.

The problem with this is that I believe people hate going through these steps. Most end-users will probably exit the process before completing. I'm sure some people feel the same way ??The more hoops you make the folks have to jump through - captchas, puzzles and the nonsensical like - the more likely they are especially today, to just exit.