Tracking a user’s journey is necessary to gain insights into how users interact with your website. It helps you improve your website for a better user experience and, more importantly, to increase conversions.
Luckily, there’s an easy way to do so on WordPress websites through a lead form. All you need to do is prepare the right analytics tools and install a few WordPress plugins, and you’re ready to go.
1. Choose a Suitable Hosting Plan
A hosting plan is a mandatory item when you want to create a website. While you can use any type of hosting to host a WordPress website, choosing a plan with resources that help maximize its uptime is essential.
Guaranteeing your website is available and working properly at all times can significantly reduce bounce rate, increasing conversions and leading to more trackable users.
Shared hosting is the most affordable hosting type, but it has more risk of downtime due to its shared resources. If you’re creating a website for the first time and are concerned about the budget, this can be an option.
VPS hosting, as you can find here, is a great option to get the best value for money and high uptime. With more plans available, VPS hosting is also suitable for small to large websites. However, using VPS hosting requires technical knowledge.
2. Set Up Your Analytics Tools
The next step is to set up Google Analytics. It is by far the most popular analytics tool, with over 28 million websites using it.
Setting it up is a simple process and only requires a Google account. Once you log in to your Google account, go to the Google Analytics website and follow these steps:
Click on Start measuring on the homepage.
- Enter your account name and set your Account Data Sharing Settings. Click Next once you’re done.
- Enter the Property name and choose the Reporting time zone and Currency. You can edit the property details in the Admin panel later. Click Next.
- Enter the details of your Business. Click Create once you’ve completed the form.
Now that you have a Google Analytics account, let’s move on to the next step.
3. Install the Right Plugin
You have to install two WordPress plugins – one for integrating Google Analytics and another one for creating WordPress forms.
There are various plugins for Google Analytics integration, but we recommend MonsterInsights. You can download the plugin from the WordPress directory and install it manually or search the plugin on your WordPress admin.
Once it’s installed, Insights will appear on your sidebar. Go to that section, and you’ll see the Launch Setup Wizard. Click on it and follow the instructions to connect the website with your Google Analytics account.
After you have your website and Google Analytics account connected, MonsterInsights will provide add-on recommendations. Find the Forms add-on and install it.
The next plugin you need to install is a WordPress form plugin. We recommend getting the premium version of WPForms as it provides access to the User Journey add-on.
To activate the add-on, install the WPForms plugin on your WordPress site. Then, the WPForms option will be available on the sidebar. Go to the Addons section and find User Journey. Click on Install Addon.
4. Create Your Lead Form
Now it’s time to create your lead form. Go to WPForms -> Add New, and you’ll get to the form builder page. Type in your form name and select an available template or create your own from scratch.
The visual-builder screen will appear. Use the sidebar on the left to pick and customize fields. Simply rearrange the fields by dragging and dropping elements on the form.
5. Monitor User Journey Reports
After everything is set, you can track the user journey. To see the report from WPForms, go to WPForms -> Entries. You’ll see a graph showing how many entries were submitted and a list of your forms underneath it. Click on the form that you want to see in more detail.
Click View on any submission to see the details page. Scroll down to find the User Journey section, which contains the pages users visit in chronological order and each session time.
If you want to know the impressions and conversions of each form, go to Insights -> Report in your WordPress dashboard. Open the Forms tab, and you’ll see a table containing your forms along with the impressions and conversions data.
Benefits of Tracking User’s Journey
When developing a website, you expect the users to follow the path that you planned when, in reality, they may have a different understanding of your website.
By tracking the user’s journey, you collect data about how visitors actually use your website. Some of the benefits of tracking user’s journey include:
- Identifying pain points – tracking the users can reveal difficulties or issues when navigating your website, such as going back and forth between pages or using the search bar multiple times to find information.
- Better website reputation – by identifying pain points, you can improve your website and provide a better user experience. This is very important for your brand, as 72% of users share their good experiences with other people.
- Improve lead generation – understanding the users’ interests helps you create relevant newsletters, for example. Or, if you have an online store, provide a personalized shopping experience.
Conclusion
Tracking your user’s journey is an excellent way to understand how visitors use your website and improve conversions. All you need to do is set up a Google Analytics account and install the right plugins on your WordPress website.
Implementing these tools, you can track visitors using various submission forms, such as contact, checkout, email subscription forms, and many more.
Once you’ve collected data about the users’ behavior, you’ll be able to develop and optimize your strategies to boost lead generation and conversions.
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