This is a very popular topic, website owners should have the basic knowledge of what Google Analytics funnels are, and how they can help your website. Attracting traffic to your website by way of membership, providing eBooks, or subscribing to specific offers will all aid in your build.
When you look at building your site, and drawing traffic to it a funnel will show you what is going on at all levels. When you utilize funnels in Google Analytics a basic sign up form on your site for example can be assessed at each level. What this means is if you have a 5 step process, you will be able to see what users reached each step. If you are experiencing a drop off at a specific step you can revamp things.
If we use the above example: Once users have progressed through your website, and you are seeking feedback on how things are working you then access your Google Analytics account. You can analyze what areas you want to focus on. Funnel visualization is one area that many domain owners are focusing on. Once you complete these steps you can opt what level you want Google to analyze for you. Step 1,2,3,4 or 5 of the above example can be determined by checking each level.
Each step should be mandatory, this will allow the funnel to determine what users accessed the entry, where they enter the data and the numbers that completed and accepted or perhaps decided to leave. The drop off rates will indicate an area that you may want to improve or revise. If you are utilizing Google AdWords on your website this process has an excellent platform for monitoring your traffic.
When you are looking at managing your traffic, marketing and advertising it is important that you are aware of what users are surfers, and which are prospects. You want to maximize both and ultimately make them customers. Your funnel can focus on a number of goals. When you first get started you want to track the introduction level, or the sign up level all the way to the thank you page. If you site is selling a product or service then it is important to focus and manage on this numbers. If you have people dropping off before they hit the shopping cart you can focus on why this is happening.
As you can see analyzing your funnels through Google Analytics is an important piece to your website and ultimately your success rate. Utilize them from your landing page, to your sign up page, and lastly your thank you notification.