Setting Up Conversion Goals Without a Developer: A Step-by-Step Guide

Understanding how visitors interact with your website is critical to its long-term success. For small business owners and marketers, tracking conversion goals—like completed purchases, contact form submissions, or newsletter sign-ups—provides actionable insights that drive growth. However, many believe that configuring these goals requires technical knowledge or developer intervention. That’s not always the case.

With today’s analytics platforms and website builders, you can often set up conversion tracking on your own, saving both time and budget. In this article, we’ll walk you through the fundamentals of conversion goals, explore the tools at your disposal, and provide a step-by-step guide to implementing goals—no coding required.

Understanding Conversion Goals

A conversion goal is a specific action you want users to take on your website. Conversion tracking helps measure how effectively your site encourages visitors to complete these actions. Common examples include:

• Submitting a contact form
• Making a purchase or requesting a quote
• Signing up for a newsletter or event
• Clicking on a specific button or link (such as “Download Brochure”)
• Spending a minimum amount of time on a page

Well-defined goals help you understand the performance of your site, highlight areas for improvement, and guide your marketing investments.

Tools for Setting Up Goals—No Code Needed

While coding skills can be useful, several mainstream tools enable you to define, set up, and report on conversion goals through visual interfaces, often with just a few clicks.

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4): The latest version of Google’s analytics platform offers an event-based model, making it easier to define and track conversions directly in the dashboard.
• Google Tag Manager (GTM): For more advanced scenarios, GTM allows for click tracking, form submissions, and interaction tracking without touching site code.
• Website builders (like Wix, Squarespace, WordPress): These often have built-in goal tracking or easy third-party integrations with analytics tools.
• Email marketing & CRM platforms (Mailchimp, HubSpot, etc): Many platforms offer built-in features to track conversions from campaigns, landing pages, and forms.

Step 1: Define What You Want to Track

The first step is to clearly identify what actions are meaningful for your business. To choose the right goals:

• Review your primary business objectives (e.g., more sales, leads, downloads)
• Pinpoint the user actions that correlate with those objectives
• Ensure these actions are easily identifiable on your site (button clicks, thank-you pages, confirmation messages, etc.)

Examples:

• Contact form submissions (identified by a unique “Thank You” page URL)
• Newsletter sign-ups (could be a pop-up with a unique success message)
• Purchases (redirected to an order confirmation page)

Step 2: Choose the Right Tracking Method

Method 1: Thank You Page (Best for Simplicity)

The most straightforward way to detect conversions is to direct users to a unique “Thank You” or confirmation page after they complete a desired action. If your form or e-commerce platform supports this, you can easily set up a goal based on visits to this URL.

Method 2: Event Tracking

If your site uses dynamic forms that do not redirect (they show an on-page success message instead), you can track clicks or form submissions as “events” using Google Analytics or your website builder’s built-in tools.

Step 3: Set Up Conversion Goals in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

GA4 introduces an event-based approach, making it easier to track a wide range of user actions. Here’s how you can set up conversion goals without needing to edit your website code.

A. Tracking Page Views (e.g., Thank You Pages)

1. Log in to Google Analytics and go to the property for your website.
2. Go to “Reports” > “Engagement” > “Events” in the left menu.
3. Create a custom event:
   • Navigate to “Admin” (Gear icon).
   • In the Property column, select “Events”, then click “Create event”.
   • Click “Create” and give your new event a descriptive name (e.g., “form_submission_thankyou”).
   • Under “Matching conditions”, set event_name equals page_view and page_location contains /thank-you (or whatever your unique URL is).
   • Save the event.
4. Mark the event as a conversion:
   • In the “Events” section, find your new event and toggle “Mark as conversion”.

Once completed, every visit to your Thank You page will now register as a conversion in GA4.

B. Tracking Button Clicks and On-Page Events

If your form doesn’t have a unique Thank You page, you can still track conversions by detecting button clicks.

1. In GA4, navigate to “Admin” > “Events”.
2. Click “Create event”.
3. Define your Event:
   • For “Matching conditions”, set event_name equals click.
   • Add a condition for identifying the specific button or form—such as link_text contains ‘Submit’, or matching a specific URL or CSS selector if available.
4. Mark the new event as a conversion (as described above).

This method relies on GA4’s enhanced measurement features, which automatically track many interactions, including outbound link clicks and form submissions. Check your property’s “Enhanced Measurement” settings to ensure these are enabled.

Note: Limitations of Auto-Tracking

Some complex forms or JavaScript-based interactions may not be tracked by default. In those cases, you may need to use Google Tag Manager or your website builder’s integration options. Still, many modern platforms expose common actions for tracking without touching code.

Step 4: Using Google Tag Manager (No Coding Required)

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a powerful tool that allows marketers to add, edit, and manage analytics tags without code changes. GTM uses a visual interface to capture clicks, form submissions, and other interactions. Many website builders offer built-in GTM integrations.

1. Set up a Tag Manager account: Go to tagmanager.google.com and create an account. Add your website as a container and follow the instructions to install the GTM snippet via your website builder’s admin settings.
2. Create a Trigger: Use the GTM workspace to select “Triggers”, then “New”. Choose the appropriate trigger type (e.g., Click, Form Submission) and define the conditions (e.g., button text, form ID).
3. Create a Tag: Set up a new tag that sends event data to Google Analytics or another analytics tool.
4. Preview and Publish: Always preview your changes to ensure tracking works as intended, then publish the container.

Most GTM tracking can be set up without code knowledge, though it does require familiarity with the concepts. Plenty of video guides and documentation are available online.

Step 5: Using Built-In Features of Website Builders and Platforms

If you use a website builder like Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, or WordPress (with form plugins), built-in analytics or integrations make goal tracking much more accessible.

• Wix: Use Wix Analytics or connect GA4 in Site Settings. For forms, track submissions via built-in analytics or set up a Thank You page and log that as a conversion in GA4.
• Squarespace: Squarespace Analytics offers basic form and purchase tracking. For more detail, connect Google Analytics and use URL-based goals.
• WordPress: Plugins like WPForms, Gravity Forms, and others allow you to set up redirect URLs after submission or connect directly to analytics tools.
• Shopify: Provides native reports and integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics for e-commerce tracking.

Always check your platform’s documentation. Many offer direct connections to analytics tools, and support URL-based or event-based conversion tracking by default.

Step 6: Verify Your Goal Tracking

After setup, it’s crucial to test that conversions are registering correctly. To verify:

• Perform the action yourself (submit a form, complete a purchase, etc.)
• Check your analytics reports after a short delay
• Use Real Time reports in Google Analytics to observe immediate tracking
• In Google Tag Manager, use the Preview mode to confirm triggers and tags are firing

If your goal doesn’t register, revisit your configuration. Common issues include typos in URLs, incorrect event conditions, or enhanced measurement being turned off.

Step 7: Reporting and Iterating

Once you’ve confirmed everything works, use your analytics reports to understand user behaviour, assess campaign effectiveness, and identify website improvements. Conversion goals offer a feedback loop—use what you learn to tweak your site, messaging, or traffic sources.

• Google Analytics: Use the “Conversions” section to review performance, segment by traffic source, device, and more.
• Website Builders: Use built-in analytics to monitor form and button activity.
• Export data: For deeper analysis, export conversion data to spreadsheets or your CRM.

Key Takeaways

• You can set up conversion goals without writing a single line of code, using tools like Google Analytics, Tag Manager, and modern website platforms.
• Define clear, meaningful conversion actions relevant to your business objectives.
• Where possible, use a unique “Thank You” page for easiest tracking; otherwise, rely on event-based methods.
• Always test your tracking setup to ensure accuracy.
• Use your conversion data to inform ongoing website improvements and marketing strategies.

Setting up and measuring conversion goals doesn’t require a developer or deep technical expertise. With the right tools and a methodical approach, you can track what matters most—and drive smarter business decisions as a result.

If you need help with your website, app, or digital marketing — get in touch today at info@webmatter.co.uk or call 07546 289 419.