Google Analytics Goals not working?

[Catfish]

Is it possible that the goals function is unreliable? Most of my goals are at Zero after a while. I am quite sure I set the goals right, and I must have had some clickthroughs or I would not have any signups

First I thought that it was because I set my robots.txt to disallow following my aff links, but even after changing that back, the problem is still the same?

[GregW]

So you're using the javascript code to track pageviews on outgoing links, then you're setting up those pageviews as goals right?

Have you recently updated to the asynchronous (new version) of the snippet of code that google asks you to include on every page when setting up tracking?

[Unknown Webmaster]

Lots of people run into trouble with this.

The most common problems I see are:

- Unexplainable strange looking goal stats for the first 2-3 days after setting up the first goal (everything corrects itself).
- Something went wrong when the goals were created. This happens because almost every single guide showing how to set up goals have been written with the assumption that you run a "normal" company website or a webshop.

[Catfish]

Hmm have to check whether the code snippet is the latest type...
GA is working fine, it is just the goals I have problems with.
I use a php file to mask my outgoing aff. links, so I set the goals to www.mysite/go/party.php, but there are no goal conversions showing.

[Unknown Webmaster]

Does /go/party.php appear in the "top content" report?

If it doesn't, it would be helpful to see the redirect code you are using.

[TheShortStack]

Hmm have to check whether the code snippet is the latest type...
GA is working fine, it is just the goals I have problems with.
I use a php file to mask my outgoing aff. links, so I set the goals to www.mysite/go/party.php, but there are no goal conversions showing.

What have you set your goals to in GA? Are you using exact match with www.mysite/go/party.php?

It might be an idea to start with using a head match and putting /go/ in your goal URL.

That will register any affiliate link that's clicked on at all and will give you a good way of testing whether the problem with your exact match lies with your redirect links or the way that the goals are set up in GA.

Hit me up on Skype if you like ... or have a chat to Jakob. He's a bit of a legend with Analytics

[Catfish]

What have you set your goals to in GA? Are you using exact match with www.mysite/go/party.php?

Exact match: http://poker-bonuscode.de/go/everest.php

It might be an idea to start with using a head match and putting /go/ in your goal URL.

That's what I did first, head match and then .../go/ so I could see all goal conversions in just one spot, but that didnt work out either

[TheShortStack]

Have you put your GA code in your redirect?

[Catfish]

here's the script I inserted into my template HTML:
<script type="text/javascript">var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script> <script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-2239559-6");
pageTracker._trackPageview(); </script>
<script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script><script type="text/javascript"> try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-2239559-16");
pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}</script>

Now after checking my GA account it seems that they are using a different script now, which I have inserted now. Let's see whether that will help..

new script:

<script type="text/javascript">

var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-2239559-6']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

(function() {
var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
})();

</script>

[Catfish]

Have you put your GA code in your redirect?

Do I need to put my GA code into the redirect???
Here's an example of the php file code:
<?php
header("Location: http://www.partypoker.com/td/new_table/de105368_eu_PP_NewTable_LP.htm?wm=3103016");
?>