In Google Analytics, what do "goals" represent?

Goals in Google Analytics represent specific actions or conversions that users complete on your website. These actions can vary widely depending on the business objectives, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, filling out a contact form, or downloading a resource. By setting up goals, you can track and measure the effectiveness of your website in driving those desired outcomes.

Tracking goals allows businesses to understand how well their website performs in terms of converting visitors into customers or leads. Additionally, analyzing goal completion can provide insights into user behavior, helping marketers optimize their strategies and improve the overall user experience on the site. This targeted measurement is crucial for evaluating the return on investment (ROI) of marketing campaigns and adjusting them based on real performance data.

The other options mentioned relate to other aspects of Google Analytics but do not encapsulate the concept of goals in the same way. Traffic sources refer to where visitors come from, total site visits reflect the volume of traffic without pinpointing user actions, and user demographics provide information about the audience but do not indicate specific user activities or conversions.