Google Analytics is a very powerful tool with lots and lots of data. Because different data is important to different sites, it is recommended to create your own custom dashboard. By creating a Google Analytics dashboard, you can combine all of the information that is most important or relevant to you and your needs in one place.
Like any view within Google Analytics, a dashboard can be automatically emailed to you or your client on a reoccurring basis. This way you only need to send one report, instead of ten different reports that include some irrelevant data.
Another cool feature about Google Analytics dashboards is that you can share the structure of the dashboard. For example if you go to https://www.google.com/analytics/web/template?uid=z7ZzAB_cQ9qdJccZuSPGEw, you can instantly create you own dashboard based on the data selections and structure given below. Using this feature does NOT send any of your site’s data itself.
Google Analytics dashboards are user account specific. This means that if you create a dashboard, other users who have admin access to the Google Analytics account won’t see it. This is when the sharing option mentioned above comes in handy.
The following is just one example of what to include in your dashboard. To get started login and go to https://www.google.com/analytics/settings/home.
1. Click on + New Dashboard.
2. Then select “Starter Dashboard” and rename it as you wish.
3.Click on “Add Widget”
4. Click on “metric”
5. Select “% New Visits”
6. Repeat the steps 5 and 6 and add the following widgets:
a. Pages / Visit
b. Unique Visitors
7. Click on “+ Add Widget” like number 5 above, but this time select “Table”. Add “Page” for the dimension and “Pageviews” for the metric.
8. Click on “+ Add Widget” like number 5 above, but this time select “Pie”. Add “Visits” for the metric and “Visitor Type” for the dimension.
9. Click on “+ Add Widget” and select “Table”, and set dimension as “Keyword” and metric to “Visits”.
10. Click on “+ Add Widget” and select “Table”, and set dimension as “Source” and metric as “Visits”.
11. Delete the widgets “Goal Conversion Rate”, “Goal Completions and Goal Conversions” and “Automatic Alerts and Custom Alerts” by clicking on the gear for each one and then “Delete widget”.
12. Now move the widgets around to look like this. You can move a widget by clicking the title and dragging it to the spot you want.
If you like this dashboard, you can get it at https://www.google.com/analytics/web/template?uid=z7ZzAB_cQ9qdJccZuSPGEw