7 Google Analytics Custom Dashboards (Examples)

Need some awesome Google Analytics dashboards to segment your data?

Last week I found a page on my site was taking 25.4 seconds to load for people in Seattle. Embarrassing, but I made the fix. I found this using my Google Analytics custom dashboards.

These dashboards can help you see the big picture, but they can also help you make improvements in very specific ways. Like which pages have the slowest load time, pages that are being viewed from mobile (so you can make sure there are no errors), or even which pages people exit your site the most (so you can do a better job at converting them).

A couple things to know before you start:

Use the download links to add these dashboards to your own GA account
For widgets that say “non-branded,” edit the filter to include your own website name

1. General Analytics Dashboard

Get a glimpse of everything: SEO, social, referral traffic and more.

Metrics:

Unique visitors
Unique visitors from SEO, social media
How people find your website: organic, referral, direct
Top keywords (non-branded)
Top vewied pages
Social networks sending the most traffic
Referral websites (excludes major websites like Google and social networks)

Download the General Analytics Dashboard

2. SEO Analytics

My Google Analytics SEO dashboard is good for getting a glimpse at your SEO, but the absolute best way to get SEO analytics is through the “landing pages” tab in Google Analytics as well as the “Search Analytics” section in Google Search Console. See instructions below…

Metrics:

Unique visitors from SEO
Top keyword (non-branded)
Chicago keywords (for local SEO, change this to your city)
Keywords related to “WordPress SEO” (a service I offer – change this to one of yours)
Search engines used: Google, Yahoo, Bing…
Top viewed pages from SEO
Cities finding your website through search

Download the SEO Dashboard

Landing Page Metrics
To get better SEO metrics (like click-through rates, ranking position, and bounce rates by page) see the left side of Google Analytics and go to Acquisition → Search Console → Landing Pages.

Search Analytics (Google Search Console)
Google Search Console does a MUCH better job at showing SEO metrics like all your keywords, rankings, click-through rates, etc. Use the search analytics tab to see this (and see my full Google Search Console tutorial if you’re using Yoast’s WordPress SEO Plugin) which shows you how to use search analytics, fix crawl errors, and identify errors on your website.

3. Social Media Analytics

Learn what social networks drive traffic, plus other useful social data. This dashboard breaks down most main social networks into their own widget. Most of widgets were taken from Sharon Hall’s Google Analytics dashboards. And, I know, mine is a pretty weak right now.

Metrics:

Visits from each major social network
Most socially shared content
Top “socially referred” pages
Location of social media visitors (creepy yet?)

Download the Social Media Dashboard

4. Geography Dashboard

Especially if you’re doing local marketing, you might want to know where your visitors are from. Try using filters in the “maps” widget to cross reference it with a specific piece of data.

Metrics:

Visits by city
Visits by state
Visits by continent
Cities with slow load times (if this is a problem and you want to make your site faster for national/global visitors, use StackPath’s content delivery network)

Download the Geography Dashboard

5. Mobile Analytics

What percent of your visitors are mobile? Are they on Ipad, Iphone, or Android? Are mobile users finding what they need or which pages are they bouncing away from? You should also visit the mobile usability section of Google Search Console since this finds ALL mobile errors on your website (while Google’s Mobile Testing Tool only shows errors for one single page).

Metrics:

What % of visitors are mobile
What mobile devices they’re using
Top mobile content
Top Ipad content
Top Iphone content
Average time on site for mobile visitors
Bounce rate by mobile device

Download the Mobile Dashboard

6. Entrances/Exits

Where do people enter your site, and where do they leave? Use this custom Google Analytics dashboard to find pages where people leave your site the most. This indicates you need to improve the content by improve the design, internal links, call to actions, or the actual content.

Metrics:

What pages people enter your site most
What pages people exit your site most
Average pages viewed per visit
Bounce rates
Pages with the highest bounce rate

Download the Entrances/Exits Dashboard

7. Technical Dashboard

Which browsers have the highest bounce rate? Which pages load the slowest? If your load times are slow (eg. in GTmetrix) you should configure a cache plugin, optimize images, and setup Cloudflare + MaxCDN. I have a great speed optimization guide if you’re on WordPress.

Metrics:

Average page load time
Slowest loading pages
Operating systems used
Bounce rate by browser
Average time on site
Days between visits

Download the Technical Dashboard

Create Your Own Custom Dashboards

Want to setup your own custom Google Analytics dashboards? Login to Google Analytics and look to the left on the main menu. You will see the Dashboard section where you can add new custom dashboards. Add a dashboard and create a few widgets with your metrics.

More dashboards for the addicts:

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I import other Google Analytics dashboards?

The Google Analytics Solutions Gallery has the largest collections of custom dashboards, otherwise you should check out other blog posts.

How do I create my own dashboards?

Go to the Dashboards tab and click Create. The rest is pretty self-explanatory. Select whether you want to use a pie chart, table, bar, etc. Add the metrics you want and you're done! You can create multiple widgets in your dashboard.

Where can I find definitions of all the metrics?

When creating a widget within your dashboard, each metric will have a question mark icon. When you hover it, it will show the definition of that metric.

If you found these dashboards helpful, please share. I would appreciate that!

Cheers,
Tom