Dashboards in Google Analytics
Google Analytics Dashboards are basically the collections of widgets where you can collect all kind of similar data. You can have up to 20 dashboards in each for each view / property with 12 widgets in your Google Analytics account. Each view / property comprises a default dashboard to get you started. Since Google Analytics doesn’t have a logical structure in it, having the potential to put similar things together at the same place is indeed a great profit. This means you’ll only have to search at very few places to get the general overview of how your site’s doing.
The best way of getting your own Google Analytics dashboards is to make them yourself. To create your own dashboard, search under the Dashboards menu and click the +New Dashboard option. You will get various options, like to use a blank canvas or a starter dashboard with sample widgets created for you. The starter dashboard is best to get a look for how different widgets work, and the samples can be removed at any time. In general, there are 2 types of dashboards, custom dashboards and multiple dashboards.
Types of Dashboards and Widgets
For most Google Analytics users, the first thing you see when viewing your reports is the dashboard. These dashboards in the new version of Google Analytics have been remodeled to be completely widget-based and highly customizable. The Dashboard usually have a three-column layout, and you can modify it by dragging and dropping the widgets as per your choice. There are six types of widgets in general: Metric (shows the value of metric), Pie Chart (best suited for displaying breakdowns of a metric by a certain dimension), GEO Map (keeps track on how a specific country is contributing to your website in a glance), Timeline (A graph of any metric over time), Bar (most powerful of all widgets and offers a multitude of customizations options) and Table (best for monitoring landing pages and content and you are able to filter data and link the report to URL).
Custom Dashboards are easy to create and saves time, as the google analytics has made the set-up simple. They are easy to share and Google has also framed a solutions gallery to help you get started creating dashboards.If you want to customize multiple dashboards for different analyses, you have the power to create multiple custom dashboards too, up to 20 per profile.
Google Analytics Dashboardsare a great way to keep track of your website. It lets you create visual shortcuts to the most beneficial data within your Google Analytics account.