The 4 Components of a Great Web Analytics Dashboard

Dashboard reporting is such an important tool for a company. They could be just what you need to engage all of your employees. At other times a dashboard can showcase a slew of unimportant metrics that get deleted as soon as it enters the inbox. So what constitutes the mix of a good dashboard? You need to ensure that people are checking the dashboard regularly based on the interval it is sent (and hopefully more than that!). You also need to be sure the goals and KPIs reported are directly aligned with the objectives of the business and the questions and ideas generated by the same people receiving the dashboard are for things such as deeper-dive analyses, or marketing-related activities.

From a web analytics perspective, that means you need to focus on digital marketing framework consisting of these 4 components:

Traffic↣Engagement↣Acquisition↣Conversion

Here's an example of a very simple dashboard you can set up for your users where each column showcases the digital framework:

The above, which uses dummy data (because 41 pages per session? call that out anytime you see it, analysts), is something you can easily create using the dashboards link in the customization area of Google Analytics. Each column represents a part of the digital framework we've discussed. Here's my rationale for why I specifically chose each of the reports:

1. Traffic/Sessions  - Overall traffic you've generated in the time period of your dashboard 
• New vs Returning PieChart: This is important because, as a company, you need to see if your user group is a composition of people that don't know your brand or if they are people who consume your content on a regular basis. The real value you are hoping inquisitive minds ask is "which of these groups convert better and why?".
2. Engagement/Bounce Rate - Generally, bounce rate is your main engagement metric. Essentially, it answers the question if people who are coming from your website are engaged enough to see the second page of their visit. You're shooting for something below 60% generally, but if you are a news site, chances are you can experience a high bounce rate. 
• Avg. Session Duration: Because of the bounce rate, you will want to focus on the session duration you normally see. The questions you are hoping to get, or what you should discuss, is that averages are a nice star but you need to look at your key pages and the goals of them. This is that deep-dive analyses you hope to get to with your teams and it's what makes you invaluable to your organization.
• Pages per Session: Another crucial, topline metric you need to focus on is pages per session. If your site focuses on eCommerce, chances are you want people to follow a general path in the fewest pages as possible to reach a conversion. If you are a site focused on content you might expect users to only view 1-2 pages at most a day. Understanding where you are vs. your desired average gives you insight into your customer journey with a possibility of deeper analysis.
3. Acquisition/Channel Grouping by Transactions - In the example above, our conversion is a transaction but you need to use your main goal. It is important to understand what the sources of your conversions are. This will allow you to dive deeper in making better marketing decisions. In this case, the organic search brings a lion share of our transactions but if we wanted to focus on SEO as a whole, I'd be troubled by the low referral volume. We might need to work on our backlinks but as an analyst, you can get in front of that potential decision and make the recommendation that we need more data to determine this action.
4. Conversion/Transactions - This is table stakes. Your biggest reason for business is the conversion so you need to ensure the dashboard shows that.
• Revenue - you might have a value associated with your conversions if you are in lead generation, but for eCommerce, it's simply revenue. Looking at the transaction volume and revenue, you'll have people asking what products are generating the most money and where is it coming from - it's inevitable. As an analyst, I suggest you be ready to show that after delivering the dashboard (you'll be rockstar status).
• Average Order Value - Another key metric, if you have a value determined, is average order value. This directly affects potential pricing discussions as well as any sales or promotions you might want to do. (Hint: don't focus on this solely. You need to ensure that your transactions stay or increase if this is a key KPI, which I believe it should be, but context is key)

Conclusion

Dashboards are important because they help your company to start becoming more data-driven in decision making. The trick for you, the analyst, is to ensure that the metrics you focus on, drive your bottom line and are relevant. Aligning the KPIs to your bottom line will help you raise excitement, spurn further projects, and make you the invaluable resource you always were.