Google Analytics Widgets: Introduction

Google has introduced a new version of Analytics that's currently in beta and available to most of its current Analytics users. In this series we'll be looking at the ability to create and customize your own dashboards using customizable widgets.

In the prior version of Analytics we were stuck using the default dashboard as our default view at sign-on and were only able to reposition things like visitor overview and site usage. As of May 2011 this new version of Google Analytics provides us with a much more powerful platform that you can fine tune to really show off your most important stats without having to click everywhere. Using widgets now within your dashboards you can filter datasets according to any metrics Analytics supplies you.

Lets begin, login to your Google Analytics account.

Step 1: On the top right there should be a link that says "New Version" in maroon, click that and you'll be taken to the beta version of Analytics. You'll notice that Google has taken a minimal design approach which makes finding the dashboard and links to linked site statistics a whole lot easier.

Step 2: Just below the logo on the left click on "Dashboards" and then click "New Dashboard", name it whatever you like and finish by clicking "Create Dashboard".

The default layout provides you some essential stats like Visits and Bounce Rate. Like in the previous version of Analytics you can position elements anywhere on the page. Each widget now has a little gear image adjacent to the title, clicking on it will bring up that widgets settings.

Step 3: Look for the "ADD WIDGET" button above the Dashboard name, click it and this will bring up the settings dialogue for the new widget.

Click on the "TABLE" box then where it says "Display the following columns:" select "Keyword" from the "dimension" drop down. Next add a metric and select "Unique Visitors". Note: If you know the metric you can save time by just typing it in. Give the widget a title and click save on the lower left hand corner.

Now you should see a new widget.

Its pretty easy to create a custom Dashboard with Google Analytics. With a few clicks you can view pertinent information on all your sites.