Google™ Analytics 2.0

Chapter 10. The New Dashboard

There have been a lot of changes to Google Analytics, and one of the first things you’ll notice is that the main dashboard (where you automatically go when you choose a web site profile) has changed a lot. These changes are all for the better, so don’t panic. Google really listened when users made suggestions. And for that very reason you’ll notice a whole new paradigm in the way the dashboard works.

A New Paradigm

When you first sign into Google Analytics, it’s hard to know anything has changed. The Analytics Settings page still looks just the way it has always looked, but when you look at your reports, you’ll see there are changes galore in this new version of Analytics. These changes are based on specific requests from users about how Google Analytics could be made more useful.

To that end, one of the best changes to Google Analytics 2.0 is in the main dashboards page. When you first sign into this page, you’ll see that it is very different from the old main dashboard. Instead of having four reports, each taking up a quarter of the page, you now have five reports, as shown in Figure 10-1. The nice thing about these reports, however, is that all but one of them can be removed, and different reports can be added. Or if you prefer, you can keep all of the original reports and still add new ones. It’s the ultimate in making sure that you have fast access to exactly the information you need.

Figure 10-1. Customize the dashboard to meet your specific needs. ...