Choose website performance metrics for a dashboard in Tableau
Choose website performance metrics for a dashboard in Tableau
1. Include and highlight the audience’s main metrics like total users, new and returning visitors, sessions, page views, and average session duration.
There are different techniques to visually highlight the numbers: Include them at the top of the dashboard. Use a bigger and bold font. Generate a contrast between the background of the table and the number. Be consistent with the look and feel of the overall dashboard and your brand guidelines too. The set of metrics you decide to show will depend on your website goals. For example, if your target audience is very specific, you will rather engage with a small set of people but with a higher engagement reflected on page views, returning visitors, and average session duration. If your goal is to reach the highest number of visitors, probably the most important metrics are total users and new visitors.
2. Include transactions, conversions, conversion rate, revenue, average order value, or other ecommerce metrics relevant to your website.
Enable ecommerce settings in the Admin section in Google Analytics. You’ll need to add code to your site to collect the ecommerce data and send it to analytics. Add it through Google Tag Manager and install the GTM tracking code, or edit your website code by adding JavaScript.
3. Add the number of goal completions, value, and conversion rate if you have set them.
Setting goals is important to measure how often users complete specific actions. The number of goal completions can represent actions like: Complete a website form Scroll an entire page Create an account Subscribe to newsletters Download a file from the website. This number, along with total visitors, will give you a performance metric called conversion rate. This represents the proportion of the audience that completes a certain action. To set goals in Google Analytics: Go to the Admin section, select the view where you want to apply this setting, and click on + NEW GOAL. Select Set as a goal a URL (a thank-you page, for example), session duration, pages per session, and events.
4. Include a percentage of variation on the main metrics to show their evolution.
Click on the metric and select Quick table calculation to convert the number to year over year growth rate or year to date growth.
5. Create date parameters to customize the time series visualizations and set the values as Date, Month, Year.
This parameter should be included in the visualization and its function is to allow the user to customize the time series charts.
6. Create a date calculated field depending on the date parameter created before.
Use a case statement and if the value is Date, then apply the date() formula to the original date field you will use on the time series chart axis. Also apply month(), and year() functions. This calculated field will replace the original one on the time series charts.
7. Create a metric parameter to customize the charts with the values and duplicate this parameter to combine them in the time-series charts.
The values should be:
Users
Sessions
Page views
Transactions
Revenue
Goals completions.
Parameter 1:
8. Create two calculated fields using a case statement depending on the previous parameters and add it as a metric to be displayed on the time-series charts.
You will have two metrics parameters and two calculated fields, each parameter defines one of those calculated fields. Calculated field 1: CASE [Parameter 1] WHEN 'Sessions' THEN [Sessions] WHEN 'Users' THEN [Users] WHEN 'Page views' THEN [Pageviews] WHEN 'Transactions' THEN [Transactions] WHEN 'Revenue' THEN [Revenue] WHEN 'Goals Completions' THEN [Goals Completions] END Calculated field 2: CASE [Parameter 1 (copy)] WHEN 'Sessions' THEN [Sessions] WHEN 'Users' THEN [Users] WHEN 'Page views' THEN [Pageviews] WHEN 'Transactions' THEN [Transactions] WHEN 'Revenue' THEN [Revenue] WHEN 'Goals Completions' THEN [Goals Completions] END If the user selects Users, the calculated field will show the metric [users] and add it as a metric to be displayed on the chart.
9. Create a traffic source parameter to customize the composition charts.
Set the values: Channel Source Medium Source & Medium.