Dashboards

Attention. On March 27, 2024, the Summary section was updated and renamed to Dashboards. If you've made any changes to your old Summary widgets, you'll see the Summary (saved) dashboard appear under Dashboards. Your widgets from the old Summary section are stored there.

The Dashboards section in Yandex Metrica provides a brief overview of various aspects of your site's performance.

Yandex Metrica offers three standard dashboards: Summary, which provides general site information, Traffic effectiveness, and Ecommerce. You can also create five additional dashboards with your preferred settings. To create a new dashboard, go to Dashboards and click Create dashboard at the bottom of the page.

Note. Only users with edit rights can create and edit dashboards.
The Overview section is a dashboard that you can add to the side menu for quick access. There are several ways to do this:
  • In the Dashboards menu section, click next to the desired user and select Add to overview.
  • Open the dashboard, then click in the control panel at the top right and select Add to overview.
Dashboards consist of several elements:
  • Control panel, where you can configure the date, details, sample, and notes.
  • The Add button for adding preset widgets (from those already on the dashboard) or custom widgets and creating new widgets and widget titles.
  • Editable title and description.
  • Widgets.
  1. Creating widgets
  2. Editing widgets
  3. Managing widgets
  4. Market averages

Creating widgets

There are three ways to create a widget:

1. Select a preset widget that is available for the dashboard

Click Add and select Preset widget. In the window that opens, select the desired widget.

2. Create a new widget

Click Add and select + New widget. In the window that opens, specify the following:

  • Widget name
  • Data included in the widget (sessions or views)
  • Widget type
  • Goal (available only for session data)
  • Metrics
  • Dimensions
Note. If a dimension uses sources, the Last non-direct click attribution model is applied to all similar widgets on your dashboards.
Interface example

3. Add a widget from a report

In the selected report, click To dashboard. This will bring up the window with the configured widget parameters. You can make changes and add the widget to a dashboard.

Editing widgets

Yandex Metrica offers a special advanced mode for viewing and editing your widgets. To use it, click on the widget that you want to edit and select Edit.

In the window that opens, you can view the statistics for extended cross sections and fine-tune the widget:

  • Select the widget type.
  • Choose which data to display on the chart:
    • Automatically selected dimension values: Displays the first five table rows.
    • Manually selected dimension values: Choose which values you want to display in the chart or table.
    • Multiple metrics: Displays metrics from the report in the chart or table.

  • Set up segmentation.

Click Update widget to save your changes to the widget.

Managing widgets

There are four types of widgets: chart, table, metric, and multiwidget.

You can change the widget type directly on the dashboard. To do this, click on the widget and select the desired type.

Metric Shows changes in the selected metric over the specified time period.
Chart Shows the selected data across the specified cross sections as a chart.
Table Shows the selected data across the specified cross sections as a table.
Multiwidget Shows changes in the selected set of metrics over the specified time period.

In addition, Chart widgets have different visualization types you can switch between:

Line chart
Line chart • stacked
Bar chart
Bar chart • stacked
Pie chart
Bar chart • by category

You can group widgets together and move these groups around the page. To do this, hover over the element to the right of the widgets and select the direction in which you want to move the widget group.

Market averages

Yandex Metrica has special comparison widgets for analyzing market averages. These widgets have a floating period of the last four full calendar weeks. You can't change the period for market comparison widgets.

Widget What it shows
Site traffic (Sessions)

Displays the total number of sessions on your site over the last four full weeks and compares it with the median session count of your closest competitors for the same period.

The widget also shows a chart with changes in your session count over time broken down by week.

Time on site

Displays the average time on site, page depth, and bounces for the last four full weeks and compares them with similar averages of your closest competitors.

The widget also shows a chart with changes in your metrics over time broken down by week.

Page depth

Bounces

Sessions by traffic source or device type

Displays a chart with changes in your session count over time across different traffic sources or device types and compares them with the average performance of your closest competitors.

Supports an additional visualization type: “Line chart: normalized” .

Time on site, Page depth, Bounces Displays a chart with changes in the metrics over time across different traffic sources or device types and compares them with the average performance of your closest competitors.

Normalized charts

Attention. Normalized charts are currently available only in market comparison widgets.

Normalized charts provide a visual representation of how your metrics evolve over time as a percentage relative to their initial values. They help to analyze your performance over time and to quickly measure and compare the growth or decline of metrics across two comparison groups.

How normalized charts work

  1. Normalization base

    For each metric within the selected period, the initial point of the data group is considered to be 100%. This point is called the base value. For example, if you received “Search engine traffic” every week over a four-week period, the value from the first week is taken as 100% and serves as the base value for this metric.

  2. Cross sections are normalized individually

    The initial point may be different for each cross section. For example, if you didn't receive any “Ad traffic” in the first week of a four-week period, the metric's base value, considered as 100%, is taken from the second week, provided there was recorded traffic. Normalization for this cross section begins with that point.

  3. Percent deviation

    The absolute values of all subsequent points are compared against the absolute value of the base point. Deviations are expressed as a percentage.

    The chart for each metric begins at 100% for the first data point and shows the percent deviation of subsequent points from this base. For example, if a metric value increased by 10% in the second week, the chart shows this data point as 110%. If the metric value decreased by 20%, the chart shows 80%.

How to interpret normalized charts

With normalized charts, you can measure changes in your site's metrics over time relative to market averages. Note that changes can be interpreted as positive or negative regardless of whether your metrics went up or down. Their assessment depends on how they compare to the changes in the market average that occurred within the same period.

  • Your metrics are above the market average: The changes are positive, even if the metric values have decreased.

    If your metrics grew more than those of your competitors, this indicates that your strategy is effective, even if there has been an overall decline. For example, if your traffic dropped by 30% while the market average fell by 60%, then your marketing strategy outperforms the market, and you've managed to fare better than your competitors. Continue implementing your current strategy and make regular adjustments to improve the performance even further.

  • Your metrics are in line with the market average: You've had a solid performance, even if the metric values have decreased.

    If your performance was similar to that of your competitors, then your site's growth is consistent with general market trends. For example, a 30% decrease in traffic might make it seem like the situation is critical if you look only at your own performance. But if the overall market also experienced a 30% decline, that means that your performance was on par with your competition. In this situation, no radical strategy changes are necessary: you only need to make small adjustments to minimize the decline.

  • Your metrics are below the market average: The trend is negative, even if the metric values have increased.

    If your metrics are going up, but the performance over time is lagging behind the market, this may signal that you're underutilizing your potential. For example, a 30% increase in your traffic is a good result relative to your previous data. However, if the market grew by 60% during the same period, then you're not fully capitalizing on the opportunities available in the market. Revisit your marketing strategy to improve the performance and utilize all of the resources available to you.

Chart examples

The chart shows a significant decline in ad traffic over the past four weeks. However, this isn't critical, because the closest competitors have also experienced a similar decrease in ad traffic.

Furthermore, note that competitors were still actively attracting ad traffic in the last week of August, but in the first week of September, this metric began to decline.

This example demonstrates that, on its own, the drop in ad traffic isn't necessarily a bad result when considered in the context of the overall market performance, which also dropped significantly during the same period, clearly reflecting seasonality.

The charts indicate that although the changes in organic traffic from search engines and direct clicks are negative, the market also showed a decline. This suggests that the overall performance is satisfactory, and the marketing strategy doesn't require any significant changes. However, you can still make fine adjustments to your tactics for further improvement.

In summary, normalized charts not only help track changes in the absolute values of your metrics, but they also provide a visual representation of concurrent changes within comparison groups.

How to add a widget

You can add one or multiple market comparison widgets to any of your dashboards:

  1. Go to the Dashboards section in the side menu on the left.
  2. Open the desired dashboard and click Add at the top right.
  3. In the menu, select Preset widget or New widget:
    Go to the Market comparison group and select the desired widget from the list. It immediately appears on your dashboard.