About a year ago I wrote about what could be included in a web report. It was somewhat general to be relevant in a number of cases.
I’d like to provide a specific update to list specific widgets and segments that should be used for various reports. This is by no means the be-all end-all of reports as dashboards should always be customized depending on your specific situation and business objectives. However, for admissions/administrators and program directors wanting to understand prospective student actions on the website as a whole (including before they enter a traditional admissions funnel or CRM, the including the following widgets and settings in a GA dashboard could be helpful as a starting point to understand a little more beyond top-level and vanity metrics.
I realize this is just a starting point. What else would you recommend as a starting point for people putting together 1-page program-specific GA dashboards?
Custom Segments
- Program subsite visitors (one per program)
Simply segment just to program subsite visitors
Segment: Degree Subsite Visitor
Condition: Sessions include page contains program.website.edu/PROGRAMNAME.* (regex)
- Completed goal (however you set up inquiry form completion)
- Completed goal (however you set up application completion)
Monthly reports for each program:
12 total (3 variations for each program with the above segments)
Widgets
How many users?
Widget title: Sessions
Standard: Metric
Show the following metric: Sessions
How many pages did visitors view on average?
Widget title: Average pages viewed/session
Standard: Metric
Show the following metric: Pages/session
Average Session Duration
Widget title: Average Time on Page
Standard: Metric
Show the following metric: Avg. Session Duration
Where did traffic come from?
Widget title: Source/Medium
Standard: Pie
Display the following columns: Source/Medium [dimension], Users [metric]
Show up to: 5 slices
Popular Pages and Avg. Time on Page
Standard: Table
Display the following columns: Page, Pageviews, Avg. Time on Page
Show a table with 5 rows
Users by City
Standard: Table
Display the following columns: City, Users
Show a table with 5 rows
Users by Day of the Week
Standard: Pie
Display the following columns: Users, Day of Week Name
Show up to 5 slices
Users by Device Category
Standard: Pie
Display the following columns: Users, Device Category
Show up to 5 slices
Users by Page Depth
Standard: Pie
Display the following columns: Users, Page Depth
Show up to 5 slices
