Dashboard to the Rescue

What is a dashboard? Simply put, it's a visual control center for you and your team. From the dashboard, you can quickly monitor key performance metrics for every aspect of your business. Check out our blog post on how to use this free web app to do more with less time and energy!

Dashboards are meant to provide an overview of performance data in order to aid in decision-making. But they're not just for managers; they're also pretty nifty for individuals as well! For instance, if you have multiple side hustles or even just one job that requires a lot of time management skills, dashboards will come in handy when trying to keep track of everything else going on your life at the same time.

Surprisingly, dashboards are not as well-known and ingrained in the workplace as one would think. This is where ZEDD comes in. I'll show you how to create your own responsive dashboard and how to monitor key performance indicators while staying productive at the same time! You can do so with a simple and free web app called ZEDD that you can use on any device that has a browser and access to the internet.

I will be using a dashboard made by SEO expert Rand Fishkin which he calls "Data Ninja. This looks at both organic and paid search over time, rank history and predictions to aid in making data-driven decisions. To make a dashboard like this, I will show you how to set up the following three charts:

Keyword ranking for your top 10 search terms over the last 30 days

Accuracy of keyword ranking on an hourly basis for your top 10 search terms over the last 30 days

Paid search query volume (expressed as cost per click) for your top 10 keywords over the past 90 days. Why do you need this information? So that you can track volume trends and bid more intelligently to increase overall profit.

This dashboard can be used for more than just keyword rankings but this is the basis for what I will be showing you. Ideally, you would want to include two or three other sources of data such as web site traffic and how many people are clicking on your ads. If you're interested in learning how to do that, check out our previous blog post on using Google Analytics.

Once you have installed ZEDD on your computer and registered an account, you'll need to create a dashboard. It's pretty intuitive once you get the hang of it. To start off, there are several tabs that you can click such as Reports, Charts, Widgets and even Sources. Now to work with charts.

After clicking on Charts, you will need to search for the data that you want to put into your chart. It's best to first use an aggregated source so that means using a report instead of using an RSS feed from some other site. If you want more information on how to set up the charts correctly once you find your data source, read our blog post about how to complete this process.

Within your chart, there are three tabs: Trends, Data, and Metrics. We will be going over the Trends tab first. For example, you want to know if your traffic is increasing or dropping? Or how about when all your keyword rankings fall from #1 to #3? These charts will give you a good idea of how things are going. This is followed by the Data tab which gives you information about what these data mean for you. You are then able to see how these metrics correlate to each other such as how a drop in traffic correlates to a drop in ranking. You can also see the trend of your data over time. The last tab is called Metrics, which gives you real-time data about your performance.

Now that you have a dashboard set up, how does one monitor it? As I mentioned before, ZEDD is meant to be used on any device that has a browser and access to the internet. All you have to do is go to http://zeddit.com and login. To access your dashboard, click on Dashboards and then select the appropriate dashboard from the dropdown menu. Additionally, from anywhere in ZEDD, you can see a snapshot of how everything is performing by simply hovering over the largest chart with your mouse. This will bring up a graph for that specific metric for that specific timeframe.

ZEDD will also notify you when you have a new message from the administrator of your dashboard. You can then go back to the dashboard, expand the message and read it. This is perfect for doing weekly check-ins and learning what happened to your statistics and whether or not you should pay attention to it.

Hopefully this tutorial has helped you get a better idea of what dashboards are and how they can be used. Hopefully there are other resources similar to ZEDD out there so that you can further develop your own dashboard with the specific information you want to track.

About the Author:

Tania works at ZEDD as a content creator and administrator. She enjoys helping others figure out how best to use their time and get the most out of their time and efforts. She has over ten years of experience in management and HR. You can follow her on Twitter @taniac and on LinkedIn.

Do you have an idea for a blog post you'd like to see on our blog? Email us at hello@zeddit.com or post in our forum here! And be sure to follow us on Twitter for updates, exclusive content, and more!

Want to learn how to install ZEDD? Check out their documentation here! Start monitoring your site data now, go to ZEDD!

Disclaimers: This article is not meant as an endorsement or advertising of any company's products or services.

Conclusion:

This tutorial shows you how to set up a basic dashboard as well as monitor results. This is a great way to keep track of things even if you aren't an expert in data metrics or analytics. Remember, this car can be driven on any terrain. Good luck!

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