Data selectors in Matomo

At the top of most reporting pages is a row of controls for selecting a website, date range, segment, and other reporting options. Together, these controls determine which data appears in your reports.

These selectors help you focus on the information that matters most. Depending on the report you are viewing, you can use them to select a website, date range, segment, dashboard, or other reporting options. When you change a selector, Matomo updates the reports to reflect your selection.

Search Box

The Search Box helps you quickly find specific reports within the analytics Dashboard, as well as user guides from the official Matomo website. If you know what information you need but are unsure where to find it, start with the Search Box.

Note: You can also bring the search box into focus by pressing the f key (f for find) which acts as a keyboard shortcut for this feature.

Website Selector

Matomo lets you manage analytics for multiple websites or digital properties within a single account. Therefore it is crucial to select the correct data set you want to analyse. You can do this with the first button within the data selector section.

The text label for the website selector button shows the name of the currently selected website. When you click the button, a menu will appear with a full list of the digital properties that you have access to. It is also possible to press the w keyboard shortcut (w for websites)to bring this up.

Click the name of the website that you want to work with, and the page will refresh to include the relevant analytics data. There is also another link to the All Websites dashboard.

Date Selector

Whatever your analytics question, you will want to make sure you are looking at data within a relevant time period. To help you with this, the Date Selector is the second button in this section and shown with a calendar icon . This text label on this button always shows the currently selected date range.

Clicking the Date Selector button will display the calendar and period options. Not only can you select when you want to review data from, but you can also select over what period, or time frame.

Note: You can also bring up the date selector by pressing the d keyboard shortcut (d for date) from anywhere within your analytics.

To begin your selection, choose a reporting period from the bullet options on the right to help you easily define the time frame for your report.

The selected option is highlighted with a green circle, and the selected date range is shown in the calendar. Click Apply to filter the data according to the defined date range.

Period Comparisons

The final checkbox section of the Date Selector allows you to compare data from different periods. To enable this feature, click on the Compare to: checkbox and then select a range within the Previous period dropdown. There are three different ranges available by default.

• Previous period – This will compare your selected data with the directly preceding period. If you have selected a day, it will compare with the previous day, or if you have chosen a month, then it will compare with the previous month, and so on. This can be especially useful for reviewing shorter-term growth trends and the immediate impact of website changes.

• Previous year – This will compare data from your selected date range with the data of the exact same period of the previous year. This kind of reporting is especially useful for seasonal businesses where month to month growth may not be relevant. An example might be an ice rink that is only open for a few months a year. Comparing the first operating month of each year, to the same month of the prior year will provide feedback on pre-season marketing.

• Custom – This allows you to set any reporting period. This feature can be useful if you’d like to compare marketing campaigns that happen on an irregular schedule. For example, you might run an offline promotion at a few different times of the year, and want to review the online impact within those periods.

Segment Selector

The Segment Selector lets you filter reports to analyse a specific subset of your visitors. By default, Matomo displays data for the All Visits segment, which includes all tracked visits. You can also bring up this menu by pressing the s key (s for segments).

If additional segments are available, click the selector to choose and apply the relevant segments. For example, create segments for visitors from a particular country, users on mobile devices, or visitors who completed a conversion.

You can manage and create segments from the Visitors > Segments page, or the Segment selector in the dashboard.

Dashboard Menu

From Matomo 5.11.0, dashboard management has been improved with a new Manage Dashboard button with menu options. You can create and customise as many dashboards as you need. Within each dashboard, curate your own selection of widgets and arrange them using different layouts.

Whenever there is a unique collection of reports you need to review regularly, it is worth creating a dashboard. Some reports may be useful daily, while others may only be relevant monthly or for specific projects. Dashboards help you organise task-oriented reports from different areas of your analytics into a single view. Learn more about creating dashboards and customising widgets and layout.

Zen Mode Button

The final icon in this area shows two upward-facing arrows. Click it to enable Zen Mode, which hides the top menu and main navigation to provide more space for reviewing reports. You can also enable Zen Mode by pressing Z on your keyboard.