Navigate your analytics dashboard to access key SEO metrics, visualizations, and performance data.
Your NitroShock dashboard is the central hub for managing SEO projects, tracking performance, and accessing analytics. Navigate your analytics dashboard to access key SEO metrics, visualizations, and performance data across all your WordPress sites. Whether you're managing a single site or multiple client projects, understanding your dashboard structure helps you work efficiently and make data-driven SEO decisions.
This guide walks through the dashboard architecture, explains the key metrics available at each level, and shows you how to navigate between different views to find the information you need.
NitroShock uses a two-tier dashboard structure: the Account Dashboard for managing all projects and account-level settings, and individual Project Dashboards for detailed SEO work on specific sites.
The Account Dashboard at /account/ serves as your home base. From here, you access all projects, tools, and account management features through seven primary tabs:
Projects Tab - Your main workspace showing all SEO projects in a list view. Each project displays quick stats including tracked keywords, current average position, and recent changes. This tab provides the fastest way to see performance across your entire portfolio at a glance.
Tools Tab - Direct access to standalone SEO utilities that work independently of specific projects. Use these for quick keyword research, SERP analysis, or one-off audits without creating a full project.
Reports Tab - Central repository for all generated reports across projects. View report history, check scheduled reports, and download previously generated PDFs. This tab aggregates reporting activity from all your projects in one location.
Billing Tab - Credit balance management and purchase history. See your current credit balance, add credits when needed, and review past transactions. The billing tab provides complete transparency into your credit usage patterns.
Branding Tab - Create and manage white-label brand profiles for client reports. Configure custom logos, color schemes, contact information, and company details that appear on generated PDF reports.
Settings Tab - Account-level preferences including notification settings, API key management, timezone configuration, and default project settings.
Team Tab - Team member management for agency and organizational accounts. Invite team members, assign roles, and control project access permissions.
Each individual project has its own dashboard at /project/{id}/ with specialized tabs for different SEO activities:
Overview Tab - Project summary with key performance indicators, recent activity, and quick action buttons. This landing page provides snapshot metrics and shortcuts to common tasks like running rank checks or generating reports.
Rank Tracker Tab - Keyword position monitoring with historical charts, competitor comparison, and SERP feature tracking. This tab is typically where you'll spend significant time analyzing ranking performance.
Keywords Tab - Keyword research and management interface. Discover new keyword opportunities, analyze search volume and difficulty, and organize keywords into groups for tracking.
Site Audit Tab - Technical SEO audit results with issue categorization, priority levels, and historical tracking. View crawl data, performance metrics, and specific recommendations for improvement.
Competitors Tab - Competitive analysis and tracking. Monitor competitor rankings, backlink profiles, and identify gaps in your SEO strategy.
Content Writer Tab - AI-powered content generation interface. Create SEO-optimized blog posts, meta descriptions, and other content types directly within the platform.
AI Cite Tab - Brand mention tracking across AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Overview. Monitor how often and in what context your brand appears in AI responses.
Backlinks Tab - Backlink profile analysis showing referring domains, anchor text distribution, domain authority metrics, and toxic link detection.
Reports Tab - Project-specific report generation. Create custom PDF reports for this project with flexible date ranges and branding options.
Settings Tab - Project configuration including primary domain, tracking targets, competitor domains, and notification preferences specific to this project.
Understanding the metrics available in your dashboards helps you prioritize SEO efforts and measure progress effectively.
Average Position - The mean ranking position across all tracked keywords for a project. This single number provides a quick health check on overall SEO performance. A decreasing average position indicates improvement (moving closer to position 1).
Position Distribution - Breakdown showing how many keywords rank in positions 1-3, 4-10, 11-20, 21-50, and 51-100. This distribution reveals whether you're on the verge of breakthroughs (many keywords in positions 4-10) or need foundational work (most keywords beyond position 50).
Visibility Score - Calculated metric combining keyword positions with search volumes to estimate organic visibility. Keywords ranking higher for high-volume terms contribute more to this score than low-volume keywords.
SERP Features Captured - Count of how many tracked keywords show your site in special SERP features like Featured Snippets, People Also Ask boxes, Local Pack, or Image results. Capturing these features often drives significant traffic despite not ranking #1 in traditional results.
AI Overview Citations - Number of times your site appears as a source in Google AI Overview responses for tracked keywords. As AI-powered search grows, this metric becomes increasingly important for visibility.
Traffic Estimate - Projected organic traffic based on keyword positions and search volumes. While actual traffic depends on click-through rates and user behavior, this estimate helps quantify the value of ranking improvements.
Current Position - Where your page ranks for this specific keyword on the selected search engine and location.
Position Change - Difference between current position and the previous check. Shown as a positive or negative number with indicators for improvement (moving up) or decline (moving down).
Search Volume - Average monthly searches for this keyword in the target location. Higher volumes indicate more potential traffic but often correlate with higher competition.
Keyword Difficulty (KD) - Score from 0-100 indicating how challenging it would be to rank for this keyword. Higher scores mean more established competition and typically require more comprehensive SEO efforts.
Search Intent - Categorization of what users want when searching this keyword: Informational, Navigational, Commercial, or Transactional. Aligning your content with search intent improves conversion rates.
CPC - Cost-per-click for paid ads on this keyword. High CPC often indicates commercial value, as advertisers pay more for keywords that convert well.
Competitor Positions - Rankings of up to 5 competitor domains for the same keyword. Quickly see if competitors are outranking you and by how much.
Health Score - Overall site health percentage based on passed vs. failed technical SEO checks. A score above 80% indicates a well-optimized site, while scores below 60% suggest significant technical issues.
Issue Count by Priority - Breakdown of Critical, Warning, and Info-level issues found during the audit. Focus on resolving Critical issues first as these have the largest impact on SEO performance.
Core Web Vitals - Performance metrics including Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Google uses these metrics as ranking factors, making them essential to monitor.
Crawled Pages - Number of pages successfully crawled during the audit. Compare this to your expected page count to identify pages that might be blocked or inaccessible to search engines.
Total Backlinks - Count of all links pointing to your domain from external sites. More backlinks generally correlate with higher authority, though quality matters more than quantity.
Referring Domains - Number of unique domains linking to your site. This metric is more valuable than total backlinks since 100 links from one domain carry less weight than 100 links from 100 different domains.
Domain Authority - Score predicting how well your site will rank compared to competitors. Based on factors including backlink profile, content quality, and site structure.
Toxic Link Percentage - Proportion of backlinks from low-quality or spammy sources. High percentages may trigger Google penalties and should be addressed through disavow files.
New/Lost Backlinks - Recent changes to your backlink profile. Regular monitoring helps you understand what content attracts links and when you lose valuable links.
NitroShock presents data through various visualization types designed to surface insights quickly and identify trends over time.
The Rank Tracker tab displays historical position data as line charts with each tracked keyword shown as a separate line. The Y-axis shows ranking position (with 1 at the top since lower numbers are better), while the X-axis displays time based on your checking schedule.
These charts make it easy to spot:
You can toggle individual keywords on and off to reduce chart clutter and focus on specific terms. Hovering over any point reveals the exact position and date.
Visual badges appear next to keywords that trigger or appear in special SERP features:
These indicators help you understand your complete SERP presence beyond traditional rankings. Tracking these features over time shows whether you're gaining or losing visibility in these high-traffic positions.
Position distribution appears as a horizontal bar chart showing how many keywords fall into each ranking range (1-3, 4-10, 11-20, etc.). This visualization quickly reveals whether most keywords cluster in certain ranges, helping you identify opportunities:
The Site Audit tab presents issues in multiple visualization formats:
Category pie charts show the distribution of issues across Performance, SEO, Accessibility, and Best Practices categories. This helps you understand which aspects of your site need the most attention.
Priority stacks display Critical, Warning, and Info issues as color-coded bars. The relative sizes help you allocate time appropriately - a large Critical section demands immediate attention.
Historical trend lines track your health score over time as you resolve issues and run follow-up audits. Seeing the upward trend validates that your technical SEO work is improving site health.
The Rank Tracker displays competitor positions in columns next to your own rankings. Color coding helps you quickly identify:
This visual comparison eliminates the need to manually compare numbers and immediately highlights competitive advantages and weaknesses across your keyword portfolio.
Efficient dashboard navigation helps you move quickly between different views and access the tools you need without unnecessary clicks.
Hub-and-Spoke Model - The Account Dashboard serves as your hub. From there, you navigate into individual project dashboards (the spokes) to perform detailed work. When finished, the Account Dashboard link in the top navigation returns you to the hub view.
Breadcrumb Navigation - A breadcrumb trail appears at the top of each page showing your current location in the hierarchy. For example: Account > Projects > Project Name > Rank Tracker. Click any breadcrumb element to jump back to that level without using browser back buttons.
Tab Persistence - When you navigate into a project, the platform remembers which tab you were viewing. If you leave the Rank Tracker tab and return to this project later, it opens to the Rank Tracker again rather than defaulting to Overview.
Project Dropdown - When viewing any project dashboard, a dropdown menu in the top navigation lists all your projects. Select a different project from this menu to switch contexts without returning to the Account Dashboard first.
Recent Activity - The Account Dashboard Overview tab shows recent actions across all projects. Click any activity item to jump directly to the relevant project and tab. For example, clicking a recent rank check takes you to that project's Rank Tracker tab with those keywords highlighted.
Search Functionality - A global search bar in the top navigation searches across project names, tracked keywords, and settings. Use this to quickly find a specific keyword without remembering which project contains it.
Quick Actions Panel - Each project's Overview tab includes buttons for common tasks like "Check Rankings," "Run Audit," or "Generate Report." These buttons open the appropriate modal or navigate to the relevant tab with common fields pre-populated.
On mobile devices, the tab navigation collapses into a hamburger menu. The same hierarchy exists, but you access tabs through the menu rather than horizontal tabs. All functionality remains available, though some data tables switch to card-based layouts for better mobile readability.
Key metrics remain visible in mobile view, though detailed charts may require horizontal scrolling or appear in simplified formats. For extensive data analysis and bulk operations, desktop viewing provides a better experience.
Power users can navigate more efficiently using keyboard shortcuts:
Ctrl/Cmd + K - Open global searchG then P - Go to Projects listG then R - Go to Reports (when in a project)G then A - Go to Site Audit (when in a project)R - Refresh current data (when in Rank Tracker)Access the complete shortcut list by pressing ? from any dashboard page.
Most data tables include filtering and sorting controls:
Column Headers - Click any column header to sort by that column. Click again to reverse sort direction. An arrow indicator shows the current sort column and direction.
Filter Panels - Tables with large datasets include a filter panel (usually on the left or top). Common filters include:
Column Visibility Toggle - A columns icon opens a menu where you can show or hide specific columns. This customization persists across sessions, so your preferred view remains when you return.
Saved Views - In the Rank Tracker, save frequently-used filter combinations as named views. Switch between views with a single click rather than reconfiguring filters each time.
Can I customize which metrics appear on my dashboard Overview?
The Overview tab displays pre-selected key metrics designed to provide the most actionable snapshot of project health. While you cannot currently customize which specific metrics appear, you can access detailed breakdowns by navigating to the relevant specialized tab (Rank Tracker for position details, Site Audit for technical metrics, etc.). The Overview serves as a starting point that highlights areas needing attention.
How often does dashboard data refresh?
Dashboard data updates based on the action type. Rank Tracker data updates when you run manual or scheduled rank checks - it does not update continuously. Site Audit data updates when you run a new audit. Backlink data typically refreshes every 24-48 hours automatically. Real-time data includes your credit balance, team member activity, and report generation status. Most charts and metrics display the last update timestamp so you know the data freshness.
Why do some competitor columns show no data?
Competitor columns in the Rank Tracker remain empty when the competitor domain does not rank in the top 100 positions for that keyword. This is expected for keywords where you significantly outperform competitors or when targeting keywords outside their focus area. If all competitor columns consistently show no data, verify that you've entered the correct competitor domains in Project Settings and that they actually compete for your target keywords.
Can I export dashboard data for external analysis?
Yes, most dashboard views include export functionality. In the Rank Tracker, use the Export button to download keyword data as CSV or include it in a PDF report. Site Audit results can be exported with full issue details. Backlink data exports include referring domains and anchor text analysis. Export options appear in the top-right corner of each dashboard tab. Note that generating exports uses credits based on the data volume.
What happens to dashboard data if I run out of credits?
Your existing dashboard data remains fully accessible when your credit balance reaches zero. You can view all historical rankings, audit results, and reports indefinitely. However, you cannot perform new actions that consume credits (running rank checks, generating new audits, or creating reports) until you add credits via Account Dashboard → Billing. Your dashboards effectively become read-only until credits are added.
Now that you understand the dashboard structure and available metrics, explore these related features to get more value from your data:
Set Up Automated Rank Tracking - Configure scheduled rank checks in the **Rank