Can you arrange Google Analytics source/medium traffic by percentage change?
-
I'm doing a year to year traffic audit for a client. I would like to analyze Google Analytics source/medium traffic by percent change. Is there a way to do this? Do I have to create a custom variable?
-
As most people here have said, the best way is to just do this work outside of GA. Custom variables have to track current site performance, so I don't believe there's a way to build a custom variable that looks at data as it's been recorded in GA in the past.
There are a lot of ways you can put the data together, but when I usually do is use Google's Compare option as you select the time period you're looking at. When you export the data to Excel, Google will create a separate row for every time period, like this:
Source / Medium | Date Range | Sessions .....
google / organic | Jan 13, 2015 - Feb 22, 2015 | 278,834 ...
google / organic | Jan 13, 2014 - Feb 22, 2014 | 247,424 ...
You can combine those into one row fairly easily with VLookup, as Ray suggested, or by creating a Pivot Table, where Source / Medium is the Row Label, Date Range is the Column Label, and Sessions (or whatever metric(s) you're interested in) is the Values.
If you've created a Pivot Table, copy those values over to a new sheet, and calculate the percent change in each row, just like Ray said.
Hope this helps!
Kristina
-
If I'm understanding you correctly, I think you're going to have the same problem with channels. Google changed their reporting structure in July 2013.
-
That would be effective if the Source/Medium was consistent between both years. You might have better luck with Channels for this method (less variation between years), but Source/Mediums are probably going to vary between years. I.e. 2013 includes a Source/Medium that no longer exists in 2014, so the data would not align neatly.
-
You don't have to run a VLookup necessarily. You can align the data side by side and do a simple division formula to calculate the percentage of change. Just copy and paste the data into two columns, and use the IMSUB to find the difference, then divide for a percentage.
-
Hi VC,
Unfortunately, I do not think there is a default reporting option to sort a compared Source/Medium report by % changed. Absolute change is available (although sometimes doesn't sort properly) and may give you a good idea of the traffic differences - Absolute change may even be better since it could identify a low %, but high traffic change.
To find exactly what you're looking for I suggest:
- Export the Source/Medium data for 2014
- Export the Source/Medium data for 2013
- Run a VLOOKUP function in Microsoft Excel to have a single table with 2014/2013 data
Now, you can calculate percentages, absolute values, and sort/filter the data as you see fit. Google Analytics provides a lot of the necessary data analysis tools, but it doesn't replace the power of MS Excel :)....yet.
-
The easiest way to do this is to export the data and work with it outside of Google Analytics. I reccomend using http://www.nextanalytics.com/ to automatically export data from GA into excel.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How do you adjust the Google Analytics date range?
Hello! Every time I log into Google Analytics (via desktop), the date range is set to October 1, 2013 to October 28, 2013. I've looked throughout the GA settings to find a place where I change this default setting to anything else ("Last week?") but have not be able to find where that setting is. Can you help? Losing my mind,
Reporting & Analytics | | SmileMoreSEO
Erik0 -
Using Filters On Google Analytics
Hi Guys, I am In need of some technical help with regards to Google analytics. One of my clients has a site providing HR Software on SaaS basis. The users login via the site for the various HR Tools. Obviously this is skewing the analytics data and showing 10,000+ extra visitors that actually don't exist. Now I understand i can add filters and exclude certain pages for instance the login page, however, some users will visit the home page then click login. How can I exclude them just to show new visitors to the site rather than users that are just trying to login. Hope this makes sense Neil
Reporting & Analytics | | nezona0 -
Linking Multiple Niche Site In Same Google Analytics Account
Hi, I am providing SEO for Local business. Is it advisable to separate out the Google Analytics into different Google account or is it ok to remain it this way? Some of the client might be in the same niche, and might be competing with the same keywords as well. What I was worried is, Google might see these sites as same owner and only rank for 1 of the site. I was thinking to get the owners to register for their own Google Analytics and share the access to me.
Reporting & Analytics | | JonathanSoh0 -
Google Analytics question
Hi, I recently relaunched my site on a wordpress CMS. The relaunch has gone well except for a category of traffic within Google Analytics which is referral traffic from google.co.uk (its a UK site) which has dropped off hugely. The non-paid search traffic from google.co.uk is the same or better than it was. Can anyone tell me what the difference is between referral traffic from google.co.uk and non-paid search traffic from google.co.uk. Thanks for your help. Ben
Reporting & Analytics | | benacuity0 -
Weird info from google analytics?
Hi Could anyone explain what these visits are in Google Analytics? Under traffic sources and organic I am seeing lots of entries with data like below. Any ideas what kind of traffic this is? Is it a bot and if so what is their purpose of it and is it recommended that you block it? Pages/Visit 1.00 Avg. Time on Site 00:00:00 % New Visits : 100% Bounce Rate: 100.00% Many Thanks
Reporting & Analytics | | ocelot0 -
Google Analytics bug?
Hi, I'm getting hits to this page, it's screwing up my Google Analytics stats. I know it's related with Google Website Optimizer, cuz it correlates with the tests I ran at the same dates. I'm just wondering if you've seen this before and what I should do to clean my stats? And is this affecting my SEO? Because it's still registering hits to these pages but I already stopped the tests a while go. Should I disallow this in my robots.txt file? Thanks! ga_bug3.jpg
Reporting & Analytics | | rhenster990 -
Google Analytics All Kinds of Messed Up
Anyone have their google analytics go straight crazy on Thursday, 8/11/2011? 30% increase in visits No increase in visitors Huge drop in pageviews and time site Higher bounce rate More return users
Reporting & Analytics | | ChrisKolmar0 -
Setting up Google Analytic Goals to a 3rd Party Site
I recently received help on a question I asked on SEOmoz but need additional clarification. I am trying to set up goals in Google Analytics for people who click on a “purchase botton” which sends them to PayPal. I created a Thank You page and tried to get PayPal to redirect to it, however, our customers only get to our site’s 404 page. Here is what I’ve done so far: Went into my PayPal account and turned the “Auto Return” to ‘on’ Under website payment preferences, I added the following URL http://www.teecycle.org/thank-youutm_nooverride1. (I formatted the URL this way because the person who provided me with help recommended using the format ?UTM_nooverride=1. However, our CMS system won’t allow “?” or “=”)
Reporting & Analytics | | EricVallee340