Comparing % Change, Google Analytics

[dangaul]

Hey Mozzers,

Is there a simple way to compare the "% Change" in traffic when comparing two separate time periods in a single Google Analytics report?

When comparing data from two separate time periods, an exported CSV doesn't include the % Change (booo!), and there's no option to sort by % Change within the GA report, essentially forcing you to scroll through all the results to pinpoint the major movers and shakers.

I'm not averse to using spreadsheets to sort this data, but I'm thinking that I'd likely need a macro to make this work, something like this. However, none of the macros on that page are working (possibly because they were designed for a previous version of Analytics).

All suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks!

[dangaul]

Got it! Pivot table led me to the promised land. Thanks for the advice.

[dangaul]

Appreciate the suggestions! Forgive my Excel ignorance, but the difficulty stems from not being able to directly compare and sort the data.

So let's say I want to pull my top 500 keywords driving traffic for a week's time and compare them to the previous week. If I pull a CSV from Analytics in a report comparing the two weeks, it'll show the same keyword (biscuits) in rows 8, 9, the same keyword (sandwiches) in rows 10, 11, the same keyword (buns) in rows 12, 13. I could use formulas like =D8-D9 to compare the difference in total traffic for a keyword, and =(D8-D9)/ABS(D8) to get the percentage, but then I can't sort by the difference (because the formula will calculate whatever moved during the sorting), which leaves me in the same bind as I have with Analytics -- not being able to sort by the change in traffic over two different time periods.

If I try to pull two separate CSV's from GA, from two separate weeks, and copy/paste that data into two separate columns, the data won't align correctly. For example, "buns" have been the top keyword driving traffic one week, so it'll be A1, but it was the fourth best keyword the next week, putting it into A4. In other words, the data isn't aligned.

I'm all for trying to display this data with a pivot table, but I'm not sure where to begin. Do you have any resources you could recommend?

[TimKelsey]

Excel FTW! A pivot table could handle this for you as Basil said. Or if you wanted to do a one-off formula, it would look something like this:

=(B1-A1)/B1

Where B1 is your number from the more recent time period and A1 is the number from the previous time period.

Hope this helps!

Tim

[diezel83]

Hi Dan,

There is no way to do that with GA, but you can with excel. What you're trying to accomplish can be easily done and summarized in an excel pivot table (which can also include predefined formulas).

Let me know if you need any help figuring out how to create one.

Basil