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.
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
-
Tracking 301 redirect traffic in Google Analytics
if I 301 redirect www.mywebsite.com to go to www.yourwebsite.com, how can I track the traffic in Google Analytics that is coming from mywebsite.com?? I don't think that's a referral traffic, is it?
Reporting & Analytics | | Armen-SEO0 -
Stop getting info from Google analytics on purchases in our site
Hi guys, We have eCommerce.
Reporting & Analytics | | WayneRooney
We connected the site to the Google analytic eCommerce.
Everything was work fine until 3 weeks ago. Suddenly we stooped getting purchases information in the analytic although i see purchases in the website. We didn't change anything in the website and i really don't know how to solve this problem.
If someone here can point me where i can get some info on how to fix it it can be great. Thanks a lot!0 -
Conflicting numbers in Google Analytics
I am getting 2 completely different numbers in Google Analytics.According to the graph on my Dashboard organic traffic decreased ~40% comparing June 7 -> June 6.However, when I dig a bit deeper and look at the 2 dates specifically compared to each other I get a `3% increase in traffic.When I look at the traffic on just June 7, I get the number indicating the increase.Any ideas or someone getting similar conflicting numbers??
Reporting & Analytics | | theLotter0 -
Can i know trough Google analytics the most busy time in the day ?
Hello guys,
Reporting & Analytics | | WayneRooney
I have a website with around 600-650 visitor a day.
Can i know trough Google analytics the most busy time in the day ? Thank you0 -
How to filter many cities from Google analytics
I need to filter hundreds of cities from my traffic reports. I've been told that adding them all in this format: |Knutsford|Ripon|Cheadle Hulme|Congleton| and using the 'matching reg/exp from the drop down should do it... Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be working as I can still see cities like London in the results.... Any ideas?
Reporting & Analytics | | david.smith.segarra0 -
How to devide Google traffic into local google traffic (.com , .uk , .cn etc) in Analytics
Hi, friends In google analytics , we can see search traffic from google, but is it possible to deeply see from which local google? eg: .com , .uk, .hk etc? Thanks alots
Reporting & Analytics | | topchinaseo
Boson0 -
Analytics/Google Keyword comparison
Hi I'm trying to establish a methodology to best show the gap between potential and realised organic keyword traffic. To obtain potential keyword traffic I'm using the Google Adwords keyword tool to derive local monthly search volumes for exact keyword matches. However, I'm confused as to which is the best way of getting a comparable metric from Google Analytics (GA). I was using custom reports and the 'organic searches' metric. However, this provides different values to a standard report selecting non-paid search in the default advanced segments. What is the best report/metric in GA to use for both organic and paid search volumes that would be comparable to the Google Adwords keyword tool. Also, I'm having problems getting my kids to eat their greens, any advice! 😉 Thanks Neil
Reporting & Analytics | | mccormackmorrison0 -
Should you get a new Google Analytics account if your site has a new domain after a site redesign/new development?
We recently developed a new site for a client and they have opted to move forward with a domain change. Should we create a new Google Analytics account for the new site?
Reporting & Analytics | | TheOceanAgency0