Period comparison

The "Compare" button at the top of the dashboard puts your current numbers next to an earlier period. Every headline number and every chart then shows whether it went up or down.

#Three choices

• None (default) — your numbers on their own, no comparison.
• Previous period — the stretch right before, the same length as the one you're viewing.
• Previous year (YoY) — the same dates, but one year earlier.

#What "previous period" looks like

• You're viewing 30 days → compared to the 30 days before.
• You're viewing March 1 → 15 → compared to February 14 → 28.
• You're viewing 24h → compared to the 24h before.

#What "previous year" looks like

• You're viewing March 1 → 15, 2026 → compared to March 1 → 15, 2025.
• You're viewing the last 7 days → compared to the same week a year earlier.

The year-on-year view uses the numbers we keep for the long run (25 months). It can't go hour by hour across a year — the detailed records from twelve months ago no longer exist.

#Reading the arrows

• A green arrow means better than before (more visits, longer visits, fewer errors, and so on).
• A red arrow means worse.
• A grey dash means barely any change (under 5%).

What counts as "better" depends on the number: for traffic, more is better; for 500 errors or oddly short visits, it's the opposite — fewer is better.

#The detail on hover

In the rankings (most-viewed pages, countries, and so on) and on the headline numbers, hover over a value: a small box shows you the figure for the comparison period, along with the gap in both raw numbers and percent. It only appears when a comparison is switched on and there's actually an earlier figure to show.

#What's possible, what isn't

• Previous period: available up to 25 months back; the click-through detail, though, stops at 90 days.
• Year on year: only on the numbers we keep long-term, no hour-by-hour detail, and nothing to compare if your site didn't exist a year ago (the comparison is then hidden).
• If the earlier period is empty, the number shows without an arrow and the box reads "no comparable data".