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June 15, 2007
Google Analytics Graphs and Charts
One of the new features of Google Analytics that hasn't really seen too much press in the past month (has it really been that long?) is the new and improved graph and chart view. These graphs and charts don't vary drastically from those seen in the old interface, but they're still different enough to warrant a bit of explanation.
Basically, all of the data tables in Google Analytics have alternate graph displays for easier visual analysis of your data. Accessing these additional reports is easy. There's a series of little "Views" buttons at the top right of your data table, and each button offers you a new view for your data.
More info on each view after the jump.
Data Table
This is just the standard view for most of your reports, consisting of a table and a number of data entries relating to the specific report. If you're looking at your Top Content report, for instance, the Data Table will display line items for each page on your site, lined up with that page's respective metrics in their various table columns.
Pie Chart
The Pie Chart will be familiar to those who spent time within the previous Google Analytics interface, as it was the default chart shown for most reports. When you switch to the Pie Chart view, you will notice that your table's line items will still display on the far left, but each now has a color associated with it.
The chart itself is displayed on the right and has been divided into various sections, all corresponding to the line items on the left. You can modify the main table column's metric by using the dropdown on the left, and you can change the metric that the chart represents by using the dropdown on the right.
Bar Graph
The Bar Graph displays rectangular bars with lengths that represent the magnitude of a specific line item's metric.
Like the Pie Chart, you can modify the Data Table and Bar Graph metrics by using the dropdowns available in the column headers.
Comparison Against Site Average
Comparison Against Site Average is a new graph available in Google Analytics. It is a type of Bar Graph that compares metrics for each line item in the Data Table against the site average for that metric. This bar graph can display positive and negative values.
For example, if the site average for pageviews is only 5, then a 10-pageview page would show a 100% comparison (in green) above the site average of 5 pageviews.
Conversely, if the site average were 20 pageviews per page, my 10-pageview page would show a -50% comparison to the site average of 10 pageviews. This would display in red.
There are lots of ways of using these various charts and graphs to aid you in your data analysis, and we'll spend some time in the future detailing specific methods that utilize all four of Google Analytics' Views. Until then, play around with each View yourself and let us know how each one helps you out in sifting through your site's data.
