---
title: "Period-over-Period Analytics Comparison in HitKeep | HitKeep"
description: "Compare the selected analytics range with the equivalent previous period in HitKeep dashboards, KPI cards, charts, goals, funnels, and UTM reports."
canonical: "https://hitkeep.com/guides/analytics/comparison/"
---

# Period-over-Period Analytics Comparison in HitKeep

HitKeep automatically compares your current date range against the equivalent prior period on **every analytics page**. Delta badges appear on all KPI cards and a dashed overlay series appears on every timeseries chart — no toggle required.

![HitKeep dashboard with period-over-period delta badges and previous-period chart overlays](https://hitkeep.com/_astro/dashboard-comparison.DOLNPx1L_1vxfLU.webp)

The dashboard overlays the equivalent prior period automatically, adds dashed comparison series, and shows per-card deltas without requiring a separate toggle.

## How it works

Comparison is always active. Whenever you load or change the date range:

1. HitKeep computes the **previous period** — a window of the same duration ending the millisecond before your current range begins.
2. KPI cards show a `+X.X%` or `-X.X%` badge against the prior period.
3. Timeseries charts gain dashed overlay series for the previous period.
4. A **“vs. Jan 24 – Feb 22”** label appears near the range selector so you always know what you are comparing against.

## Comparison range formula

HitKeep shifts the selected window backwards by its own duration:

| Current range | Comparison range |
| --- | --- |
| Today | Same elapsed length immediately before today began |
| Yesterday | The calendar day before yesterday |
| Last 30 minutes | 30 minutes before that |
| Last hour | 1 hour before that |
| Last 6 hours | 6 hours before that |
| Last 24 hours | 24 hours before that |
| Last 3 days | The 3 days before that |
| Last 7 days | The 7 days before that |
| Last 14 days | The 14 days before that |
| Last 30 days | The 30 days before that |
| Last 60 days | The 60 days before that |
| Last 90 days | The 90 days before that |
| Last 180 days | The 180 days before that |
| This week | Equivalent length before this week began |
| Last week | The calendar week before last week |
| This month | Equivalent length before this month began |
| Last month | The calendar month before last month |
| This year | Equivalent length before this year began |
| Last year | The year before that |
| Custom (Jan 25 – Feb 23) | Equivalent length ending Jan 24 |

## Pages with comparison

Prior-period deltas are shown on KPI cards and timeseries charts. City/provider/ASN lists remain current-range aggregates, so they can explain the selected period without implying that a specific city, network provider, or ASN changed by a computed percentage.

Comparison data is shown on:

- **Dashboard** — traffic KPI cards, traffic chart overlay, and current-range top countries, cities, providers, and ASNs
- **Goals** — Conversions, Conversion Rate, Unique Sessions + chart overlay
- **Funnels** — Entries, Completions, Completion Rate + chart overlay
- **UTM** — UTM hit-count cards for Campaign, Content, Medium, Source, and Term

The **Events** page does not show comparison — event property breakdowns are snapshots rather than trends.

## How to use comparison

Period comparison is most useful after a real change:

| Change | What to check |
| --- | --- |
| New landing page | Pageviews, landing pages, goal conversion, and source mix |
| Pricing page rewrite | Pricing path goal and signup funnel completion |
| Campaign launch | UTM source, medium, campaign, and goal deltas |
| Checkout change | Ecommerce revenue, orders, checkout funnel, and device mix |
| AI content update | AI-referred visits and downstream goals, while AI crawler fetches stay in AI Visibility |

Treat a positive delta as a prompt to inspect the source, campaign, and audience panels. Treat a negative delta as a prompt to check whether traffic volume changed, conversion rate changed, or tracking changed.

## API

The `comparison` object is always present in the stats endpoint response. The previous period is computed server-side from the `from` / `to` parameters you supply:

```
curl "https://your-hitkeep.example/api/sites/{id}/stats?\
from=2025-02-01T00:00:00Z&to=2025-02-28T23:59:59Z" \
  -b "hk_token=YOUR_SESSION_COOKIE"
```

The response includes a `comparison` object covering the equivalent prior period:

```
{
  "total_pageviews": 4200,
  "unique_sessions": 1800,
  "comparison": {
    "total_pageviews": 3500,
    "unique_sessions": 1500,
    "utm_campaign_hits": 210,
    "utm_content_hits": 80,
    "utm_medium_hits": 310,
    "utm_source_hits": 420,
    "utm_term_hits": 55,
    "goals": [
      { "goal_id": "...", "name": "Signup", "conversions": 140, "conversion_rate": 9.3 }
    ],
    "total_conversions": 140,
    "chart_data": [...]
  }
}
```

You may also pass explicit comparison bounds using `compare_from` / `compare_to` if you need a custom window:

```
curl "https://your-hitkeep.example/api/sites/{id}/stats?\
from=2025-02-01T00:00:00Z&to=2025-02-28T23:59:59Z&\
compare_from=2025-01-01T00:00:00Z&compare_to=2025-01-31T23:59:59Z" \
  -b "hk_token=YOUR_SESSION_COOKIE"
```

## Related

- [Dashboard Goals](https://hitkeep.com/guides/analytics/goals/)
- [Funnel Analytics](https://hitkeep.com/guides/analytics/funnels/)
- [UTM Campaign Tracking](https://hitkeep.com/guides/tracking/utm-parameters/)
- [Ecommerce Analytics](https://hitkeep.com/guides/analytics/ecommerce/)
- [Web Vitals Analytics](https://hitkeep.com/guides/analytics/web-vitals/)

[Previous Track GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and Perplexity](https://hitkeep.com/guides/tracking/track-gptbot-claudebot-perplexity/)[Next Event analytics](https://hitkeep.com/guides/analytics/events/)