Understanding LinkMap Analytics and Reporting

LinkMap's analytics suite provides comprehensive insights into your site structure and optimization efforts through intuitive visualizations and detailed reporting tools. This guide explains how to leverage these features for data-driven decision making.

Analytics Dashboard Overview

Your analytics page provides three powerful visualization tools that utilize a mix of KPIs from optional Google Search Console data, optional Google Analytics 4 data, and data from our crawl of a website. The Calendar Time Series Graph displays daily metrics in a heat map format. The Metric Comparison Quadrant helps identify opportunities by plotting two metrics against each other. Trend Line Charts track performance changes over time with detailed annotations.

Each visualization serves a distinct purpose in your optimization workflow. The calendar view excels at spotting patterns and anomalies across time periods. The quadrant analysis reveals relationships between metrics that inform prioritization. Trend lines connect optimization actions to measurable outcomes.

Accessing Analytics

Navigate to your analytics dashboard through the main menu after selecting your active project. The interface remembers your last-used settings including date ranges and metric selections.

1. Select "Analytics" from the main menu
2. Choose your preferred visualization
3. Select date ranges
4. Select any single page or all pages

Calendar Graph Analysis

The calendar graph provides a heat map visualization of daily metrics over time, with two key viewing modes:

• Monthly View: Detailed daily metrics displayed in a traditional calendar layout
• Yearly View: Monthly aggregated data shown in a 4x3 grid

Using the Calendar Graph

Metric selection determines what insights your calendar reveals. The interface combines multiple data sources into a unified view. Google Analytics provides engagement metrics while Search Console delivers visibility data. Our crawler adds structural insights unique to LinkMap.

Color intensity represents relative performance across your selected timeframe. Darker colors indicate stronger performance for positive metrics or weaker performance for negative metrics. The system automatically inverts scales where lower values are preferable.

1. Select Your Metric

   The interface combines data from Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Analytics metrics include Pageviews, Active Users, Scrolled Users, Engagement Rate, Bounce Rate, and Average Session Duration. Search Console provides Impressions, Clicks, Average Position, and Best Position with ranking details.

2. Reading the Visualization
   • Color scale heatmap indicates performance relative to other pages or days, depending on the visualization
   • Metrics automatically normalize on a 0-1 scale
   • Inverted normalization for metrics where lower is better (bounce rate, position)
   • Click any day/month for detailed statistics modal
   • Navigation via year/month dropdowns or prev/next buttons

Practical Applications

Monitor content development by tracking daily changes in key metrics. Identify peak optimization periods when multiple improvements coincide. Measure implementation consistency across your optimization efforts.

Quadrant Comparison Tool

Compare any two metrics in a four-quadrant visualization to identify opportunities and challenges. This tool reveals correlations between different performance indicators that might otherwise remain hidden. Pages appear as dots plotted according to their values for each selected metric.

The quadrant system divides your pages into four strategic categories based on their relative performance. Understanding these categories helps prioritize optimization efforts effectively.

Setting Up Comparisons

Select metrics that reveal actionable insights when compared. The interface allows any combination of available metrics from both Google services and LinkMap's crawler. Each plotted point represents a page with full statistical context including percentile rankings and sample sizes.

1. Select Metrics
   • Choose X-axis metric
   • Choose Y-axis metric
   • Each data point shows:
     • Page URL
     • Raw metric values
     • Percentile ranking ("Better than X% of pages")
     • Sample size (days with data)

Common Metric Pairs

Certain metric combinations consistently reveal optimization opportunities. These pairings help identify specific issues and guide remediation strategies.

Trend Line Visualization

Track metrics over time with detailed line charts for deep analysis. This visualization excels at showing cause and effect relationships between optimization efforts and performance changes. Multiple metrics can overlay on the same timeline for correlation analysis.

The system annotates significant events automatically when detected. Manual annotations track your optimization efforts. Together they create a comprehensive optimization history.

Configuration Options

Customize your trend analysis through flexible configuration options. Select multiple metrics to compare their trajectories simultaneously. The normalization feature allows meaningful comparison between metrics with different scales. Time period selection enables before-and-after analysis of specific optimization campaigns.

1. Data Selection
   • Multiple metric selection via color-coded cards
   • Automatic normalization of different metric scales
   • Page-specific filtering available
   • Time period selection to compare past and present
2. Visualization Controls
   • Interactive data point inspection to see raw stats
   • SEO action indicators showing changes made as reported by humans or our crawler
   • Detailed tooltips on hover
   • Handles data gaps gracefully

Analysis Features

Identify trends by examining metric patterns over extended periods. Spot anomalies that indicate technical issues or algorithm changes. Track optimization impact by correlating changes with performance shifts.

Best Practices

Successful analytics usage requires consistent monitoring and systematic documentation. Regular review cycles catch issues early before they impact performance significantly. Team collaboration ensures insights translate into coordinated action.

1. Regular Monitoring

   Set up weekly reviews to catch changes early and track key metrics consistently. Document changes to the site including backlinks added. Note optimization impacts for future reference.

2. Team Collaboration

   Share insights through project based chatrooms and discuss trends regularly. Plan improvements and view them on the Site Structure visualization. Coordinate efforts across team members for maximum impact.

3. Client Reporting

   Use the Report Builder to create custom views and share only what you deem important. Schedule regular reports with expiring links that stay live until you revoke them. Highlight key findings and track progress systematically.

Troubleshooting

Most analytics issues stem from data availability or display settings. Data gaps occur naturally when metrics lack daily measurements. Display problems often resolve through browser adjustments or cache clearing.

Common issues and solutions:

1. Data Loading
   • Refresh data
   • Check date range
   • Check URL selections vs 'All pages'
   • Verify metric selection
   • Not everything always has data every day. This could cause a lack of visualization to appear.
   • Clear browser cache
2. Visualization Display
   • Adjust window size
   • Update zoom level
   • Reset view

Next Steps

Review the analysis tools guide to maximize your analytics usage. Set up team management for collaborative optimization. Utilize project communication features to coordinate efforts.

Need help? Contact our support team for assistance with analytics and reporting.