Google Analytics Tips and Secrets #1
Tags: GA secrets, GA tips, google analytics secrets, google analytics tips
How to override the “500 limit” in your reports
All reports in Google Analytics are subject to a 500 limit of listed records, being either keywords, search terms, referrals or any other report. In other words, if you are trying to view or download the full list of your paid keywords, you will be limited to the top 500 of them. Let’s bypass it!
GA - the "500" limit
As you can see above, there are more than 875 “rows” of data you want to analyze. Even if download the file you will not get more than 500 records.
There’s a secret to fix this issues. Add the “&limit=” parameter to your report URL.
Let’s say you are looking at your keywords report
1. Go to the report page you want to see the data. The URL may look like: https://www.google.com/analytics/reporting/keywords?id=1234567&pdr=20081006-20081105& cmp=average#lts=1234567890
2. Add “&limit=5000” at the end of the URL and copy it : https://www.google.com/analytics/reporting/keywords?id=1234567&pdr=20081006-20081105& cmp=average#lts=1234567890&limit=5000
3. Hit refresh(F5) in your browser Click on a different report link
4. Paste the URL from step 2 in the address bar load that page
5. Export your report. This time you will have 5000 records in the downloaded fileNotice: Downloading is the only way to get unlimited records. They won’t be visible in the Google Analytics interface
Later Update (August 31st 2009): Google has released the official version of this trick (http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/08/back-to-basics-tip-for-exporting-rows.html)
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valve said:
Nov 07, 08 at 3:04 pmThanks. This will help me review my Adwords data using Google Analytics much faster.
TraiaN said:
Nov 11, 08 at 7:28 pmI’m glad it’s helpful
Jeff said:
Nov 19, 08 at 9:03 pmGood job – you saved my time.
Roman said:
Nov 23, 08 at 12:31 pmIt doesn’t work for me!
traiann said:
Nov 24, 08 at 5:38 pm@Roman,
Make sure you are downloading the report. They won’t directly show up in the interface.
Matthew Hunt said:
Dec 28, 08 at 9:32 pmAwesome tip! Will make things go way faster!
Allen Howard said:
Feb 06, 09 at 10:09 pmThank you TraiaN. Its really very helpful.Keep on writing such good stuff.
Ejaz said:
Feb 25, 09 at 1:16 amThank you friend. I am new to internet marketing so i hope this will help me.
ra6000 said:
Jun 04, 09 at 5:25 amThis is a great tip, but does anyone know how to get more data than 50,000? Any number over 50,000 produces an error. I have about 400,000 events that I need to extract.
TraiaN said:
Jun 04, 09 at 11:30 amWhen this is the case, you should break the dates (i.e. from Jan-March and then from April-June) so there won’t be more than 49999 rows to generate. Then, you can concatenate them in Excel. I hope it helps.
Tony said:
Aug 03, 09 at 7:10 amI have using this method for nearly a year now but when I tried today it didn’t work – only gave me the fist 500 records. Have Google closed the door?
TraiaN said:
Aug 03, 09 at 5:16 pm@tony:starting august 1st this method doesn’t seem to work :( . Probably Google is trying to force us using their bloody API.
Google Analytics Hack – More Columns for Pivot Tables | You Should Test That! said:
Nov 18, 09 at 1:09 pm[...] is not the same hack as the exporting more than 500 columns of data from any report. That one was one of the most annoying things I’ve fixed (to be read hacked) long [...]
Adam Tudor said:
Dec 07, 09 at 10:18 amDon’t worry, it’s still working – only with csv and tsv file formats however.
Anand said:
Jan 07, 10 at 11:59 pmyes its working now in all supported format
gamedevelopment said:
Jan 19, 10 at 1:47 amGreat tips…thanks