Choose periods that answer one question
A date comparison needs a reason. Compare adjacent periods for recent changes, or a comparable earlier season for recurring demand. Write down the exact dates and keep period lengths equal when you want a fair comparison of totals. Align weekdays where that matters to your audience.
If you changed a page, leave enough time for new search data before judging the result. A comparison can show what happened after an edit, but it cannot establish that the edit caused every change. Demand, competitors and the mix of searches can also move.
How mowteng calculates the comparison
The insights_compare_periods tool compares any two date ranges by query, page, country or device. It returns totals for each range and the biggest changes. Ask for both absolute differences and percentage changes so large movements on tiny baselines do not dominate your interpretation.
Search Console metrics include clicks, impressions, CTR and average position. CTR is clicks divided by impressions; comparing aggregate CTR requires those totals, rather than averaging the CTR of each row. A new row with zero earlier clicks has no meaningful percentage increase from that baseline.
Questions for a clear comparison
Compare the last 28 complete days with the preceding 28 days by page. State exact dates and show totals, absolute click changes and percentage changes.
Break the click difference down by country and device in separate comparisons. Which segments changed most, and which conclusions need a query-level check?
Explain the largest changes
Start with the pages responsible for most of the absolute click movement. Then check their queries and whether impressions, CTR or position moved. A page with fewer impressions but similar position may face a different demand pattern; a country or device shift can also change sitewide averages.
Use content decay analysis for a ready-made view of recent page losses. Review striking distance queries when the question is where to improve next. Keep separate dimensions separate: a page breakdown and a country breakdown describe the same traffic from different angles and should not be added together.
Run the comparison manually
In Search Console's search performance report, use the date comparison control and enter the two ranges. Keep search type and other filters consistent. Switch between queries, pages, countries and devices to inspect the difference. Export the rows if you need custom sorting or calculations. Save the dates and filters with your findings so a later review can reproduce the comparison without guessing what the totals included.