How To Change The Default Date Range In Google Analytics

Google Analytics Default Date Range: How to Change

Every business owner should be able to track and know how the business is ranking. This is not something that only website developers and search engine optimization mavens should know how to use.

One of the first questions more business owners ask me is how to change the default date range when they first login into their GA interface. I’ve also had this nagging annoyance with Google Analytics automatically starting with 7 days for the default date range whenever I go to it for the first time in a new tab. Seven days for the Google Analytics default date range is rarely what I want to look at when I first open GA. But it hasn’t been enough of a problem to look for a solution. Well, today I inadvertently came across a setting that lets you control the default date range in GA. In other words, I now have a way to make GA open in the date range I prefer, rather than the default of 7 days.

That is to say, I generally want to check a date range that goes farther back in Google Analytics. When I login to GA the first thing I do (almost always) is to change the date range selector to Past 30 Days. In running a web development firm in NYC I use GA a lot, therefore I was delighted to see that there is a setting that will help me avoid that step the numerous times I check GA stats daily.

Most importantly, this will save me time.

Set by Step instructions on how to change the GA default date range:

1. Go to Google Analytics in a web browser.
2. Go to the bottom left of Google Analytics (scroll all the way down the left sidebar).
3. Click Admin.
4. At the top of the Admin page, there are two ‘tabs’—click USER.
5. On the USER page, click ‘7 Days’ and you’ll see 4 options for default date ranges (see screenshot below).
6. The four options are:
   • 7 Days
   • 14 Days
   • 28 Days
   • 30 Days
7. Click the date range that you prefer.
8. Scroll down on the page and click the Save Changes button at the bottom right.

Screenshot of GA default date range setting

Done! Now every time you go to Google Analytics it will automatically start with the date range that you set as default.
This DIY blog post about changing the default date range in Google Analytics was published by Jonathan Zacks of Make It All Work in NYC