📘 This article explains how dates work in the AI Visibility dashboard, part of Botify's Analytics Suite, available as an option with all Botify plans.
Overview
Use the date selector at the top of the AI Visibility dashboard to choose the dates shown in reports. The selection applies to all pages except Campaigns.
Each date selection has two parts:
Current period: The dates you want to analyze.
Comparison period: An earlier period that the change indicators in the dashboard compare with the current period.
Both periods include their start date and their end date. For example, September 1–7 is seven days.
Data availability
AI Visibility can only show dates for which data exists. Each project has an available data window, from the first available date to the latest available date. Hover over the "Data availability" hint at the bottom of the date selector to see this window.
The latest available date can be earlier than today, because data must be collected and processed first.
AI Visibility shows up to 12 months of history, back to when your campaigns started tracking.
Data is collected weekly, unless the project uses daily refresh. In the calendar, batch days (the days on which data was collected) are identified with a purple dot.
When a selected period starts before the first available date, the days or weeks without data appear blank, and the date selector displays a warning.
Default dates
AI Visibility uses the following default periods:
Current period: The last 28 available days, ending on the latest available date.
Comparison period: The 28 days immediately before the current period.
Current period options
Ready-made periods
Choose one of the following periods:
Last 7 days
Last 28 days
Last 3 months
Last 6 months
Last 12 months
Ready-made periods end on the latest available date, not necessarily today. For example, Last 7 days is the last seven available days.
Custom dates
Select a start date and an end date in the calendar. You can only select dates inside the available data window.
Comparison period options
The comparison period follows the comparison option you choose, whether the current period is ready-made or custom:
Option | Comparison period |
Previous period | The same number of days immediately before the current period. The two periods never overlap. |
Previous year | The same dates one calendar year earlier. When a date does not exist in that year, it is adjusted to the closest date. |
Custom | The dates you select. |
None | No comparison is shown. |
For example, if you choose a custom current period of 25 days, the previous period is also 25 days:
Current period: March 17–April 10
Previous period: February 20–March 16
Applying your date selection
Open the date selector at the top of the page.
Choose a ready-made period or custom dates for the current period.
Optionally choose a comparison option.
Click Apply to save both periods and update the page. Click Cancel to discard the changes you made since opening the date selector.
Date selector warnings
The date selector displays a warning when:
Either period was adjusted to the available data window.
The comparison period overlaps the current period.
The selected dates are not valid.
When a ready-made period is adjusted to the available data window, the ready-made period remains selected (for example, Last 12 months) instead of changing to custom dates. This ensures that a bookmark of the page continues to recalculate the dates.
Bookmarking a date selection
Your date selection is saved in the page URL, so a bookmark keeps both the period options and the dates in use when you created it.
Ready-made periods: When you open the bookmark, the dates are recalculated from the period option and the project's latest available date. For example, a bookmark saved with Last 7 days always shows the last seven available days, not the seven dates from the day you created the bookmark.
Custom dates: The bookmark keeps the exact start and end dates, as long as they are valid. For example, a bookmark with a current period of August 1–25 and a comparison period of July 7–31 always opens with those dates.
If the dates in a bookmark are no longer valid for the project, AI Visibility adjusts the range to the available data or removes the invalid comparison period, and displays a warning. If the bookmark does not contain a valid current period, AI Visibility uses the default dates. An invalid comparison period is removed so that the dashboard does not show an incorrect comparison.
Dates in exports
CSV exports include only the current period. Changes from the comparison period are not included. Refer to Working in the AI Visibility Dashboard for details.
See also: