{
  "slug": "rate-change-percent",
  "name": "Relative change",
  "aliases": [
    "Relative period-over-period change",
    "Delta percent"
  ],
  "definition": "How large a period-over-period change is relative to the comparison period.",
  "category": "Statistics",
  "type": "derived metric",
  "unit": "relative change",
  "direction": "neutral",
  "verification": "review",
  "aggregation": "Computed once per metric per comparison. Null when the comparison value is zero, so a growth-from-nothing case returns no relative change rather than an infinity.",
  "grain": "One value per metric per pair of date ranges, or one per breakdown row in a period-over-period breakdown.",
  "dimensions": [],
  "requiredFilters": [
    "date_range",
    "comparison_range"
  ],
  "sources": [
    "search-console",
    "web-analytics",
    "google-ads",
    "rank-tracking",
    "lighthouse"
  ],
  "reports": [],
  "skills": [
    "significance-referee",
    "anomaly-investigator",
    "rank-movement-review",
    "monthly-exec-review"
  ],
  "verbs": [
    "pop_significance",
    "significance_check",
    "paid_search_overview",
    "paid_impression_share",
    "web_analytics_overview",
    "conversions_overview",
    "site_health_cwv_check"
  ],
  "rungs": [
    "R5",
    "R2"
  ],
  "levers": [],
  "questions": [
    "How much did clicks change in percentage terms?",
    "What is the percent change versus last month?"
  ],
  "caveats": [
    "The scale is not consistent between producers, confirm which one a value came from before rendering it as a percentage.",
    "Null when the comparison value is zero, which is correct and is not the same as a zero change.",
    "It is a relative change, so a small absolute move on a small base produces a large value. Always pair it with the absolute change.",
    "It says nothing about whether a change is distinguishable from noise; that is the p-value's job."
  ],
  "freshness": "varies by site, priority URLs can run nightly; most pages far less often. The collection date rides on the card rather than being assumed.",
  "failureModes": [
    "Rendering a fraction-scaled value as a percent, or a percent-scaled value as a fraction, a hundredfold error in either direction.",
    "Reading a large relative change on a tiny base as a meaningful result.",
    "Treating a null as a zero change."
  ],
  "notSameAs": [
    {
      "slug": "conversion-rate-change",
      "why": "One is the absolute difference between two rates; this expresses a difference relative to its comparison base. On a small base the relative form can be dramatic while the absolute form is negligible."
    },
    {
      "slug": "significance-p-value",
      "why": "Size and evidence are different questions. A large relative change on thin data and a small one on heavy data routinely carry opposite p-values."
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "conversion-rate-change",
    "significance-p-value",
    "significant-flag"
  ],
  "workflows": [],
  "lastVerified": "2026-08-04"
}