🔴 Fix Trend Arrows Showing Wrong Direction in Reports
🧭 Overview
Trend arrows in your reports are designed to give you a quick visual signal — green with an upward arrow for
improvement, red with a downward arrow for decline. If you notice a red or downward arrow next to a metric that is
clearly increasing, this is a UI rendering issue, not a data accuracy problem. Your underlying data is correct; the
directional indicator is simply displaying the wrong state.
This article explains why this happens and walks you through the steps to resolve it.
⚠️ How to Confirm You Have This Issue
Before troubleshooting, confirm that what you are experiencing matches this specific issue:
- The numeric value of the metric is higher than the previous period (for example, organic traffic increased
from 1,200 to 1,450 visits).
- The trend arrow next to that number is pointing down or displayed in red.
- The contradiction is consistent — it does not resolve itself after a page refresh.
If your numbers themselves look wrong or unexpected, that is a separate data accuracy issue and may be related to
filters or sync timing. This article specifically addresses cases where the number is correct but the arrow direction or
color does not match it.
🔍 Why This Happens
Trend arrow direction is calculated by comparing the current period value against a baseline comparison period. The most
common reasons for misalignment are:
- Comparison period is set incorrectly. If your comparison window is set to a period when the metric was higher than
today, the arrow will show red even if the metric has grown recently. For example, comparing this week to a peak
month six months ago will always look like a decline.
- Metric direction logic is inverted for that KPI. Some metrics are "lower is better" — such as crawl errors, bounce
rate, or page load time. If the arrow logic for one of these metrics was applied to a "higher is better" metric, you
will see the opposite color.
- The report was duplicated or imported with mismatched settings. Cloned or shared reports sometimes carry over
comparison period settings from their original configuration, which may not match your current reporting intent.
- A rendering glitch after a recent report edit. In some cases, editing a report layout — such as reordering columns
or changing date ranges — can cause the trend indicators to render based on stale cached values until the report is
fully refreshed.
🛠️ Steps to Fix the Misalignment
1. Open your report. Go to the left sidebar and select Reports, then choose the affected report from your projects list
at /report-builder/projects-list.
2. Check the comparison period setting. At the top of the report, locate the date range controls. Confirm that the
Compare To period is set to the interval you intend — typically the previous equivalent period (previous week,
previous month, or previous year). Adjust it if it is pointing to an unintended timeframe.
3. Verify the metric type. Review whether the metric showing the incorrect arrow is one where a decrease is considered
positive (such as bounce rate, error count, or load time). If so, the arrow direction may be correct by design. If
the metric should treat an increase as positive, proceed to the next step.
4. Force a full report refresh. Click the Refresh Summary button within the report view (Executive Summary). Do not
rely solely on a browser page reload, as this may serve a cached version of the rendered indicators.
5. Re-save the report. If the arrow remains incorrect after refreshing, make a minor edit — such as toggling a display
option on and off — then save the report. This forces the rendering engine to recalculate all visual indicators from
the current data.
6. Rebuild the affected widget. If the issue persists on a specific metric widget, remove that widget from the report
and re-add it from scratch using the widget library. Reconfigure the metric and comparison period. This clears any
corrupted display state tied to the original widget instance.
✅ Confirming the Fix
After completing the steps above, the trend arrow should align with the metric value. A green upward arrow should appear
next to any metric that has increased relative to the selected comparison period, and a red downward arrow should only
appear when the metric has genuinely declined. If the arrows are now consistent with the numbers, no further action is
needed.
🚫 What This Issue Is Not
To avoid confusion, here is a quick distinction between this issue and other common report problems:
- This is not a data sync issue. If your numbers themselves are missing, outdated, or appear lower than expected, that
may be related to API sync delays or active filters — which require separate troubleshooting.
- This is not a permissions issue. All users with access to a report see the same rendered indicators.
- This is not caused by ad blockers or browser extensions in the vast majority of cases, though clearing your browser
cache is always a safe first step if behavior seems erratic.
💬 Still Seeing the Wrong Arrow Direction?
If you have followed all the steps above and the trend arrow direction still does not match the metric value, the issue
may require a manual review of your report configuration by our team. If you need further assistance, open the chat
widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.
