diff --git a/docs/annotations.md b/docs/annotations.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3bafdce9 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/annotations.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: Annotations +description: "Add annotations to mark important events directly on your Plausible traffic chart. Deployments, campaigns, outages: see the context behind every spike or drop." +--- + +import useBaseUrl from '@docusaurus/useBaseUrl'; + +Annotations let you pin notes to specific dates directly on your traffic chart. A product launch, a campaign going live, a site outage, a big press mention: anything that might explain a change in your data. + +When you spot a spike or a drop, annotations tell you why it happened. The context is right there on the chart. + +Annotations on the Plausible traffic chart + +## Personal and team annotations + +There are two types of annotations: + +- **Personal notes** are visible only to you. Use these for notes that are relevant to your own workflow but not worth surfacing to the whole team. +- **Site notes** are visible to all team members who have access to the dashboard, as well as anyone viewing through a [shared link](shared-links.md). + +## Where annotations appear + +Annotations show up as markers along the bottom of the main traffic chart. When the date of an annotation falls within your selected time range, the marker appears on the chart. Hover over a marker to read the note attached to it. + +## Add an annotation + +Hover over the date on the chart where you want to place the annotation. Right-click to open the context menu and select **Add note**. Write a short note describing the event and choose whether it should be personal or shared with your team. Save it and the annotation will appear on the chart immediately. + +## Edit or delete an annotation + +Hover over the date on the chart where an annotation exists. Right-click to open the context menu and choose to edit the note or delete the annotation entirely. You can always edit or delete your personal annotations. Only team members with editor access or above can add, edit or delete team annotations. + +## Practical uses + +Annotations are most useful when your team is making changes that affect traffic. Some common things worth marking: + +- **Deployments:** a significant change to the site that might affect page speed, structure or conversion rate +- **Marketing campaigns:** when a paid campaign, newsletter or social post goes live +- **SEO changes:** publishing new content, updating meta data or restructuring URLs +- **Technical incidents:** a downtime period, a tracking issue or a misconfigured redirect +- **External coverage:** a press mention, a viral post or a spike from an unexpected source +- **A/B tests:** start and end dates for experiments that affect traffic or conversion behavior + +Annotating these events means future you (and your teammates) can read the chart without having to dig through Slack, commit history or email threads to understand what changed. + +:::tip +Annotate events as they happen rather than after the fact. A note added on the day of a deployment is more useful than one added a week later when you're trying to explain a traffic change. +::: diff --git a/docs/guided-tour.md b/docs/guided-tour.md index 78822dd7..ee9d3747 100644 --- a/docs/guided-tour.md +++ b/docs/guided-tour.md @@ -26,6 +26,8 @@ The time format (24-hour or 12-hour am/pm) is displayed based on your browser's Here you can enter "[Site Settings](website-settings.md)" but also switch to a different [pinned site](landing-page.md#access-your-pinned-sites-from-the-site-switcher-list) that you have added to your Plausible account ::: +You can also **add annotations** to the chart to mark important events like a deployment, a campaign launch or an outage. Annotations appear as markers on the chart so you and your team always have context for traffic changes. [Learn more about annotations here](annotations.md). + ## Set a different chart interval You can **set a different unit of time the stats on the chart are grouped by** in the options menu (the **⋮** icon in the top right of the chart). Click it and select **Graph interval**. The available interval options depend on the date range you've selected. For example, if you select "Today", you can display the stats by minute or by hour. diff --git a/docs/traffic-spikes.md b/docs/traffic-spikes.md index 0d3836cd..608ddc88 100644 --- a/docs/traffic-spikes.md +++ b/docs/traffic-spikes.md @@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ Traffic spike or drop notifications can be set to be sent to multiple recipients You can set the notifications to be sent to as many people as you want. You can remove individual recipients or completely stop the notifications at any time. +Once you've identified the cause of a spike or drop, you can [add an annotation](annotations.md) to the chart so you and your team have a permanent record of what happened and when. + P.S. If you're dealing with a traffic drop or spike and need some tips on how to investigate it, take a look at the following blog posts: * [How to investigate a drop in your website traffic?](https://plausible.io/blog/drop-in-website-traffic) -* [How to investigate a spike in your website traffic?](https://plausible.io/blog/spike-in-website-traffic) +* [How to investigate a spike in your website traffic?](https://plausible.io/blog/spike-in-website-traffic) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/sidebars.js b/sidebars.js index 3a4ed60b..a63db78e 100644 --- a/sidebars.js +++ b/sidebars.js @@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ module.exports = { 'guided-tour', 'consolidated-views', 'compare-stats', + 'annotations', 'filters-segments', 'google-search-console-integration', 'realtime-dashboard',