Documentation / Importing Historical Data / Generic CSV

Import from Generic CSV

Already have a CSV export from another analytics tool? Use this guide to format it correctly and import your historical pageview data into GhostlyX.

Scale plan required

Historical data import is available on the Scale plan. You must be a site owner or admin to access the Import Data page.

Required CSV format

Your CSV must contain at least two columns: a path column and a pageviews column. Additional columns are ignored. The file must be UTF-8 encoded and under 100 MB.

Minimum required format

path,pageviews
/,12450
/blog/,4200
/pricing/,1980
/about/,870

path column Must contain the page path starting with a /. Examples: /, /blog/, /about/us/. Full URLs with a scheme and hostname are also accepted (the path portion is extracted).

pageviews column Must be a positive integer. Decimal values are rounded. Rows with 0 or negative pageviews are skipped.

Header row Required. The first non-empty row must contain the column names. Column name matching is case-insensitive.

Encoding UTF-8 required. Files exported from Excel as CSV may use a different encoding. Open the file in a text editor and save as UTF-8 if needed.

File size Up to 100 MB. Files larger than 100 MB should be split into multiple uploads.

Accepted column names

GhostlyX recognises several common column name variations so you may not need to rename your columns. Matching is case-insensitive.

Path column

Any of these are accepted

path page pathname url page_path page path Page path and screen class

Pageviews column

Any of these are accepted

pageviews views hits page_views Pageviews Unique Pageviews unique pageviews

Upload to GhostlyX

Prepare your CSV

Make sure your file has a path column and a pageviews column. Remove any rows where the path does not start with a /. Save as UTF-8 CSV.

Open your site dashboard

Go to your GhostlyX dashboard and open the site you are importing into.

Click Import Data

In the site toolbar, click the Import Data button.

Select source

Choose Generic CSV from the source dropdown.

Upload the CSV

Click Choose file, select your CSV, and click Start import.

Wait for processing

The import runs in the background. Track progress on the Import Data page.

Common issues

0 rows imported

Check that your path column values start with a /. Rows with paths that do not start with / are skipped. Also check that your pageviews column contains positive integers, not formatted strings like "1,234" with commas.

My column names are not recognised

Column name matching is case-insensitive but the name must match one of the accepted values listed above. Rename your columns in a spreadsheet editor, then re-export as CSV.

My file was exported from Excel as .xlsx

GhostlyX only accepts CSV files, not Excel workbooks. In Excel, go to File > Save As and choose CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) as the format.

Numbers have commas in them (e.g. 1,234)

Some platforms export numbers with thousand separators. GhostlyX strips commas from numeric values automatically, so 1,234 is treated as 1234.

Platform-specific guides

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