Downloading any Google WMT report with dates in the UK format (dd/mm/yyyy)

Today @millerian tweeted about a problem I've also experienced in the past with downloads from Google WMT tools. The issue is that all dates in any report are always in the US format (mm/dd/yyyy). The problem is that excel thinks the date is in UK format (dd/mm/yyyy) and fixing the problem can be a pain in the butt.

How I have fixed the problem in the past:

• The first technqiue I suggested and that I have used in the past to fix this issue is to use ASAP Utilities Text > Convert/Recognize dates tool
• The second technqiue I have also used in the past is to create a new column with the function: TEXT(A1,"mm/dd/yyyy") which extracts and rebuilds the date in the UK format. The values of this new column can then pasted in to the worksheet.

These kind of "hacks" are fine, and they work, but this issue had really started to bug me now that I thought about it! Why does WMT do this? Google knows the location of the site as well as the location of the Google account, so why does it still offer dates in the incorrect format if you are in UK?

Eureka!

Then it hit me: Google generally passes language or locations in a parameter in most of it's search urls, so perhaps they do the same with WMT download links?

So I went to look at the download link for http crawl errors on one of the sites I look after and guess what I saw:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/crawl-errors?hl=en&siteUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.testsite.co.uk%2F&tid=we&sort=1

See the issue? That parameter in bold should be hl=en-gb for the UK!

So what does this mean?

If you want your dates in any WMT report to be in the UK format then simply change the download links so that the hl parameter has a value of "en-gb" not "en".

No post-download excel manipulation

No mucking about

Yes, it is that simple!