Written by Benjamin Mangold
The Google Analytics benchmarking reports are now available for those of us who have opted in to anonymously share our data. The reports are available within the Visitors report section.
The benchmarking reports include:
- Visits
- Pageviews
- Average pages per visitor
- Bounce rate
- Average time on site
- Percent of new visitors
These reports allow you to compare your site's performance to that of sites within your industry. The feature only compares your site to "site of similar size" which ensures that small sites (e.g. a local business) are not being compared to goliath sites (e.g. a multi-national). Ensuring that you can only compare your site to a "site of similar size" also ensures a level of democracy for the reports, large organizations will be prevented from creating a tiny site to try and get access to competitive data.
An example of an site under-performing in comparison to the benchmark:
An example of a site that is better than the benchmark:
By default the initial benchmarking reports compare your site to "all sites of a similar size". To get the juicy reports and really see how you are performing you need to select "Open category list" and select a category that is the closest match to your industry. It is also a good idea to take a look at your data in comparison to other industries, for example, a winery could check their data against
Food & Drink > Alcoholic Beverages > Wine and
Travel > Attractions & Activities.
The available categories are expanding rapidly, so even if you do not currently see your industry, check the report in the couple of days and you might be pleasantly surprised.
Benchmarking category selection tool:
Labels: Google Analytics, new Google Analytics features
Written by Benjamin Mangold
Google Blogoscoped has just posted an article about
tracking Google Docs using Google Analytics. You are now able to input a Google Analytics Tracking Code on your Google Docs settings page.
Unfortunately it appears that we can only track published documents with the new tracking feature. Hopefully Google Docs will soon allow us to track published forms and shared documents.
Labels: Google Analytics, Google Analytics Tips, new Google Analytics features
Written by Benjamin Mangold
Google has released the new benchmarking feature which allows you to compare your site to data provided from similar sites. We are now able to not only see internal site context (i.e. how different pages or areas of your site are performing), but how a site is performing within industry context (i.e. how the site compares to similar sites).
The new benchmarking report allows you to better understand overall site performance.In order to take advantage of the new benchmarking feature you will need to opt-in on your Account Settings page, Google will then anonymously share your data within your industry vertical to generate reports. If you do not wish to share your data, then simply select "Do not share my Google Analytics data".
Along with industry benchmarking, Google Analytics now allows you to opt-in to share your Google Analytics data with other Google products, this will allow for integrations with AdWords, AdSense and other Google products.
If you have any questions about sharing your data or the new benchmarking feature you can email me at
analytics@mangoldsengers.comResources:
