View a Sample Benchmark Report

Benchmarking is the comparing of data (or statistics) from one entity (your website) against a representative collection of data from a control group (other similar websites). This type of report should indicate whether your website is doing better, the same as, or worse, than the representative collection of websites. The following 6 key metrics are used in the Google Analytics default benchmark report:

• Total Visits - as it implies, this is the total number of visitors, including repeat visitors, in a given time period.
• Total Page Views - similarly, this is the total number of pages viewed within the same time period.
• Pages per Visit - this number represents the average number of pages viewed per visit.
• Bounce Rate - this is the one number you want to be low, it represents the percent of visitors that leave your site immediately after hitting it.
• Average Time on Site - the longer the better - it means people are finding what they want on your site.
• New Visits - as with anything, you would like to see a continued growth in new visitors to your site.

The Google Analytics benchmark report default view compares your website to all other websites of similar size to yours. While this is interesting, it doesn't really tell you anything about how you might be doing compared to your competition. To view more interesting results you need to select an industry segment to compare your site to - preferably an industry segment that fits the business you are in. To do this select a category in theupper right-hand corner of the Benchmark Report page. You may have to dig a little to find the most appropriate category. You can try a few if you like.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 06 October 2010 10:32