Benchmarking your site against your competition

For those you that keep an eye on your Google Analytics accounts, you will be please to know that another great feature called ‘Benchmarking’ has been released by the Google development boffins.

Benchmarking allows Analytics users to compare their website performance to other sites in their market. Google aggregates the basic visitor information from Analytics users that have opted into the service and compares the result to your site. Giving you a clearer indication than ever before of how your site stacks up.

Still in Beta release (which means it’s ready for use but still being improved and tested), Benchmarking currently offers the most basic of information. Specifically, a visual comparison of the number of visitors to your site and the average for your industry through simple graphs.

By comparing your site with other markets, you can evaluate lulls in your site visitor numbers and corresponding peeks in other markets. I can illustrate the benefit of this by using Realworks Media as an example.

Hypothetically, if Realworks Media and the web development industry as a whole had low visitor numbers in February, but the Small Business support industry had high visitor numbers. We could explore the possibility of promoting our site on Small Business support sites through February to gain more exposure and visitors.

Current clients can log into their Analytics account and view Benchmarking reports under the ‘Visitors’ menu item on the left.

If you are not already a client, then you can benefit from our Analytics setup and support as part of our standard service.