We’ve received an email from Google Analytics as “Google Analytics Benchmarking Newsletter” on 2nd July, 2011. What we have discovered from the newsletter is that Google “will be removing the Benchmarking report from the Google Analytics interface, and replacing it with an expanded report that will be emailed directly to you” (Evolution of Analytics Benchmarking Report, March 04, 2011). We have also received inquiries on exactly similar Google Analytics newsletters from our esteemed clients. May be this is the first issue of newsletter series on benchmarking report from Google explaining why, what and how the Analytics Benchmarking report will be. Whatever may be, let’s explore some of the interesting facets, the newsletter intends to highlight.
Data
Data is one of the very significant standardising features of any report to display performance. In this case of benchmarking report offered by Google Analytics, data is pulled from hundreds of thousands of your competitor websites which has been using Google Analytics as well as enabled “Anonymously with Google and others” section at “Data Sharing Settings” on Analytics Account Settings.
You may analyse data from various date ranges for comparison. In this newsletter, Google acknowledges “the date range of comparison for this newsletter is from November 1, 2010 - February 1, 2011. Comparison is done with data from November 1, 2009 - February 1, 2010. Absolute metrics such as total # visits, pageviews, or conversions for all opted-in websites are not reported.” Let’s see what Google has found from the comparison analysis.
Site Metrics
The newsletter reflects a reduction in pages / visit, average time on site and bounce rate.
| 11/1/09 - 2/1/10 | 11/1/10 - 2/1/11 | Difference |
Pages/Visit | 4.9 | 4.5 | -0.4 |
Bounce Rate | 48.2% | 47.0% | -1.2% |
Avg Time on Site | 5:49 | 5:23 | -0:26 |
Breakdown by Geography
Our anonymous database has aggregated geographic breakdown at the country level. Here are a few representative countries and their respective aggregate metrics. The first number in each cell represents the metric for the date range 11/1/10-2/1/11. The parenthesized number is the Year over Year delta compared to a year ago.
Country | Pages / Visit | Bounce Rate | Avg Time on Site |
United States | 4.7 (-0.1) | 42.5% (-6.1%) | 6:06 (-0:10) |
United Kingdom | 4.9 (-0.3) | 41.5% (+0.2%) | 5:38 (-0.27) |
France | 4.4 (-0.4) | 49.7% (+1.4%) | 4:40 (-0:08) |
Brazil | 4.1 (-0.1) | 47.8% (-2.9%) | 5:20 (+0:03) |
China | 4.1 (-0.1) | 58.2% (+1.0%) | 3:46 (+0:37) |
Japan | 3.9 (-0.1) | 48.6% (-9.0%) | 3:47 (-2:59) |
For bounce rate, the distribution by country is plotted below:
The distribution above is annotated with some countries -- which seem to indicate a story of leisure and stage of economic development. For a related metric: average time on site, the distribution by country is plotted below:
The type of countries annotated in the average time on site graph above, seem to be in reverse order as those in the bounce rate distribution.
Breakdown by Traffic Sources
Traffic sources below are identified by how the "source" and "medium""" parameters are received by the Google Analytics collecting servers. Here is an article describing what these designations refer to.
The type of countries annotated in the average time on site graph above, seem to be in reverse order as those in the bounce rate distribution.
Breakdown by Traffic Sources
Traffic sources below are identified by how the "source" and "medium""" parameters are received by the Google Analytics collecting servers. Here is an article describing what these designations refer to.
Traffic Sources | Pages / Visit | Bounce Rate | Avg Time on Site |
Direct | 4.0 (-0.5) | 47.2% (-4.0%) | 5:21 (-0:07) |
Referral | 5.0 (+0.1) | 43.1% (-1.1%) | 6:36 (-1:48) |
Organic Search | 4.9 (-0.1) | 47.9% (-1.1%) | 4:43 (+0:06) |
CPC Search | 5.6 (+0.0) | 41.4 (-1.7%) | 3:57(+0:07) |
Conversion Rate Distribution
Many marketers' favourite metric is conversion rate. Here is the worldwide distribution of Google Analytics "goal conversion rate" by country.
Would anyone have guessed that states which are known for conversions are also high for their citizens' goal conversion rate? Note that for some states with low population, the statistical significance of the conversion metric comes into doubt.
Traffic Sources
Traffic sources below are identified by how the "source" and "medium" parameters are received by the Google Analytics collecting servers. Here is an article describing what these designations refer to.
% Visits from Sources | 11/1/09 - 2/1/10 | 11/1/10 - 2/1/11 | Difference |
Direct | 36.5% | 36.8% | +0.3% |
Referral | 21.0% | 19.4% | -1.6% |
Search Engines | 27.0% | 28.0% | +1.0% |
Other | 15.5% | 15.8% | +0.3% |
Operating Systems
Browsers and Operation Systems (OS) are identified by the "referrer" string sent by users' browsers.
% Visits from OS | 11/1/09 - 2/1/10 | 11/1/10 - 2/1/11 | Difference |
Windows | 89.9% | 84.8% | -5.1% |
Macintosh | 4.5% | 5.2% | +0.7% |
Linux | 0.6% | 0.7% | +0.1% |
Other | 5% | 9.3% | +4.3% |
So wait for second Benchmarking Report newsletter from Google Analytics in near future with lot more exciting details. We too are eagerly waiting for the next issue so that we can share more of our views and experts’ comments. In between, don’t forget to enable anonymous data sharing right at your Google Analytics account settings. Till then good by good bye and happy analysing.
