Why Google wants us to use Google Analytics Benchmarking (Beta)

If you haven't already turned on Google Analytics Benchmarking (Beta) inside your account you may want to. At the very minimum it is interesting to see how your site stacks up against sites similar in size or across similar/different categories. The comparisons are limited but it is a good first step. As I played around with it this morning I was reminded of why Google is doing so well in the analytics space. They really understand that most people don't know how to use these tools yet and they are trying to help you understand what will make a difference to your site's performance.

Google is teaching through comparison, showing you how you are doing against a category and then prompting you with a "Also see the All Traffic Sources report for additional analysis of this metric."

So let's have a quick look at the All Traffic Sources report to see what we can learn. Unfortunately there is no valuable Benchmarking data in there. The All Traffic Sources report shows you how your traffic breaks down by volume and by other metrics. Try comparing how each segment of your traffic interacts with your site but comparing conversion rates (click the ecommerce or goal tabs). Is your Yahoo PPC traffic converting at a much higher rate than your Google PPC traffic? Maybe but the secret to optimizing your site's revenue stream is asking these types of questions and then trying to figure out why?

Here's a free tip: find out what segment of your traffic makes you the most money. Then map the path on a piece of paper that each visitor normally takes from that source (landing page, product page, checkout etc). Now compare that segment of your traffic to another big traffic source. Are there differences? I bet there are, and if you can figure out why one source converts higher than another, your becoming an analyst and you're about to impress somebody (probably your boss).