Google Analytics

Ever wondered how your company’s website fares against others in your industry? Google Analytics, a free service offered by Google, can provide detailed statistics about your website – including industry benchmarking that tells you exactly how your website compares.

Google Analytics is a tool that was launched in 2005.  The detailed, and free, reporting package was an immediate and phenomenal hit. Faced with an overwhelming demand, Google had to slow down registrations to invitation-only until mid-2006 until it expanded its infrastructure to handle the load. 

There are over 80 reports in the Google Analytics package. Included is data on how people found a site and how they explore it. This includes tracking visitors through the exploration of the site, how long they stay, and an analysis of where they came from.

From a commercial perspective, some of the most critical data is how the site compares to others in the same field. This goes beyond surface data like hit counts to reports on conversions (sales), ad performance, and lead generation (email registrations). 

This is powerful information for marketing and sales teams, especially when applied to Google AdWords campaigns. Google Analytics is fully integrated with AdWords and illustrates which keywords are really working and which ones are not working for the site.

In understanding how your website is performing compared to others, opting-in to Google Analytics benchmarking feature will enable reports on your site's performance against comparables, and metrics on how your niche compares to another industry vertical.

For example, travel industry sites may notice a bump in hits to their “last minute travel” pages on Thursdays. A check into Google Analytics may result in finding that other sites in the industry reports this as an uncommon phenomenon. This insight can lead to marketing actions and information that can seed sales campaigns.

Benchmarking reports can also contrast your site against an industry vertical different than your own. A travel site may find itself with traffic surges in Autumn while an investigation into home-based markets may show the opposite. This could open the door to an opportunity to partner, driving traffic between the two with cross-promotional features.

Google Analytics provides a powerful tool to company websites. Armed with information from the visitor level straight through to the industry vertical, websites can enhance their website’s performance in new ways and to greater heights.