Google Benchmarking

[StuartandSally]

I have turned on benchmarking on Google Analytics and am not getting very good info from it. I was wondering if any of you have benchmarking and are getting any good info. My stats are WAY above what the competition is showing and I'm sure that the info is WAY off Perhaps more people need to turn on the feature for it to work properly...

Curious to know if anyone is using it too...

[RonnieG]

I use it, and find the stats somewhat useful. When you look at stats, are you selecting the appropriate websites to compare to? The default is all sites of similar size. You need to "Open Category List" and select Real Estate / Real Estate Agencies, which will change the comparable to those types of websites of comparable size.

One of the most interesting trends I see is that my number of visits, bounce rate and page views graphs tend to follow the graphs/trends of other comparable real estate agency sites almost exactly, +/- variances. This seems to indicate that certain global factors, such as day of week, day of month, and maybe some national news and/or economic events, affects pretty much all of us in the same way.

Average time on site is 78% longer than the comparables, and pages/visit is 155% more than comparables, and these stats are understandable because I only require registration after 12 detail page views, so casual visitors may stay longer and look at more properties than they would on a site that has a more rigid registration policy.

Because Google Analytics benchmarking uses sites of comparable size, and template websites with 3rd party IFramed IDXs rarely have as many pages as a custom site, like REW with REW IDX, then if you have a REW or similar site with integrated IDX, you would never see your stats in comparison to a P2A or AA or other template site with a plug-in IDX, only custom sites with integrated IDXs. And vice-versa of course if you have a template site with plug-in IDX.

[StuartandSally]

We have a fully customized website. Not a canned site like P2 or AA and I've already selected the appropriate category.

For example: We have 2521 page views and benchmarking reports 59 page views so our site is +4172.88% higher than the benchmarking sites. That seems a bit excessive to me.

I'm not sure if the information is reliable. Is there just not enough data to compare? Is our site REALLY that much better? Not saying that I don't have confidence in our site and it's stats, I'm just concerned that the info is skewed a bit.

The category is real estate, is that local real estate sites? U.S. real estate sites? Google Real Estate sites only? International? There doesn't seem to be an option to select a geographic area.

[RonnieG]

1) All websites where the webmasters told Google they were real estate agency websites when they signed up for benchmarking.
2) Only the websites that agreed to share their analytics stats for benchmarking purposes.
3) No geographic distinctions.

Therefore, it probably is a relatively small sampling.

I only see about 150 pages indexed in the Google site: results for your site, which is comparable to a medium to strong P2A or AA site, and very low for a custom site with integrated IDX. My website had about the same number of pages when it was on P2A, and even when it was on REW before I added the integrated IDX. It is over 800 pages indexed now, and growing rapidly, since I added the integrated IDX. So I suspect you are probably being benchmarked to the template sites.

[StuartandSally]

We've only had the site for about a year now. We also don't have a site map, which I just email my designer to get one started asap. I just never thought it made a difference but apparently it does.

I think your right about the sampling being small... Thanks for your input!

[NealRM]

I have benchmarking turned on for my site. However, I find the information worthless. Google tells us that we are being compared to site of "comparible" size. So based on the information provided I'm getting 1000% more traffic that other sites of comparible size. That means exactly what?

[Discover Davis Homes]

I have benchmarking turned on for my site. However, I find the information worthless. Google tells us that we are being compared to site of "comparible" size. So based on the information provided I'm getting 1000% more traffic that other sites of comparible size. That means exactly what?

Sounds like you are doing well then.

[RonnieG]

Neal, It also means you are reaping the substantial benefits of great SERPs for your area. Your site is consistently on page #1 and often in positions #2-4 for most of the common keywords I checked.

[FJCOM]

What exactly does "comparable size" mean?

I hunted for numerical values, but nada on info.

[JohnMaklys6969]

I use it and I find it very easy to use. However, recently i have been getting some problems with it,


Hope i was helpful,
John