Sometimes it takes a few days before I can test new features the engines offer. Such is the case with Google’s new benchmarking tool. I got my notification of it’s launch back on the 9th but unfortunately it was last night before I could actually do anything about it (darn those “pesky” clients for keep us so busy here 
Then – when I went to look into what other’s thought of it I discovered that there are those out there (likely the same ones who use Google Analytics as their primary analytics tool) who’ve know about it for about a month.
So there we go, that’ll teach me for using ClickTracks and relying on notifications from Google about new products.
Once I finally had a chance to login, let Google use my anonymous stats, and peek at the benchmarking data I have to say that while the date they are accessing is still VERY limited – you can definitely tell how powerful this information will be when more website data is included.
Basically what they’re doing is allowing users to specify their industries, share their data anonymously with Google who will gather together people from the same industry, combine their data and present it to you as the benchmark average for your industry. VERY kewl.
I was going to put up some screenshots and then I thought, gee – do I really want my competitors coming to my blog and peeking on my traffic stats? Heck, it took enough thought just to decide to check that box that allowed Google to share my stats in a non-individualized way. So instead I’ll send you to Andy Beal’s blog where he shares some if you’d like a peek.
OR
You could just login to your Google Analytics account and see it for yourself. It’s definitely worth the time – or at least, when more people start sharing, it will be.
SEO news blog post by Dave Davies, CEO @ 6:32 pm
