It is difficult, sometimes, to convince a client that their website is actually performing quite well. Clients expectations, sometimes, far exceed their websites ability to perform. Google Analytics offers an industry leading statistics engine for website owners and developers to track and trend website performance.

Using Analytics to better understand how visitors behave, we can determine how they are finding a website, what search engines are people using and what keywords visitors use when searching. We can also review bounce rates and the number of pages viewed by a visitor.

The one thing we could not do in the past was demonstrate to the client that their websites performance is good, or bad, based on benchmarking. It was nearly impossible to demonstrate that other websites of similar size and nature perform better or worse than the clients website.

Google has “stepped up” and changed this by introducing “Benchmarking”. As users of Google Analytics, we have been given the choice to share the statistical data gathered from our websites. In return, Google has made the “Benchmarking” data available back to us.

Google states that there will be a minimum of 100 accounts compared in any given category. Some categories could potentially have thousands of sites being benchmarked.

The data from participating sites is averaged and anonymized through the aggregation process, then classified into a category. We limit the effects of outlier sites from the aggregate data in each category to help ensure that the benchmarking data is most representative of the industry vertical you choose to compare your site against.

Google Analytics Benchmarking Help

Google exposes vertical categories when there are enough websites that fall into the category. If a category for your vertical market is not showing, it is likely because there is not enough data to create a direct benchmark. You will still be able to benchmark websites of a similar size.Google Analytics benchmarking currently allows us to show a comparison for the following metrix;

• Visits – unique visitors to the website. Not hits… hits don’t mean anything.
• Bounce Rate – did they pop in and out again…
• Pageviews – total number of pages viewed during the reporting period.
• Avg. Time on Site – how long did the “stick”.
• Pages/Visit – how many pages a visitor viewed for this visit.
• New Visits vs. Returning Visitors

We currently add analytics to all of our accounts where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Online Marketing services are involved. If you are a website owner and would like to have Google Analytics installed on your website, please feel free to contact us and we would be glad to help you.

Understanding how your website is performing in relationship to search, online marketing and in comparison to your vertical markets is critically important. If you have a website and are not measuring it’s success, you may be missing an opportunity to improve.

Getting visitors is okay – Getting customers better!(tm)

Regards,

David A. West
eKzact is a leading Calgary Website Design company.

As a website developer, I have learned to “raise red flags” when a prospective client says certain things. for the purposes of this article, I have named these prospects, “The Expert Prospective Client”.

The expert – Knows how long a task will take before they ask.

They often say things like, “That’s just a simple task, isn’t it? I don’t think it will take long for you to do.”

The expert – Knows the value of our service, without asking for a quote.

They often say things like, “I just need this one thing done, it should be quite inexpensive…”

The expert – Has changed service providers recently.

They often have just left a previous service provider on questionable grounds. In some cases, they did not pay their final bill. They will say things like, “My last guy/gal used to nickle & dime me to death. Every time I turned around, they send me an invoice for something…”

The expert – Hires professionals, but openly admits that they could do it themselves.

They may say something like, “I could have done this myself, but my time is too valuable.”

The expert – Often offers to send you lots of new clients, provided you give them a good deal & do a great job for them.

They say things like, “I know a lot of people, if you do a good job for me I’ll refer you lots of business in the future.” These offers sometimes come as veiled threats if a project goes a bit sideways. The expert will say, “I wish we didn’t have to deal with this, I don’t know if I can refer my friends to you if this is how it is going to be…” It has been my experience that the people who use “referrals” as leverage, are the same people who never refer new clients.

My experience has shown that it is difficult to build a client/service provider relationship with the expert prospect.

Do you run across the expert potential client in your business? Have I missed any common traits in my list above?

David A. West

Regards - David A. West