Google Analytics Benchmarking: Information Party
Finally Google Analytics Benchmarking was activated on my account. Some days ago I got an email about it but the feature was not immediatly activated. I was not sure what that could be… now I’m a little bit impress.
I like Analytics Benchmarking. Basically, it compares the performance of the tracked website with other similar sites. In order to compare information it requires the user to allow Google to "anonimouslly" analyze the information. Now I understand why this feature was not available at the beginning, they had to ask the people to share the data first.
I take this opportunity to write about the Google Analytics interface:
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This graphic shows the average time on site for a website compared to average data from other similar ones. In my opinion graphics at Google Analytics are very clear, with the important information in a prominent typography.
When the user hover over an specif part of the data line additional information is displayed on a floating window. This is an excellent approach, the behavior is what a normal user could expect and pop-ups are avoided.
Google Analytics is great but the only thing I don’t like about this new feature, Analytics Benchmarking, is that too many graphics are placed together. At one point I didn’t know which numbers belong to which graphic. To improve usability, a solution could be to place graphics and information in boxes or divide them with a simple line. (This is just an extract, the size of the browser window.)
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Do you like the Google Analytics interface?
Popularity: 37% [?]
Well, - I liked the old interface, and might have to look a little closer at the new benchmarking functionality (just tried it a couple of times to see what it was like).
Just like you wrote in the headline Google Analytics is really becoming an “information party” (or: “overload”), with very much (and detailed!) information available just a few clicks away.
On an overall level I’m very happy with Google Analytics.
A long time ago I started to focus on _key_ metrics when using GA, - but it’s still nice to be able to say “Wait - there’s more…” if I want to go beyond the key indicators.
//Michael.