Google Analytics offering benchmarking data

About two weeks ago, Google announced that its popular Google Analytics service will now offer web stat benchmarks. According to this post in the Google Analytics blog, the benchmarking tool "enables customers to see how their site data compares to sites in any available industry vertical." So you'll be able to compare your web traffic patterns against others in your broad industry grouping.

Of course no site-identifiable information will be shared, and the minimum benchmarking pool will be 100 sites. You won't be able to view info on a particular competitor, but rather an aggregate group of 100+ comparable sites. In addition, Google will group sites based on their relative size (small, medium, or large), so you won't be comparing Mom & Pop Inc. with Microsoft, even if both are software companies.

This is a great idea, and something I'm not surprised to see Google offering. They have the data, so why not provide it to their users? In the long term, helping sites optimize their web traffic can only benefit Google. Presumably a site that's watching traffic patterns more closely and optimizing its performance will be a better Google AdWords customer when buying pay-per-click ads, so this seems like the next natural progression.

Benchmarking data is likely to be a double-edged sword for webmasters and web marketing managers. While it's great to compare yourself against an industry average when you're doing well, with these new benchmarks I have a feeling a lot of web pros will find themselves explaining sub-par performance to senior management more frequently. It used to be a lot easier to say "we're doing well" when the monthly stats report is passed around the company or department, when there was no data to benchmark your performance!

But the smart marketer will welcome this information. As the old adage goes, you can't improve what you don't measure.