This summer, Google released the first version of their Google Analytics Benchmarking Newsletter to replace the benchmarking reports previously found within the Google Analytics interface. Google originally stated that this would be a quarterly newsletter if it was received as an acceptable substitute for the former benchmarking features within Google Analytics. However, this first edition was delivered three months late, and I have yet to receive volume 2. It looks like this service may be completely abandoned, so I wanted to share some of the noteworthy insights from the newsletter for those online sports marketers out there searching for useful benchmarks for their websites.

Google cites poor adoption rates of the benchmarking feature as their reason for “deprecating” the reports in favor of a quarterly newsletter format. The previous benchmarking reports, which were removed from the Google Analytics interface on March 10th, allowed users to compare their website to many different industry segments, including sports. While it is unfortunate that the newer version does not segment by industry, there are still some useful trends to consider when looking at the general reports....