Google Analytics Benchmarking

Has anyone found it helpful?

[rwilson]

I've opted in for the GA benchmarking and I can compare my site to my specific industry and the results look almost exactly the same for sites in other non-related industries. Does this feature actually do anything useful? Maybe I don't understand how to use it. Any help would be appreciated!

[tfanelli]

I find it useful as a basic temperature check for things like Bounce Rate, and Site Performance. I also use it as material to show the client when the metrics look good as a sort of third party confirmation of what we are usually telling them. I think every site is different and there is no way, even in the verticals they have, that you can deduce anything as absolute based on benchmarking, since the criteria of the sites "could" vary so much.