Website Benchmarking: How To Benchmark Your Website

Website benchmarking allows you to compare your website to your top competitors. This helps you find ways to improve the user experience.

A lineup of sprinters readies at the starting line, muscles taut in anticipation. With the crack of the starter’s gun, they surge forward, eyes locked on the finish line, determined to outrun their competitors.

The same spirit of competition and drive for excellence applies to website benchmarking. Just as sprinters aim to surpass their rivals, website owners strive to outshine other sites in speed, functionality, and user experience using similar websites and industry standards to evaluate their performance. 

Here’s what you need to know about website benchmarking.

What is website benchmarking?

Website benchmarking involves evaluating the functionality and performance of your website by measuring it against specific criteria or comparing it to competitors’ websites. The goal is to assess how well your site performs compared to others in the same industry. You can benchmark various aspects, including website performance, user experience, security, search engine optimization (SEO), mobile responsiveness, and accessibility. 

The benchmarking process can help ecommerce site owners and web developers identify areas for improvement, stay competitive, and ensure their sites meet or exceed industry standards. It provides a basis for setting goals, making informed decisions, and optimizing for better site performance and user satisfaction.

Best practices for benchmarking

Let’s take a look at a few best practices to consider as you start benchmarking.

Keep your business goals in mind

Your business goals should inform the metrics you choose to track and the benchmarks you aim to reach or exceed. Determine specific benchmark metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your objectives.

For example, if your primary goal is to make sales, you may set high benchmarks for conversion rates. But if you’re more focused on building brand awareness, you might be more interested in increasing the number of people who reach your website and the time they spend there. 

Use competitors to set benchmarks

Benchmarking against competitors provides a focused and industry-specific assessment of your website’s performance. Unlike generic averages encompassing diverse business models and sizes, competitors offer a direct comparison within your niche, reflecting realistic performance standards and customer expectations. 

In fact, we recently did just this. According to data from Google’s Core Web Vitals, collected for a representative sample of sites on Shopify and its competitors, we found that Shopify stores are the fastest in the world, loading 1.8x faster than stores on other platforms. Plus, 93% of brands on Shopify have a fast storefront, more than any other major commerce platform. And our server speed is the fastest in commerce, clocking in at an average of 2.8x faster. Here’s how it breaks down compared to our competitors: 

• BigCommerce

• Salesforce Commerce Cloud

• On average, Shopify stores are 1.5x faster
• 65% of Salesforce stores are fast
• Shopify server speed is 2.2x faster

• Adobe Commerce (Magento)

• On average, Shopify stores are 2x faster
• 53% of Adobe stores are fast
• Shopify server speed is 3.4x faster

• WooCommerce

• On average, Shopify stores are 2.4x faster
• 34% of WooCommerce stores are fast
• Shopify server speed is 3.9x faster

• Custom builds

• On average, Shopify stores are 1.7x faster
• Shopify server speed is 2.4x faster

Analyzing competitors like this and comparing your speed allows you to identify best practices, understand market dynamics, and strategically position yourself. You can start today with our Site Speed Audit and start measuring your storefront’s performance—and how it stacks up to your competitors. 

Consider multiple metrics

You can set benchmarks for your most important metrics depending on your goals. But that doesn’t mean you should rely exclusively on these data points; considering multiple metrics can offer a more comprehensive view of your website’s performance and uncover patterns, correlations, and areas you may have overlooked.

For example, while user engagement metrics like bounce rate, time on page, and click-through rates are crucial for understanding how visitors interact with your content, it’s equally important to consider conversion metrics, which provide insights into how well your website facilitates sales.

Common metrics to benchmark

You can benchmark almost anything, but the specific metrics you prioritize depend on your business’s goals. Here are a few of the most important metrics ecommerce sites benchmark:

Site speed

One of the most essential elements of web performance is site speed, which you can gauge through various performance metrics, including the following:

• Load time: The time it takes for a web page to load entirely in a user’s browser.
• Server response time: The time it takes for the web server to respond to an HTTP request.
• Time to title: The time it takes for a webpage’s title to begin displaying to a user during the page loading process.

Google found that users are 32% more likely to leave websites when page load times increase from one to three seconds. Generally, faster average response times are associated with better user satisfaction and can positively impact SEO. We found that even a half second improvement in site speed can increase conversion rate. As site speed improves, conversion goes up and bounce rate goes down. 

Functionality

Assess the features and functionalities of your website in comparison to other websites. Here are a few website performance benchmarks worth keeping track of:

• Error rate: The frequency of errors occuring, such as 404 error codes ("Page not found"). A high error rate can alert you of performance issues. 
• Mobile responsiveness: A website’s ability to adapt to different locations, screen sizes, and multiple devices, including mobile devices. 
• Accessibility: Standards set by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines ensure users with disabilities, such as impaired vision, can use your site. 

User behavior

Engagement metrics can provide valuable insights into user behavior. Learning where customers come from, how they interact with your site, which pages they spend the most time on, and where they encounter bottlenecks can help you optimize your site and inform your marketing strategy. Here are a few important metrics to track:

• Bounce rate: Your bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave the site after viewing only one page. If you’re seeing a high bounce rate on particular pages, ensure it’s performing correctly and loading quickly, and see what you can do to make it more engaging. 
• Unique visitors: The number of users over a specified period (e.g. 30 days). When a single user makes multiple monthly visits, they only count as one unique visitor for the timeframe. 
• Pages per visit: The number of pages users navigate to during a single visit to your website. Higher average pages per visit can indicate high interest and engagement. On the other hand, if users get lost or stuck on certain pages before they can check out, it could mean there are bottlenecks. 

Conversions

Measuring conversions is crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of your website or marketing strategy in achieving specific goals. Here are a few metrics to help you track whether and how users convert into customers:

• Click-through rate: The percentage of users who click a specific link or call to action. This is often used to measure the success of email or social marketing campaigns in driving potential customers to your site. 
• Conversion rate: The percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing to a newsletter. Conversion rate optimization can help you increase the number of visitors who convert.
• Cost per conversion: The average cost for each desired action or conversion achieved through your marketing efforts.

Best website benchmarking tools

To start benchmarking, it’s vital to understand performance metrics and industry standards. Here are a few online tools that can help with both:

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is one of the best web analytics tools and offers a lot of website data you can use for website benchmarking. Track and compare performance metrics from user engagement and traffic sources to conversion rates. 

Google Analytics also offers benchmarking reports for a competitive analysis of your site. 

Pingdom

Pingdom offers a variety of benchmarking tools, including synthetic monitoring, which simulates visitor interactions, and real user monitoring (RUM), which offers valuable insights into how real users are experiencing your site. 

Pingdom’s most popular tool is their Website Speed Test, which allows for proactive monitoring of your site’s load speeds from multiple locations worldwide. 

WebPageTest

WebPageTest is an open-source platform that allows you to test aspects of your website’s speed and functionality. It provides important metrics, such as page load times and content breakdowns, and can run tests from global locations. 

HubSpot Website Grader

HubSpot’s Website Grader assesses various aspects of your website’s performance, providing a detailed report on factors like mobile responsiveness, SEO, security, and overall performance. The Website Grader assigns scores in each category and offers suggestions for improving your site. 

Win more customers with a high-performing website 

With so many websites out there—and especially to stand out from your competitors—it’s crucial to use website benchmarking to assess your website’s performance. Doing so helps you identify areas for improvement and optimize your site to be even faster and more functional. In turn, you can better serve your customers and, as a result, convert more.

By regularly monitoring key metrics like load time, error rate, bounce rate, and conversion rate, you can be sure that your website delivers the best commerce experience possible—and boost your business growth. 

And we can help. We’ve built our site to ensure that Shopify stores achieve peak performance. Shopify stores are faster than Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Adobe Commerce, WooCommerce, and custom-built stores in terms of server speed and overall performance. Here’s how much faster Shopify stores load compared to our competitors, on average:

• 1.5x faster than Salesforce Commerce Cloud
• 2x faster than Adobe Commerce (Magento) 
• 2.4x faster than WooCommerce
• 1.7x faster than custom-built stores

What’s more, our server speed is significantly faster, making our solution a stronger choice for businesses looking for a fast and efficient online store. Combine all this with our broad range of features and functionalities, and your business will be ready to deliver the best commerce experiences around—and fuel more conversions.

Get started today by getting a personalized site speed analysis with our free Site Speed Audit.

Website benchmarking FAQ

What is the purpose of website benchmarking?

Performance benchmarking gives you a better understanding of what it takes to gain a competitive edge regarding your ecommerce site’s performance.

Which benchmarks should I be focusing on?

The benchmarks you choose to focus on depend on your business’s goals. Some main metrics to consider keeping track of include site speed, functionality, user behavior, and conversions. 

How many benchmarks do I need to set for my website?

The number of benchmarks you need to set for your website varies based on your business goals, the complexity of your site, and the nature of your business. While there isn’t a fixed number, it’s essential to balance collecting enough meaningful data and avoiding information overload.