Analytics

Website Traffic Benchmarks by Industry

Discover industry benchmarks for bounce rate, average time on page, and more to optimize your website’s performance and outshine competitors.

Nevena Rudan on May 18, 2023 (last modified on June 21, 2023) • 11 minute read

What if you could unlock the secrets to your industry’s online performance and gain a competitive edge? Our comprehensive report on website traffic benchmarks offers just that, providing valuable insights across various industries to help you navigate the digital landscape with ease. Take a closer look at six critical metrics which present a clear picture of your industry’s current performance.

We examined sessions, users, pageviews, bounce rate, new users, and time on page across 15 industries, considering the unique factors that shape each one. From business types and seasonality to marketing strategies and industry trends, we’ve got you covered. And for an even deeper understanding, our Benchmark Groups offer additional metrics and insights, which companies can join for free.

Are you ready to seize the opportunity and elevate your business to new heights?

Let’s dig into the detailed breakdown of website traffic benchmarks by industry:

Benchmark Groups

Sessions

Across all industries, the median value of website sessions for April 2023 was 3.93K.

universal analytics sessions by industry

Let’s take a closer look at sessions across different industries:

IndustrySessions
Apparel & Footwear18.16K
Automotive11.2K
Construction2.24K
Consulting & Professional Services2.58K
eCommerce & Marketplaces9.57K
Education6.54K
Food10.43K
Health Care4.21K
Health & Wellness4.29K
Information Technology & Services3.56K
Industrials & Manufacturing3.85K
Real Estate3.22K
SaaS3.16K
Technology4.32K
Travel & Leisure7.87K

The Apparel & Footwear industry is the standout performer with the highest number of sessions, reaching 18.16K, which is nearly five times the overall median of 3.93K. Automotive, Food, eCommerce and Marketplaces, Education, and Travel & Leisure industries also excel in user engagement, significantly surpassing the median value. In contrast, Construction and Consulting & Professional Services report fewer sessions, indicating lower engagement. Other industries, such as Health Care, Health & Wellness, and Technology, align closer to the median, demonstrating average user interaction.

PRO TIP: To increase the number of sessions, create tangential content that targets low-hanging fruit keywords. Focus on topics related to your industry or niche, but not directly about your core offerings, and optimize for specific, long-tail search queries. This strategy enables you to reach a wider audience, tap into less competitive keywords, and drive more targeted traffic to your website. Additionally, ensure that your content is well-optimized and includes internal links to improve search rankings and user engagement.

To learn about growing your traffic, Brendan Hufford, the founder of Growth Sprints, shares how he grew ActiveCampaign’s traffic by 20% in just 30 days in our recent podcast episode.

Users

Across all industries, the median number of users for April 2023 was 3.02K.

universal analytics users by industry

Let’s take a closer look at the number of users across different industries:

IndustryUsers
Apparel & Footwear21.41K
Automotive9.06K
Construction1.86K
Consulting & Professional Services1.91K
eCommerce & Marketplaces7.08K
Education5.37K
Food6.12K
Health Care2.46K
Health & Wellness3.18K
Information Technology & Services2.87K
Industrials & Manufacturing3.04K
Real Estate2.02K
SaaS2.74K
Technology3.66K
Travel & Leisure7.12K

The users benchmarks really shine a light on notable imbalances across industries. The Apparel & Footwear industry outpaces all others in user counts, boasting 21.41K users, more than seven times the median of 3.02K. Automotive, eCommerce and Marketplaces, Education, Food, and Travel & Leisure industries also exhibit strong user counts, well above the median, indicating strong user bases. In contrast, Construction and Consulting & Professional Services record fewer users, while the remaining ones align closely with the median.

PRO TIP: To effectively track users on your website, focus on the ratio of new vs. returning visitors. This helps you understand the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns in attracting new users and the success of your content in retaining current ones. Analyze user demographics and behavior to refine your marketing strategies, and use this information to optimize user experience, increase engagement, and drive conversions.

Pageviews

Across all industries, the median value of pageviews for April 2023 was 8.82K.

universal analytics pageviews by industry

Let’s take a closer look at the number of pageviews across different industries:

IndustryPageviews
Apparel & Footwear192.86K
Automotive25.79K
Construction4.44K
Consulting & Professional Services4.24K
eCommerce & Marketplaces33.39K
Education35.88K
Food21.03K
Health Care9.95K
Health & Wellness6.9K
Information Technology & Services8.68K
Industrials & Manufacturing8.01K
Real Estate9.03K
SaaS7.14K
Technology11.27K
Travel & Leisure26.8K

The pageviews benchmarks also show incredible variance between industries. The Apparel & Footwear sector stands out with an impressive 192.86K pageviews, more than 20 times higher than the median value. In stark contrast, the Consulting & Professional Services sector has the lowest number of pageviews at 4.24K, which is less than a third of the median. Industries such as Automotive, eCommerce & Marketplaces, and Education exhibit significant above-average Pageview counts, while the Construction sector falls below.

PRO TIP: Track your website’s pageviews using a cumulative line graph to easily monitor growth or declines month-over-month. This helps you spot trends quickly and make any necessary adjustments to improve performance. Additionally, identify and leverage your website’s top-performing pages by using table visualizations. That way, you can concentrate your efforts on high-performing content, which can drive further engagement and conversions.

Bounce Rate

Across all industries, the median bounce rate for April 2023 was 60.78%.

universal analytics bounce rate by industry

Let’s take a closer look at bounce rates across different industries:

IndustryBounce Rate
Apparel & Footwear46.97%
Automotive57.13%
Construction67.24%
Consulting & Professional Services66%
eCommerce & Marketplaces58.11%
Education57.95%
Food56.62%
Health Care58.29%
Health & Wellness59.44%
Information Technology & Services62.27%
Industrials & Manufacturing58.4%
Real Estate46.85%
SaaS64.46%
Technology61.53%
Travel & Leisure54.66%

The bounce rate metrics exhibit a relatively narrow range of values among industries, with most clustering near the overall median value. The Construction industry experiences the highest bounce rate at 67.24%, only about 7% higher than the median. On the other hand, the Real Estate and Apparel & Footwear sectors enjoy the lowest bounce rates, both at roughly 14% below the median. The remaining industries have bounce rates that closely align with the median value, demonstrating a general trend towards similar bounce rate levels across industries.

PRO TIP: The best ways to improve your bounce rate are to improve the user experience of your website and to ensure your content aligns with user search intent. Optimizing load times and interlinking content are all basic steps. Faster sites are more pleasant to browse through, and speed definitely helps with search rankings. Optimize file sizes, eliminate code bloat, and streamline the design to ensure that visitors who visit your website stick around. 

New Users

Across all industries, the median number of new users for April 2023 was 3.66K.

universal analytics new users by industry

Let’s take a closer look at new users across different industries:

IndustryNew Users
Apparel & Footwear30.49K
Automotive4.15K
Construction1.7K
Consulting & Professional Services2.11K
eCommerce & Marketplaces6.56K
Education10.95K
Food11.2K
Health Care2.85K
Health & Wellness1.43K
Information Technology & Services3.53K
Industrials & Manufacturing2.89K
Real Estate2.62K
SaaS3.52K
Technology5.31K
Travel & LeisureMISSING

The new users benchmarks show significant disparities among different sectors. Apparel & Footwear leads the pack with 30.49K new users, more than eight times the median value of 3.66K. On the other hand, the Health & Wellness sector has the lowest number of new users at 1.43K, well below the median. The Construction sector is close by with 1.7K new users. Industries such as Education, Food, and eCommerce & Marketplaces show above-average new user counts, while the remaining sectors cleave closer to the median.

PRO TIP: The first step is to look closely at your analytics and find solutions that draw targeted new users. Then, based on your findings and goals, you can consider design changes, SEO or marketing strategy updates, and generating more backlinks. Identify what your target audience needs help with and dial in your content to provide it.

Average Time on Page

Across all industries, the median value for the average time on page for April 2023 was 1m 31s.

universal analytics time on page by industry

Let’s take a closer look at the average time on page across different industries:

IndustryTime on Page
Apparel & FootwearMISSING
Automotive1m 25s
Construction1m 46s
Consulting & Professional Services1m 36s
eCommerce & MarketplacesMISSING
Education1m 28s
Food1m 8s
Health Care1m 27s
Health & Wellness1m 26s
Information Technology & Services1m 43s
Industrials & Manufacturing1m 23s
Real Estate1m 34s
SaaS1m 45s
Technology1m 46s
Travel & LeisureMISSING

The average time on page varies marginally across industries, with most adhering closely to the median of 1m 31s. The Construction, SaaS, and Technology industries exhibit the longest engagement, all around 15 seconds above the median. In contrast, the Food industry records the shortest time on page at 1m 8s. However, data is missing for the Apparel & Footwear, eCommerce and Marketplaces, and Travel & Leisure industries, limiting the scope of the analysis.

PRO TIP: The best way to ensure visitors spend more time on your site is to make your website easy to navigate and mobile-friendly. You can also add interactive multimedia elements like videos, polls, quizzes, graphs, or infographics to make your content more engaging and encourage visitors to spend more time on your website.

Website Traffic Benchmark Groups for All Industries

The data presented in this article is sourced from Databox Benchmark Groups, which are organized by industry. These groups allow companies to anonymously share their performance data, helping everyone gain insights and improve their strategies to drive more traffic to their websites.

To make this data even more valuable, we encourage you to join the relevant Benchmark Group for your industry or the group for all industries and contribute your own data. The more contributors we have, the more valuable the data becomes for everyone.

Below is a list of Universal Analytics Industry Benchmark Groups we used to create this research report. Simply click on the link for your industry to review the group and join it.

Benchmark Groups

Leveraging Benchmark Groups to Drive Traffic and Growth

Harnessing the power of website traffic benchmarks can make a significant impact on businesses seeking to fine-tune their online presence and make informed data-driven decisions. By assessing your website traffic metrics against industry benchmarks, you will uncover crucial insights about your position relative to competitors, pinpoint opportunities for growth, establish realistic objectives, and ultimately refine your online strategy for better performance.

When you join a benchmark group, you’re not just helping us expand and refine our data – you’re also unlocking valuable insights that can help your business thrive. Benchmark Groups offer a range of benefits for users, including:

  • Identify emerging trends and opportunities: Benchmark Groups provide valuable information that can help you spot new trends and opportunities within your industry, enabling you to stay ahead of the curve and capitalize on these insights.
  • Optimizing resource allocation: By understanding how your performance compares to others in your industry, you can make more informed decisions about where to allocate resources to achieve the best possible results.
  • Improving client and investor relations: Sharing benchmark data with clients and investors can build trust and credibility, showcasing your company’s competitive edge and commitment to excellence.

And that’s not all.

Are you ready to take your digital performance to the next level? Join our Benchmark Groups today to unlock the full potential of website traffic benchmarks, and contribute to the growth of a vibrant community. Your participation not only enhances your own business performance but also enriches the data and insights available to everyone. Let’s work together to make better, data-driven decisions for the future of our businesses.

About the author
Nevena Rudan Marketing Research Analyst at Databox. Being an experienced Strategic and Creative Planner, with more than 15 years of practice, Nevena is passionately dedicated to untying the knots and entanglements of marketing, sales, and human behavior in order to deliver understandable, useful, and actionable insights for businesses.

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