According to Google Analytics Benchmarking Newsletter, Volume 1, which Google sends to all Analytics administrators which have enabled anonymous data sharing on their websites included in Analytics. Also, the data is from all websites which have opted-in anonymous data sharing with Google Analytics.

There are some interesting points in the data, but for me the most interesting is that the metrics that describe how much time and effort a visitor spent on a web site are all smaller then a year ago:

“Compared to a year ago, websites have seen reduced pages / visit, average time on site, as well as bounce rate.”

That means that users are viewing less pages per visit, are spending less time on each site and are less likelier to abandon a page once visited. The differences aren’t big:

• Pages/Visit: -0.4
• Bounce Rate: -1.2%
• Avg Time on Site: -0:26

There are also other interesting data in the report so make sure you enable anonymous data sharing in your account to receive the newsletter.