Especially in the early days of e-commerce, industry-specific benchmarks of web metrics were missing. When yardsticks are missing, interpretation of numbers is problematic, comparisons between companies and departments is difficult, and
determining the appropriate metrics to use for a particular website is more challenging [32]. Suppose 2,875 people visited a web page last week, is that good news or bad news? Web analytics firms address these needs by providing comparison statistics. In case external yardsticks are missing, the data may still be useful by concentrating on changes over time instead of absolute numbers. However, the dynamic nature of the Internet, with frequent site design changes, may present a new pitfall