How to check traffic on website
How to check traffic on website
How To Check Website Traffic For Any Site – Tools And Hacks
If you run a website, you’ll want to see who’s interacting with your content and where they’re coming from. But what about your competitor’s website? In this article, we explore how to check any website traffic with various free and paid tools.
Content
Why checking your website traffic is important
Website traffic refers to the number of users who visit your website. Most website owners check their site traffic daily, but some do not understand what they’re looking at and how to improve it.
Also, you can’t improve any aspect you don’t monitor. Whether you want to increase your revenue from ad codes or affiliate marketing links or to get more email signups, you must first understand your starting point.
Understanding your traffic and your competitors’ traffic is equally important for a proper backlink strategy.
Furthermore, web traffic analysis immensely contributes to your SEO strategy. Suppose you know where your visitors are coming from and what devices they’re using. In that case, you can change your SEO strategy to attract more people like them, i.e., more organic traffic.
Analyzing your website’s traffic: what to check
Although Google Analytics is the number one tool for analyzing your site’s traffic, you can pick from various free and paid traffic monitoring tools. Traffic analytics tools tell you how many visitors you have, where they’re coming from, and how they interact with your content.
But what other data should you pay attention to?
While Google Analytics tracks much more statistics, these are the most important ones to consider for web traffic analysis.
Analyzing your competitors’ website traffic
Analyzing your competition’s website statistics can reveal a lot of information, including:
This data can help you improve your content strategy, marketing, and other aspects of your business.
Top tools for checking website traffic
Alexa
Alexa offers a free, automated website analysis to help you gain quick insights into any website’s strengths, weaknesses, and digital marketing opportunities.
With its SEO keyword opportunities, you can see keywords driving traffic to your competitor’s sites, but not yours. You can also find your next content idea and add it to your content strategy.
Compare your site’s traffic from search, keywords, and backlinks to that of your competitors.
Use website traffic statistics, including Alexa Rank, engagement metrics, referral sources, to analyze website data.
Alexa also provides audience insights for websites with a similar audience to yours, topics that your audience is most interested in, and the keywords they search for.
Quantcast
Quantcast focuses on data for publishers and marketers who want to grow their audiences. When your website joins Quantcast, a portion of your data becomes publicly available.
Also, you can only look up websites that use Quantcast, and while there are over 100 million of them, your competitors might not be one of them.
Quantcast offers a limited free version that is primarily used to gather information about your website. For more statistics, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid edition.
The paid version helps you gain real-time insight into your audience’s demographic and psychographic makeup. You can discover how different audiences interact with your website’s content.
Quantcast also helps you analyze traffic metrics across all of your web properties to get a sense of your total reach. You can filter your audience by platform (web and mobile web), country, period, and other factors.
Sitechecker
The up-and-coming full SEO checker that allows for a complete website audit. Its 7-day free trial version is packed with helpful features and opportunities:
SE Ranking
You can use SE Ranking to look up a website’s organic traffic and the keywords it ranks for. This tool offers various pricing options based on features, how frequently you want your rankings updated, and how long you wish to subscribe. There’s a 14-day free trial available.
In just one click, you can see how much traffic any website receives. You can also:
You can use SE Ranking to look up a website’s organic traffic and the keywords it ranks for. This tool offers various pricing options based on features, how frequently you want your rankings updated, and how long you wish to subscribe. There’s a 14-day free trial available.
In just one click, you can see how much traffic any website receives. You can also:
Serpstat
Serpstat’s free version estimates a site’s total traffic, top ten keywords, and ten best-performing pages. It also shows you how a site’s traffic has changed over time. Serpstat is intuitive with a diverse set of SEO tools — for backlink analysis, site auditing, rank tracking, and traffic monitoring.
The traffic analysis tool shows you:
You can also find trend data — how the website’s ranking, traffic, and keywords have changed over time.
SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb provides an overview of a site’s total traffic, top traffic sources, and traffic sources by country. However, it’s important to note that SimilarWeb has a limited database, and it won’t return results for small or new websites.
Compared to Ahrefs and SEMrush, SimilarWeb happens to be the most accurate website traffic tool for small websites. Ahrefs and SEMrush provide more accurate results for high-traffic websites.
SimilarWeb offers a free version that estimates a site’s monthly visits and ranks it for five keywords.
Its premium version offers a breakdown of overall traffic and a country-based report. It also shows other metrics like bounce rate, page views per visit, average visit duration, and the top traffic sources.
You’ll discover which paid keywords drive the most traffic to a website, its top social channels, and how the website monetizes its content.
SimilarWeb also offers audience analysis, including what other sites they’re interested in, top referring sites, and a list of competitors.
Semrush
Semrush is a traffic analysis and competitor research tool in one. It’s the best tool for analyzing and tracking website traffic.
You can get a detailed breakdown of your competitor’s total traffic, see monthly traffic volume over time, traffic distribution by country, the most popular keywords, and more.
Its traffic analytics tool displays the number of unique visitors, total visits, average visit duration, page views, and bounce rate for your site. This feature is similar to looking into your competitor’s Google Analytics.
You can also compare data for up to 200 websites, depending on your pricing plan. This feature gives you an insight into your niche’s most popular websites and any traffic opportunities you can exploit.
Semrush offers a 14-day free trial period, or you can sign up for a limited free plan that gives you access to primary website data.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a popular SEO tool for determining how much traffic your competitors receive and why they rank higher than you on SERPs.
Their software crawls over 6 billion web pages every day and has over 200 million websites in its index. It’s a lot of information to process, but it provides you with actionable insights to help you outrank your competitors and increase traffic.
The user interface is straightforward and intuitive. Type the website’s URL into the search field, and the tool retrieves all of the site’s information.
The search overview report provides information on a site’s organic search traffic, domain authority, top competitors, and much more. You can view traffic statistics for the past year, last 30 days, or all time by filtering the report.
Despite a large amount of data available, you can easily filter and find the website metrics you need. Ahrefs includes traffic data from organic search and excludes data from other sources such as social media.
UberSuggest
With UberSuggest, you can find out a lot about your competitor’s website traffic. It’s simple to use, and the interface is designed with beginners in mind. This tool makes keyword research and traffic analysis incredibly simple, even if you’ve never done it before.
The traffic analyzer feature provides a detailed breakdown of your competitor’s traffic over time, as well as the most popular pages on the site and the keywords that bring them the most traffic.
You just have to type in the website’s URL and hit the ‘Search’ button.
The ‘Traffic Overview’ page displays the total number of organic keywords for which the site ranks and organic monthly traffic, domain authority, and backlinks.
You can also look into each section of the traffic report in greater detail. Expand the ‘Top Pages’ results, for example, to see a breakdown of each published page on the site and the estimated monthly traffic it receives.
The estimated number of backlinks and the number of Facebook and Pinterest shares are also included in the results. This information gives you a broad idea of what you’ll need to do to outrank that website in the SERPs.
Checking website traffic without tools
You can check website traffic without using any of the tools mentioned above. Here are some alternatives to using the free or paid tools mentioned above to check for website traffic.
If your competitors offer advertising or other forms of collaboration, their websites will almost certainly have an Advertise with us page. Enter this search phrase into Google to quickly see if a website has an Advertise page: site:domain advertise with us. For example: https://hogfurniture.com.ng/pages/why-you-should-advertise-with-us
If they have an advertising page, this search should bring it to the top of the search results.
When checking website traffic this way, check when the Advertise page was last updated. If an Advertise page hasn’t been updated in 3 months or more, its information is probably incorrect.
A media kit, or press kit, contains information about the site’s audience and where it has been featured, in addition to traffic statistics.
While some companies have their media kits on their websites, they usually link to a pdf version. Even so, it would be best if you searched for: site:domain media kit to see if your competitor has one. You can also use the terms “press kit,” “press pack,” and “media pack.
It’s also essential to check when a media kit was last updated, just like it’s essential to check when website statistics are pulled from Advertise pages, so you don’t work with outdated numbers.
Conclusion
There are several ways to check the traffic on your competitors’ websites. You can use a tool, dig a little, or ask them directly. Installing and using Google Analytics is the ideal way to go if you want to analyze your website’s traffic. Google Analytics tells you how much traffic you’re getting from which sources, making it easier to figure out what you should focus on next.
With WordPress plugins like MonsterInsights, you can see your website traffic data in your WordPress dashboard in just a few clicks. Here’s our guide on WordPress SEO for new website owners.
However, SEMRush is our top recommendation if you want to do in-depth competitor research and check traffic on any website. It is not only one of the best SEO tools on the market, but it also provides accurate competitor analysis. Knowing what kind of traffic your successful competitors are getting, you can work to attract the same and sell it for a higher price to advertisers.
7 Free Tools to Check Any Site’s Website Traffic
The best website traffic checker tools to find out how much traffic a website gets.
Alex Chris Updated April 28, 2022 6 Comments
Do you want to know how many visitors a website gets?
Knowing how to check website traffic for any site can help your business learn from competitors to optimize your marketing strategy.
When you analyze a competitor’s traffic you can see:
Website traffic checkers are the tools that give you the ability to analyze the traffic of any website around the world.
These traffic checkers use a variety of sources to collect data including web crawlers, ISPs, and browser extensions among others.
A lot of data is needed to give an accurate picture of a website’s performance which is why you may find that smaller sites do not show up when you search for them in a traffic checker.
But for websites with a steady amount of traffic, site checker tools can prove an essential asset for planning and growing your business.
Top 7 Free Website Traffic Checker Tools
These are the best tools you can use to check website traffic for any site for free.
1. SEMRush
SEMRush is a comprehensive suite of marketing solutions for online businesses.
The platform offers a robust set of tools for everything from backlink analysis and content planning to SEO audits and ranking tracking.
One such tool is their Traffic Analytics solution which can be used to check competitor website traffic.
Check Website Traffic For Any Site with SEMRush
SEMRush has both paid and free versions. With the free version of SEMRush’s Traffic Analytics, you are able to view up to 10 traffic overview reports a day.
The overview tab will provide important metrics for the website you are analyzing including:
You can gain even more insights from additional traffic reports including:
With the free version of SEMRush, you are only able to see a sample of the data in the report. For example, in the Top Pages tab, you will only be able to see the first 10 results for the website you are analyzing.
You’ll get started by providing your email, phone number, and password to create an account. Next, you’ll provide your billing information which will be used to set up your recurring payments. You won’t be charged when you submit the information and your trial will begin.
For 14 days you’ll have access to SEMRush’s full suite of 45 marketing tools to help grow your business. If you don’t wish to continue your plan once the trial has ended you can simply cancel your plan at any time during the 14-day period.
2. Sitechecker Pro
Sitechecker is an SEO solution with a variety of tools designed to help businesses improve their search performance.
The platform’s most prominent features are the Site Monitoring, Rank Tracker, and Backlink Tracker tools which are all part of its paid pricing plans.
It does however provide several free tools including its Traffic Checker which can be used to check the website traffic of any domain you provide.
To use the tool, simply visit Traffic Checker and type the name of the website you want to analyze.
Analyze Website Traffic with SiteChecker Pro
After the results load, you will find plenty of useful insights to gauge the site’s performance and better understand its strategy.
Some of the helpful traffic reports include:
3. SERanking
SERanking is an all-in-one SEO solution that allows users to research keywords, track rankings, and check the website traffic of sites around the world.
When you search for a website you’ll get a quick overview of the site’s total organic and paid traffic per month as well as the total number of keywords the site is ranking for.
Analyze any website’s traffic with SERanking
Further down the results page, you will find line graphs showing the trend of total traffic and ranking keywords and how they are progressing over time.
SERanking also provides a list of all the website’s ranking keywords, its top-performing pages, and a breakdown of its main organic and paid competitors.
Like other solutions on this list, the amount of data you are able to view in the free version is limited.
For example, with the organic keywords and top page reports, only the top ten results are visible.
There is no credit card required for sign-up, as users only need to provide their name, email, phone number and password to get started.
4. Similar Web
Similar Web is a traffic intelligence solution built to provide users with a detailed analysis of any website’s visitors.
While some of the other companies on this list offer a range of SEO and marketing tools, Similar Web focuses singularly on website traffic analysis.
SimilarWeb Traffic Analysis Tools
When you search for a website you’ll get insights broken into the following sections:
Similar provides both free and paid versions of its platform.
If you want to get access to the full set of data, SimilarWeb offers plans centered around search, display, and affiliate marketing. There is also an enterprise plan fully equipped with all the features from each of these plans.
There is a free trial available but it is only for one day so I recommend that you plan how you want to test the solution in advance to be able to make the most of it.
5. WebCEO
WebCEO is a robust suite of SEO tools designed for agencies and individuals looking to manage multiple projects in a single solution.
WebCEO is different from the other tools on this list in that it does not allow you to search for another website’s traffic data directly.
Instead, users create a project with their own website and then use the Competitor Metrics tool to analyze the traffic of related sites.
WebCEO Traffic Checker
The platform pulls data from Alexa to provide traffic statistics from your website’s closest competitors.
This enables you to see these websites’ traffic over time, average ranking position, and shared keywords.
There isn’t a free version of the service and you will have to sign up for a plan to be able to use it.
A credit card is not required to sign up as you can simply provide your personal information and get started right away.
The free trial provides access to all 21 of WebCEO’s SEO tools.
6. SerpStat
Serpstat is a suite of SEO solutions that has grown from a simple keyword research tool to now provide users a more comprehensive set of features to understand their website’s performance.
This includes backlink analysis, rank tracking, site auditing, and traffic checking for other websites.
The platform comes in both free and paid versions. Before you can use the free version of SerpStat you must create an account by providing an email address, phone number, and password.
After creating your account, you can use the search field on the homepage to enter any website and begin analyzing its traffic.
SerpStat Website Traffic Checker
The results page will give many valuable insights including:
The results provided by the free version are only a sample of the available data. The free version also does not allow for searching and filtering of the results.
Serpstat does not offer a free trial upon signing up for any of its plans.
That being said, the free version provides enough functionality for you to get a good feel for the solution before committing to a paid plan.
7. UberSuggest
Ubersuggest is an SEO solution designed to help users perform keyword research, plan their content marketing, and check competitor website traffic.
The platform comes in both free and paid versions.
The free version of Ubersuggest allows you to search for three websites a day.
To see a website’s traffic simply type the domain into the search field on the Ubersuggest homepage.
Analyze any website’s traffic with UberSuggest
The results page will show a quick overview of the website’s traffic including the total number of organic keywords the site ranks for as well as its total monthly organic traffic.
You will also find a list of the website’s top SEO pages and keywords.
There are other modules available including a historical view of the site’s traffic and keyword ranking data but these are only accessible with a paid plan.
There are three paid plans designed for individuals, small businesses, and agencies.
The trial grants full access to all Ubersugest’s features and a credit card is required at signup.
Important Website Traffic Metrics to Analyze
So what should you look for when analyzing a website’s traffic?
There are several important metrics that give great insight into a website’s performance and the strategies the business is using.
Important website traffic metrics to analyze include:
How to Analyze Your Website’s Traffic
The tools we have covered answer the question of how to check the website traffic of competitors. However, it is just as important to continually monitor your own website’s traffic.
There are several free solutions available to analyze your website’s traffic.
Google Analytics
One of the most popular among them is Google Analytics. The platform provides extensive reports that you can use to track traffic sources and user behavior on your site.
It allows you to see your visitors’ demographic characteristics like age and gender, where they live, and how they found your website.
To use Google Analytics, you will need to add a simple tracking code to your website. If you have a WordPress site there are several plugins available to simplify the process.
Google Analytics can integrate with some of the tools mentioned on this list allowing you to connect your website data to a more comprehensive solution to view alongside competitors.
Google Search Console
Another helpful free tool to analyze your website’s traffic is Google Search Console.
Google Search Console is essentially a hub for managing how the search engine treats your website. You can see which pages are included in the index and if Google’s crawlers have any errors when finding your site.
The platform provides a comprehensive list of the keywords your site ranks for and you can track performance over time to see how your rankings are changing and which pages are driving the most traffic to your website.
Key Learnings
Checking another website’s traffic is a great way to learn what is working for them and can be useful in growing your own business.
When checking a website’s traffic, it is important to analyze the following metrics:
Website traffic checkers are the tools that allow you to analyze the traffic of any website.
There are plenty of free site checker tools available to analyze a website’s performance. My top solutions include:
Some of these tools have paid versions as well and will limit the amount of information you can see with the free version. Most offer some form of free trial for you to test the solution before committing to a paid plan.
While it is important to analyze your competitors’ traffic it is also important to analyze your own. For this, you can use free tools like Google Analytics to monitor your website’s traffic and understand user behavior.
Overall, checking other websites’ traffic is an important part of building effective strategies for your business.
Take a look at the tools we’ve discussed in this post and see how they work for you.
Alex Chris is a digital marketing consultant, author, and instructor. He has more than 18 years of practical experience with SEO and digital marketing. Alex holds an MSc Degree in eCommerce and has consulted with Fortune 500 companies in different industries. He blogs regularly about SEO and Digital marketing, and his work has been referenced by leading marketing websites. Connect with Alex on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Reader Interactions
Comments (6)
Halina Biernacki says
TY! great resources.
Alex Chris says
Thanks a lot Halina!
James Chadwick says
The tools we have covered answer the question of how to check the website traffic of competitors. However, it is just as important to continually monitor your own website’s traffic.
Alex Chris says
Yes, that’s true. To check the traffic of your own website, the best tools are Google Analytics and Google Search Console (as explained in the article).
Thanks a lot
Alex
Ivica Panic says
SemRush is my favorite. I think it’s the best tool vs pricing to compare with other like Similar web.
Alex Chris says
I agree, Semrush is a great tool for checking a website’s traffic and for a lot of other functions.
How to Check How Much Traffic a Website Gets
Have you ever wondered how to check someone else’s website traffic?
There are multiple ways you can take a closer look at how many hits a website gets, even if it’s not your own.
Maybe you want to see how your competitor’s websites are performing or which pages are getting them the most traffic.
In this guide we’ll cover:
So first, let’s get back to basics.
What is Website Traffic?
In simple terms – website traffic is the number of people visiting a website at any one time.
Traffic is generally measured in “sessions”. A session will involve the user viewing one or multiple pages within a given time frame, and some visitors may return to your website for several sessions before they go ahead and purchase a product or enquire about a service.
If you want to check your own website’s traffic but aren’t sure where to get started with a tool like Google Analytics, this video series covers everything you need to know.
If you’re wondering how to check website traffic on a competitor site, it’s a little more complicated. But don’t worry, this guide gives you all the tools you need to check traffic to a website, even if it isn’t your own.
Whatever industry you’re in, be it retail, accountancy, construction or something entirely different, your company website likely plays a significant role in your digital marketing strategy.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 92% of adults in the UK were recent internet users in 2020, up from 91% in 2019. Not only that, but the proportion of those aged 75 years and over who have begun using the internet has nearly doubled since 2013, from 29%, to 54% in 2020, meaning more and more customers are moving online, no matter their age.
How Does the Internet Influence the Buyer’s Journey?
People use the internet at all stages of the buyer’s journey, from the awareness stage, where the intent is to gather research, to the decision stage, where the consumer is assessing prices and close to making a purchase.
The stages of the buyer’s journey
Even if you don’t sell products or services online, your website is an important tool for raising brand awareness, establishing your credentials and moving people through the sales funnel, even if that sale takes place in a shop, at a meeting in a swanky restaurant or in your office.
Reviewing the performance of competitors’ websites is a vital weapon in your arsenal, helping you develop ideas for improving your website.
Whether the purpose of your website is to directly generate sales or leads or to improve brand awareness, it’s crucial to understand where the target audience spends their time online and what entices them to convert.
By benchmarking your website against your competitors, business owners can gain valuable insight into their position in the market and identify potential opportunities for development and growth.
Competitor analysis should be part of your ongoing marketing strategy. Use it to make sure your website is performing in line with industry standards and identify areas where you can outperform competitors.
Monitoring how much traffic your competitors’ websites get is essential to the success of your site.
How to Check Your Competitors’ Website Traffic
Step 1. Identify Your Competitors
You may already have an idea of your competitors, especially if you serve a specific area (for example, as a contractor, you likely have an idea of the competition residing close to you).
Otherwise, Google is a good place to start when seeking to identify online competitors, and you may even come across competitors that are based elsewhere but service your location.
Searching your product or service will return a list of competitors that are chasing the same audience (if you serve individuals in a specific place, e.g. if you’re a “dentist in Hackney”, don’t forget to add the location to your search).
Screenshot of Google search results for “dentist in Hackney”
Make sure you use Google’s “incognito” mode to avoid skewing results with your search history.
If you’re a service-based or eCommerce business targeting people all over the country, or even the world, you may need to niche down to those that specialise in what you offer — this will not only prevent the overwhelm of having a long list of competitors to research, but it’ll also allow you to get more valuable insights from your competitor research.
Once you’ve exhausted Google search, explore the most popular social media platforms in your industry.
If you sell products to consumers, Facebook and Instagram will likely be large priorities, while service-based and B2B businesses may get more out of Twitter and LinkedIn.
Search for key terms, trending topics, news stories and any relevant industry hashtags to identify potential competitors.
If you’re unsure of who your target audience is, let alone where they are spending their time, these 6 questions will help you get a clearer idea of who you’re targeting.
There are many free and paid tools that can help businesses identify their competitors. These can be especially useful for finding startups that may not be on your radar yet but have the potential to scale or are doing something innovative that could make waves in your industry.
Check out the sections below on using free and paid tools to monitor competitor traffic.
Get to the top of Google for free
Step 2. Categorise Your Competitors
Even a cursory Google search of a niched-down area of your industry will probably return a long list of potential competitors.
To make competitor analysis manageable and worthwhile, categorise any businesses identified in terms of the level of competition they represent.
Categorising your competitors will allow you to effectively prioritise your research time. It will also put your results in context and help you effectively glean insights from your findings while ultimately helping you to set realistic targets to outperform them.
Step 3. Review Competitor Websites
Take a look around competitor websites to gauge their performance and get some new ideas.
Developing the practice of reviewing competitor websites now is important to gauge why they may be getting a larger share of traffic, but that’s not the be-all-and-end-all.
How much traffic a website gets isn’t as important as what it does with that traffic — does the website convert it effectively?
Being able to pinpoint the conversion elements of a website will allow you to cross-reference them with your own and implement those proving that are successful for your competitors.
Let’s look at it this way: converting 10% of 100 visitors nets you the same results as converting 1% of 1,000 visitors while requiring you to do less to funnel traffic to your site.
Now, imagine maintaining the same conversion rate as you scale your traffic — it soon becomes apparent that reviewing your competitors’ websites to see where you can improve can result in significant gains for your business.
So when reviewing your competitors, what should you look for?
First, consider how effective their homepage is — what first impressions do you get? This is the page that the majority of their site traffic will land on, so it’s important to consider how easy it is to navigate and find what your target customer might be looking for. Does the site load quickly and is it easy to get in touch with any questions?
Next look at where their calls to action are positioned and the language they use: is there a clear CTA above the fold (the area of the page that appears before a user has to scroll down), and is the messaging specific and compelling (“Show Me How to Improve Engagement in My Business”) or generic (“Subscribe to Newsletter”)?
Screenshot of the Exposure Ninja homepage
Then look at other important pages on the site: do their product or service pages include plenty of information and images showing users what they’ll get? Does their website copy highlight and effectively address any common objections a visitor might have, or do they gloss over them (or not mention them at all!), leaving room for doubt?
Putting yourself in your perfect customer’s shoes and analysing the strengths and weaknesses of competitor websites is a great way to understand what they are looking for.
Set yourself a mission to buy a specific product and make notes of your experience.
Learning how competitors are positioning themselves in the market can help to shape your strategy.
Sign up to newsletters, follow their social media accounts and make listening in on your competitors a natural, regular practice to stay ahead of the curve.
Step 4. Monitor Competitor Social Media Accounts
According to Smart Insight’s Global Digital Report 2022, there are 4.6 billion social media users worldwide. Unsurprisingly, businesses are making increasing use of social media platforms as part of their digital marketing strategies.
Monitoring competitors’ social media accounts is an entirely free method of evaluating competitor marketing strategies.
Review your competitors’ presence across social media.
Use your evaluation of your competitors’ performances to plan your social media strategy. Is visual content getting a lot of likes and text content isn’t performing so well? This reveals what the target audience is looking for. Go one layer deeper — is it video posts causing a stir and creating a conversation while infographics go largely ignored?
Many businesses drive a significant percentage of traffic to their websites via social media, so understanding what types of content your audience is already engaging with is the first step to take a share of that traffic for yourself.
Step 5. Analyse Competitors’ Web Traffic
Reviewing websites and social media platforms helps to build a picture of where competitors’ website traffic is coming from and how they’re engaging that traffic, but data and statistics are needed to complete the picture.
There are numerous free tools available that can provide detailed stats on competitor websites, including the number of visitors and the top-ranking keywords that are driving traffic there in the first place.
Add this to the research you completed in steps one to four to evaluate what works in your industry, along with why and how, and you can use this comprehensive picture to boost traffic to your site.
How to Check a Competitor’s Traffic Using Free Tools
There are plenty of tools you can use to check website traffic free online, and new tools are appearing all the time.
With the growing importance and sophistication of search, there are many factors you could take into consideration when analysing a competitor’s performance.
Each tool offers something different, so it’s a good idea to compare and contrast results using a range of tools. It’s important to note that you won’t get the exact figure of traffic to a competitor’s site — only access to their Google Analytics account will give you such juicy insights — but using the estimates from a variety of tools will give you enough data to make educated decisions.
Some free tools cap usage after a certain number of searches or include only basic features, with unlimited usage and advanced features available only to customers who upgrade to the paid version.
1. SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb is a competitor analysis tool that allows users to run reports on any URL.
Enter the name of a competitor in the search bar and SimilarWeb will trawl its huge range of data sources to return information such as its average number of visits, average visit duration (how long visitors spend on the site), bounce rate (the percentage of users who leave the site without taking an action) and more.
This tool can provide insight into competitors’ online strategies and facilitate a better understanding of the customer journey.
If you search for various competitors and one shows a higher than average time-on-site or lower than average bounce rate, these metrics indicate that visitors are finding value and that the site is meeting a user’s needs.
Use your knowledge from step three to identify why and consider how you can implement similar elements on your own site to improve performance.
One of the best features of this tool is the list of similar sites provided in the report. This can help businesses identify previously unknown competitors that may fulfil a particular niche you missed during your initial competitor research.
The free version limits the number of results per metric and the amount of web and mobile traffic. Upgrading to a paid account provides access to unlimited results, more data and a host of advanced features.
Screenshot of SimilarWeb
2. Google Alerts
It’s quick and easy to sign up to receive Google Alerts with an existing Google account.
Enter the name of a competitor in the search box and click “create alert”. Whenever this competitor is mentioned online, you’ll receive an email notification to the Gmail address you signed up with.
This is a great way to monitor competitors’ backlinks and social mentions. Use this information to inform your PR outreach activities and social media campaigns — knowing where competitors are earning backlinks from can give you ideas for your own campaign.
You can also go one step further and set up alerts for your most important keywords, which can be a useful way to identify businesses competing in the same market and pick out topics you could piggyback off of by offering your business’s unique opinion.
3. Moz
Moz is one of the most familiar names in the world of online marketing and SEO. The Moz online platform offers a range of free SEO tools that you can use to keep an eye on competitors’ traffic.
Use the Keyword Explorer tool to identify the top-performing content for target keywords. This can help you to identify competitors and highlight opportunities to outperform them by producing higher-quality content. Keyword performance is a good indicator of a competitor’s position in the market.
Enter a competitor’s URL into Moz’s Link Explorer tool to view a report of their backlinks, top-ranking keywords and a list of other websites targeting the same terms. Use these reports to gain a better understanding of competitors’ online marketing strategies, sources of traffic and target keywords.
Screenshot of the Moz competitor analysis tool
4. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner allows users to monitor how their website is performing for keywords. It’s also a great tool for competitor analysis and it’s completely free to use for all Google account holders.
There will be numerous invitations to set up a Google Ads campaign when signing in for the first time, but this isn’t mandatory.
Enter a competitor’s URL to receive hundreds of keyword suggestions based on their online activity. This gives a good insight into a competitor’s strategy and it can provide some fresh ideas for your business.
Top 8 Free Tools to Analyze Any Website’s Traffic 2022
Affiliate disclosure: In full transparency – some of the links on our website are affiliate links, if you use them to make a purchase we will earn a commission at no additional cost for you (none whatsoever!).
SEMRush is a one-stop-shop for traffic analysis and competitor research. It’s the greatest tool for evaluating and tracking website traffic. We use this tool for keyword research, tracking keyword rankings, and much more.
Alexa offers useful information about a website’s traffic. Unfortunately, the best content is hidden behind a paywall. You don’t have to get rid of this website analyzer just yet, though. Even the free functionality is sufficient to aid in the optimization of your portal.
SimilarWeb is a website traffic analyzer that shows you how much traffic your competitors have and which channels are the most profitable. You’ll get thorough data on a website’s overall traffic strategy, rather than just search traffic.
Do you want to know how many people visit a specific website?
Knowing how to analyze any website’s traffic may help your firm learn from competitors and enhance its marketing strategy.
When you examine a competitor’s traffic, you may see:
Website traffic analyzers are software programs that allows you to examine the traffic of any website on the internet. These traffic analyzers gather information from a variety of sources, including web spiders, ISPs, and browser extensions.
Smaller sites may not display when you search for them in a traffic checker since a large amount of data is necessary to offer an accurate picture of a website’s performance.
Site checker tools, on the other hand, maybe a useful asset for planning and developing your business for websites that receive a steady volume of visits.
Table of Contents
The 8 Best Free Website Traffic Monitoring Tools
There are a number of free and commercial traffic monitoring options available. Each one has unique features.
Most experts use a number of ways to validate website traffic estimates for their competitors. We typically recommend that consumers use at least two different programs to assess site traffic numbers.
Using a variety of technologies, you may fill in the gaps and obtain more precise traffic figures for any website.
As your WordPress site and budget grow, you may invest in more technologies to gain more insights and conquer your sector.
Finally, let’s take a look at the best tools for calculating how much traffic a website receives.
1. SEMRush
SEMRush is a one-stop-shop for traffic analysis and competitor research. It’s the greatest tool for evaluating and tracking website traffic.
We use this tool for keyword research, tracking keyword rankings, and much more.
You’ll obtain a thorough overview of your rival’s overall traffic after you add a competitor URL.
You’ll be able to examine crucial website data like monthly traffic volume over time, traffic distribution by nation, and the keywords that drive the most traffic, among other things.
The Traffic Analytics tab displays the number of unique visitors, total visits, average visit length, page views, and bounce rate for your site.
This function is similar to peering into the Google Analytics account of a rival.
2. Alexa
Alexa offers useful information about a website’s traffic. Unfortunately, the best content is hidden behind a paywall. You don’t have to get rid of this website analyzer just yet, though. Even the free functionality is sufficient to aid in the optimization of your portal.
The full analysis from Alexa provides information on referrals and traffic sources, audience location, and keywords that attract new users. If you want to learn more about your rivals, the Audience Overlap will come in handy. This tool displays websites that share your platform’s keywords and traffic. Perhaps it will reveal who your true competitors are.
3. Sitechecker
Sitechecker is an SEO solution that includes a number of tools aimed at helping businesses enhance their search rankings.
The Site Monitoring, Rank Tracker, and Backlink Tracker tools, which are all included in the platform’s premium price plans, are the platform’s most notable features.
It does, however, offer a number of free tools, including a Traffic Checker that can be used to assess the traffic of any domain you give.
Simply go to Traffic Checker and enter the name of the website you wish to study.
After the results have loaded, you will have access to a wealth of information that will help you assess the site’s success and better understand its strategy.
4. SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb is a website traffic analyzer that shows you how much traffic your competitors have and which channels are the most profitable.
You’ll get thorough data on a website’s overall traffic strategy, rather than just search traffic.
You’ll obtain a breakdown of total traffic, as well as a country-by-country analysis, after running a website via the program.
Bounce rate, number of pages seen per visit, average visit time, and the top traffic sources for that website are among the engagement data you’ll obtain.
You’ll learn which sponsored keywords provide the most traffic to the site, which social channels are the most profitable, and which display networks the site employs to monetize.
Finally, you’ll get a thorough breakdown of the site’s audience, including what kind of other sites they’re interested in, the top referring sites, and a list of competitors to investigate further.
The tool’s free edition gives you access to vital traffic statistics. You may create an enterprise account with bespoke pricing if you need more thorough reports.
5. Serpstat
Another free service that analyses your website in detail. Serpstat uses the Google and Yandex search engines to offer an in-depth analysis of any website. This latter factor contributes to the tool’s popularity among Russian portals.
Serpstat, for example, lets you determine who your key rivals are based on organic search. Do you want to see how you stack up against their websites? You can look at domain traffic, compare and analyze the most popular organic keywords, CPC, and volume, as well as view the most popular pages on each site.
Even so, you’ll have to pay for premium services like backlink analysis and a complete website assessment.
6. SERanking
If you’re familiar with tools like Ahrefs and SemRush, SEO Ranking won’t come as a surprise. It examines organic traffic, on-page keyword optimization for major search engines, and website rankings by nation, region, and even city.
This solution also enables you to collect the aforementioned data about your rivals. With a 14-day trial, you can test the SE Rankings functionality for free.
7. Social Blade
Social Blade is an excellent all-in-one analytics tool for a variety of media channels. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud, and Instagram are all supported.
YouTube video makers will benefit the most from this technology. You may use Social Blade to look into the channels of prominent vloggers. There’s a lot of information here, so be prepared to digest a lot of it. It also comes with a free trial.
8. Traffic Estimate
Traffic Estimate is a simple website traffic estimate that collects basic website information. Except for the fact that it’s completely free and just takes a few seconds to conduct an examination, there’s nothing special about it.
The report from Traffic Estimate contains information on unique visitors, hosting, SEO, and targeted keywords. Aside from that, you’ll learn about other sites that are fighting for the same keywords.
The findings we obtained using Traffic Estimate may differ substantially from those obtained with other popular website analyzers. It raises the question of how accurate it is in the first place. Still, if you wish to cross-reference information from another site monitoring tool, it’s a useful resource.
Quick Links
Conclusion | Tools to Analyze Any Website’s Traffic 2022
You may check the traffic on your website and the traffic on your competitors’ websites using a number of tools.
Examining competitor traffic may teach you about your market and what you can do to improve traffic. Monitoring your own website traffic, on the other hand, will indicate whether your SEO, social media, and other traffic-generating strategies are working.
If you want to do an in-depth competition analysis and evaluate traffic on any website, SEMRush is our top choice. It is not only one of the best SEO tools available, but it also gives accurate traffic numbers.
This post should have shown you how to check website traffic on any website.
Do let us know in the comments section below.
Andy Thompson
Andy Thompson has been a freelance writer for a long while. She is a senior SEO and content marketing analyst at Digiexe, a digital marketing marketing agency specializing in content and data-driven SEO. She has more than seven years of experience in digital marketing & affiliate marketing too. She likes sharing her knowledge in a wide range of domains ranging from ecommerce, startups, social media marketing, make money online, affiliate marketing to human capital management, and much more. She has been writing for several authoritative SEO, Make Money Online & digital marketing blogs like : ImageStation, Newsmartwave, & Experthoot
Website Traffic Checker
Use this Free Website Traffic Checker Tool to estimate traffic from any domain.
398,098,871 people like you checked their traffic with our traffic checker tool. Make it count 😉
How can I improve my website traffic?
Everyone wants more traffic, right? Having consistent traffic or launching successful paid search campaigns can be difficult or confusing. We created this website traffic checker tool to show your estimated traffic, as well as competitor website traffic to see how you compare.
More than just data, this tool provides you with insights and actionable suggestions to grow your traffic quickly. This takes hard work, but is worth your time and energy. Give it a try!
Why should I trust this free website traffic checker?
Our tool uses global data centers that collect traffic data from over 250 countries as part of our Ubersuggest SEO tool technology. It fully complies with GDPR and cross-references with other relevant databases for an accurate estimation of website traffic for almost any website.
It’s not too good to be true! Use this free tool from Neil Patel and Ubersuggest to see website traffic estimates and valuable insights to increase your website traffic, all for FREE!
Does anyone know what I’m searching?
No! This website traffic checker tool is totally confidential. Only you will see searches and data you are looking for. Of course, if someone else searches for the same website, they will see the same data, but they will not see the websites you searched.
The free traffic estimate tool helps marketers, entrepreneurs, and business owners grow their traffic quickly. The application behind this traffic grader uses a proprietary marketing algorithm based on more than 60 different factors, including ad spend data, traffic estimated score, keyword ranking, and other variables to provide a close traffic estimation and trustworthy insights to improve.