10 Effective Ways to Do Competitor Traffic Analysis

‍Any business day-to-day is full of competition. And when it comes to the digital marketing space, it’s either “eat or be eaten.” Harsh? Well, at least it’s a great motivation.

‍Every digital marketer and business owner out there understands what it’s like to put an incredible amount of effort in your content, only to see little results from it. That’s simply frustrating.

‍Know what’s even worse? When it looks like your competition is somehow getting all the attention. What could be the problem? You may never know unless you check your competitors’ website traffic.

‍By doing this, you can look under the “hood” and see where your gaps are. Besides, how else are you going to understand what’s good and bad in your strategy, right?

‍If you like the idea but aren’t sure where to start, this guide is for you.

‍A competitor traffic research is everything you do to monitor the web traffic of your competition.

‍The idea is to go beyond just checking keywords and types of content they publish. A decent analysis can help you see a fuller picture of what your competitors are doing, especially in terms of their main channels of getting leads and customers:

• Your competitors’ most successful and weakest traffic sources
• Gaps that everyone else is not filling (and you can take advantage of)
• New trends that may have flown under your radar (but your competition is actively benefiting from)
• New and old ideas that can help you make the most of your content marketing strategy

‍Clearly, there is a lot to be said for keeping your eyes on how others in your niche are getting along. Most of the time, though, marketers assume it’s only the big-name brands they have to worry about. But that’s not quite true.

‍More often than not, it’s the new kids on the block that should raise your concerns. But, of course, only those in the same “class” (aka industry) as you.

‍When it comes to online marketing, you can’t afford to simply mind your business, stay in your lane, and hope for customers to trickle in. Sounds good, but it is more of a fairy tale scenario than a real marketing world.

‍Let us put it differently. Have you ever thought that your competitors are stalking you and getting ideas from your content on how to outrank you. Aha, that’s right! So here is how you can return the favor:

#1 Consider Your Analytics Software Options

‍It takes a lot of work to get accurate competitor website traffic reports. So, you are definitely going to want to use the right tools.

‍If you are at least somewhat into SEO, you probably know about Semrush and Ahrefs. But although they both show competitor traffic, they are more like “pretenders” than actual indicators. What does that mean?

‍They are only good for understanding whether there is any traffic at all. And, if so, whether it’s high or low. As for the exact number of clicks, most likely, these tools won’t be able to give you an accurate answer, meaning – you can view the overall trends but little more than that.

‍Similarweb is another option of the traffic analysis software you can play around with. Many claim it to be one of the most precise tools out there.

‍Its biggest advantage is that it gives you a truly extensive report that includes different traffic sources, data on traffic by country, demographics, and tons of other things that will be useful for you. So, it isn’t a bad idea to test this software a bit.

‍Yet, of course, it can be inaccurate, too. So, take every software’s results with a pinch of salt.

‍Another Similarweb’s benefit, though, is that you can use it for free if you install a browser extension. Because as you might know, most of the tools for spotting competitors’ traffic are paid.

‍Source: Chrome Web Store

‍You can also consider trying Serpstat (what they call themselves – an all-in-one SEO platform).This software also has a functionality of analyzing the traffic of other websites.

‍Source: Serpstat

#2 Know Everyone You Are Up Against

‍Here is the drill – it’s impossible to analyze any traffic unless you know who you are competing with in the real world.

‍Before you decide to skip this section and say, “Nah, I already know my competitors,” think about whether you know all the different types of them.

‍What do we mean by that? Overall, there are 3 types of competitors to watch out for:

• Direct competitor: The one who sells exactly the same or almost the same thing as you. Think of an iPhone and an Android smartphone.

‍Source: PCMag

• Indirect competitor: The one offering a different product/service that satisfies a similar necessity. For example, Domino’s Pizza and McDonald’s have different offerings, but both of them satisfy the need for a quick, budget-friendly bite.

• Replacement competitor: The one who can take you out entirely by offering something new that makes you obsolete. Remember that famous Kodak’s story when they chose film over digital cameras and their competitors leaped ahead of them?

‍Looking at your competition from different angles can give you new ideas on how to make your business better. Because at the end of the day, your product/service is either improving constantly or getting stuck.

‍But the real question is, how do you find all the competitors? This brings us to the next point.

#3 Find Competition With Search Engines and SEO Tools

‍Alright, so one of the easiest entry points to check your competitors out is simply googling your target keywords. We know, we know, it is an obvious one. But do you actually do it regularly?

‍You know, things change. And unless you keep an eye on everything, you can miss the whole party without even noticing that.

‍For example, if you are a travel agency software developer, type that in the Google search. RIght on the first page, you will see companies that offer the same services as you (and rank well). Plus, at the very top, you see who’s using PPC for this keyword. Pretty useful, isn’t it?

‍Source Google

‍But there’s only so much you can see from looking at search results, so you will probably need an SEO tool.

‍If you are using Semrush, you can check competitor traffic in the Traffic Analytics tool. Just type the domains of your competitors in the search, and get all the stats (if your subscription plan allows).

‍You can do this and narrow the results to a particular region if you are a local business. But if you are catering to customers globally, then you will need to cast a wider net. Most tools allow you to adjust this using the filter settings.

‍Source: Semrush

‍You can do all this for each competitor individually or add up to five sites (the number will depend on the tool you are using). It’s a good idea to look at 5+. In reality, the more, the better.

‍Naturally, there should be more direct competitors, but try to add at least a couple of indirect replacement competitors. Now, what exactly should you focus on?

#4 Understand Different Traffic Sources

‍Source: Similarweb

‍When we say traffic, what traffic do we exactly refer to? Well, all of it. Of course, you have (or should have) multiple sources of traffic. Depending on your business type, one or the other will lead the way.

‍But before you start analyzing it, make sure you understand what each type of traffic means. Here are the most common sources:

• Direct. This comes from people who actually type your web address or URL into their browser or follow a saved bookmark to your web page.
• Referral. People who click on the links to your website that appear on other blogs, websites, and other external pages.
• Social media. Traffic from posts on social media sites (whether organic or sponsored).
• Display Ad. This traffic comes from video and display or banner ads.
• Paid Search. This includes the traffic that comes from people clicking on your Google ads or ads on other search engines.
• Organic. This comes from people who find your content on search engine result pages by googling a particular keyword. This is the one every SEO expert is fighting for.

‍Okay, but why does it even matter where the traffic comes from? Because it shows you how people find you or your competitors. Don’t we all want to know what channels are the most successful?

‍In the end of the day, having this data will help you optimize your efforts. If one source is useless, why would you even spend your time on that? Maybe if you redirect all that time to a successful channel, you will get much better results.

#5 Check the Metrics Beyond Traffic

‍When your goal is to do competitors’ traffic research, you don’t just want to know how many visitors come to their websites. Instead, try to get the fullest picture possible. So, check other vital details like:

• Keywords they are ranking for
• Bounce rates
• How many pages each visitor checks on average per session
• How long the visitors stay on the website on average
• Monthly traffic trends

‍Your competitors’ traffic analysis is much more likely to be more useful if you analyze on-page and off-page SEO details. So, don’t forget to also look at the titles, breadcrumbs, content quality, links profiles, etc.

#6 Analyzed the Keyword Ranking Trends

‍You want to know which keywords your competitors are using to beat you in SERPs, right? Luckily, it isn’t complicated.

‍Simply enter their domain name in your preferred SEO tool, and you will find all of the details about their organic performance, including their organic keywords.

‍Source: Semrush

‍Of course, it’s best to track competitors’ web traffic and how it compares to yours by checking the top keywords and any other keywords you have in common.

‍Besides, pay attention to the search intent behind them as this will help you improve your own content. It makes no sense to create an informational guide for a keyword that has a purely commercial intent and vice versa.

‍Source: Semrush

#7 Learn From Their Content Strategy

‍Content is a big part of SEO and a good way to see how your competitor is racking up their traffic volume. Go through their blogs and see what topics or themes they focus on.

‍Plus, check out their social media posts, visual assets, and podcasts (or whatever format and platform they use). Yes, it does feel a bit stalkerish at this point, but it’s all for a good cause.

‍Source: @Starbucks on X

‍Okay, now what? You want to look at the topics and the tone they use. Maybe you’ve picked the wrong ToV, and your clients just don’t identify with that. Or often, you can discover that your competition targets an audience segment that you haven’t thought about yourself.

‍Pro tip: Pay even more attention to the content with the most engagement. That’s the one you want to recreate. Yet, whatever you do, don’t copy! Get some inspiration and go create something even better.

#8 Do a Thorough Backlink Analysis

‍Backlinks are vital. Like absolutely essential. That’s why these should definitely be on your list when you want to know your competitors’ traffic sources. Backlinks are hyperlinks from other sites that lead anyone who clicks on them back to your site.

‍You see, it’s really difficult to rank high in search engines without backlinks. Pages that rank first in SERPs have, on average, 3.8x more backlinks than all the rest in the top 10 results on Google).

‍But scoring quality links can be hard (extremely hard). If your competitors are outranking you even though you target the same topics and do everything right, it’s probably a great idea to look at their backlinks. Chances are that the issue lies there.

‍But how do you check their backlinks? You can use any backlink checker like the one Ahrefs has. Simply enter the domains you are interested in, and you will see the number of links and websites linking to them.

‍Source: Ahrefs

‍You reach out to some of the sites linking to them and offer your content. You can consider guest posting or sharing your research, or anything that makes sense and is valuable.

‍If you don’t have the time for all that, then buy some links from credible sources (extra emphasis on “credible”). These links will serve as signposts and direct more referral traffic to your page.

#9 Compare Your Marketing Efforts

‍If you are a marketer, you already know how the 4 Ps (products, prices, promotion, and place) work. But how often do you compare your positioning with your competitors? Do you include the emerging players in the market?

‍And even if we forget about your competition for a moment, how often do you think about your product/service in terms of its value, not marketing?

‍The thing is that you can try to outperform your competitors in traffic all you want. But the key to high rankings and easy marketing is an exceptional product/service.

‍Source: @AlexHormozi via X

‍So, remember you should always focus on your business and how well it solves your clients’ challenges. And if on top of that, you take all the best practices from your competitors, you will become unbeatable (well, as much as possible).

#10 Take a Look at What Their Customers Are Saying About Them

‍People love to talk about their experiences (especially negative ones), and what they share can give you a ton of insights. How? When researching competitor web traffic, check what their customers are saying about them.

‍Trustpilot

‍You will be surprised to see that it’s like doing a client survey to improve your current services. If you find some negative feedback and you notice that you have the same drawback, fix it.

‍And on the contrary, if many clients are praising some feature or product your competitor has, think how you can integrate that into your offering.

‍This is what people call customer sentiment analysis. And to be honest, you don’t really need to do anything complicated, start by simply checking the online listing platforms (e.g., Capterra, TrustPilot, Yelp, etc.)

‍But don’t forget to also check what your own clients are saying about you. It’s no good if you focus all your time and energy on your competition and leave none for your own reviews.

‍You need to keep your finger on how your customers feel as well. This way, you will be able to come up with a better SEO strategy that improves your own traffic and helps increase customers’ satisfaction rate.

‍Analyzing your competitor’s website traffic is a lot like peeling onions (a really tough one that makes you sweat and cry sometimes). There are just so many layers to it. But you don’t have to deal with them all at once.

‍It’s best to start with the one that seems easiest to you and then move on to other layers. The main thing is that by the end of the day, you know how your competitors are able to get their traffic.

‍Once you figure out why and how customers come to them, you will be able to come up with better plans yourself. This makes it easier for you to stand out in a good way.