Most beginners in SEO feel like they are blindly walking the SEO path, and even the simplest tasks become a hassle. For example, you’re posting great content and doing marketing, but you don’t know if people are visiting your website? Or, the more pressing question keeping you up at night: how much traffic are my top competitors getting? It doesn’t need rocket science knowledge to check web traffic of a website. Knowing how many people visit a website, where they come from, and what they do once they’re there provides an invaluable insight into your online presence’s success. 

This means knowing your competition’s strategy, conducting essential market research, identifying emerging trends, truly understanding your audience’s behavior, and ultimately making decisions that can boost your online presence. To know all this, you must read on and dig into the details. As SEO experts ourselves, we have curated this article specially for those who are wandering in confusion.

Know About These Website Traffic Metrics

• Unique Visitors – Think of this as the number of distinct individuals who visit your website within a set time. Note: If someone visits multiple times, they are only counted as a unique visitor once.
• Total Visits/Sessions – This metric counts the total number of times your website was visited. If a single user visits your site three times in a day, that counts as three separate sessions.
• Pageviews – This is simply the total number of individual pages that were viewed on your website. If a visitor clicks through five different pages during their session, that’s five pageviews.
• Bounce Rate – Expressed as a percentage, the bounce rate represents the proportion of visitors who leave your website after only looking at one page. A high bounce rate indicates that the landing page wasn’t relevant or engaging enough.
• Average Session Duration – This metric indicates the average time visitors spend actively engaged on your website during a single session. A longer duration generally suggests more engaging content.
• Traffic Sources – This crucial dimension reveals where your website visitors are coming from. Common sources include:
  • Organic Search: Visitors who found your site through search engines like Google (unpaid).
  • Direct: Visitors who typed your website address directly into their browser.
  • Referral: Visitors who came to your site by clicking a link on another website.
  • Social Media: Visitors who arrived via social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
  • Paid Search: Visitors who clicked on your paid advertisements in search engine results.
• Keywords – For traffic coming from search engines, keywords are the specific words or phrases people typed into the search bar that led them to your website. To check web traffic of a website effectively, analyzing these keywords is essential.
• Demographics and Interests – If available (and with user consent and privacy considerations), this data provides anonymous, aggregated information about your audience’s characteristics, such as age, gender, and interests.

Methods To Check Web Traffic Of Your Own Website’s Traffic

Now that you know about the key metrics that define website traffic, let’s discuss the practical “how-to.” The most reliable and insightful way to monitor the activity on your website is by using dedicated analytics tools. These platforms provide a wealth of data, allowing you to understand your audience, track your marketing efforts, and optimize your website for better performance.

Google Analytics (The Primary Method)

For most website owners, Google Analytics is the undisputed champion when it comes to tracking website traffic. This free and compelling platform provided by Google offers a deep dive into the behavior of your website visitors. 

It’s not just about numbers; Google Analytics provides a comprehensive suite of reports that reveal who your audience is, how they found your site, and what they do once they’re there. 

While a detailed setup guide is beyond the scope of this article (you can find many excellent resources for that!), the general process involves creating a Google Analytics account and adding a small tracking code to your website. Once set up, you’ll gain access to a treasure trove of data, presented in various reports:

• Audience Reports – These reports paint a picture of your website visitors. The Overview gives you a quick snapshot of key metrics, such as users, sessions, and bounce rate. Demographics reveals information about your audience’s age and gender (when available, respecting privacy settings), while Interests provides insights into their online interests. The Geo report shows you where your visitors are located, and Mobile breaks down traffic by device type (desktop, mobile, tablet).

• Acquisition Reports – This is where you discover how people are finding your website. The Overview provides a summary of your top traffic channels. All Traffic lets you drill down into specific Channels (like Organic Search, Direct, Social, etc.), Source/Medium (e.g., Google/organic, facebook.com/referral), and Referrals (websites that linked to yours). The Search Console integration (more on that below) provides valuable search-related data. At the same time, the Social and Campaigns reports give you specific insights into the performance of your social media and marketing campaigns. Understanding your acquisition channels is crucial for optimizing your marketing spend and focusing on what’s working best. To check web traffic of a website effectively, analyzing these reports is a must.

• Behavior Reports – These reports focus on what visitors do once they are on your website. The Overview provides key behavior metrics. Site Content, particularly the All Pages, Landing Pages, and Exit Pages reports, is beneficial. All Pages shows you your most popular pages, Landing Pages reveals the first pages visitors see, and Exit Pages indicate the last pages they view before leaving. 

• Bounce Rate – You can also examine the bounce rate for your top landing pages to identify areas for improvement in your website’s user experience.

Google Search Console

While Google Analytics tells you what happens on your website, Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) focuses on your website’s performance in Google Search results. Think of it as your direct communication channel with Google. Its primary purpose is to help website owners monitor and maintain their site’s presence in Google Search.

The Performance Report in Search Console is the key to gaining valuable traffic insights before users even click on your website. It provides data on total clicks your website received from Google Search, total impressions (how many times your website appeared in search results), the average CTR (Click-Through Rate), and your website’s average position for various queries. 

Crucially, it also shows you the queries (keywords) people used to find your website, the pages that appeared in search results, and the devices on which users were browsing. The beauty of Search Console is that it complements Google Analytics perfectly. Search Console provides the data before the click, while Analytics provides the data after the click. Together, they give you a holistic view of your website’s search performance.

Website Hosting Analytics

Many website hosting providers also offer their basic website analytics as part of their hosting packages. These built-in tools can provide a general overview of your website’s traffic, often including basic metrics such as the number of visits, unique visitors, and information about the top pages. 

However, it’s essential to understand the limitations of website hosting analytics. They are typically far less detailed and comprehensive than Google Analytics. You’ll likely find a lack of in-depth audience demographics, detailed traffic source breakdowns, and the sophisticated behavior reports that Google Analytics offers. 

While they can be a starting point for a fundamental understanding of your traffic, for any serious analysis and optimization, Google Analytics (and Google Search Console) are the far superior choices.

Methods For Checking Any Website’s Traffic (Competitors, etc.)

If understanding your website’s traffic is important, what about the websites of your competitors, potential partners, or sites in an industry you’re researching? While you won’t have access to their private Google Analytics data, a variety of third-party tools and clever techniques can provide valuable estimations and insights into their online activity. 

To check the web traffic of a website that you don’t own, these methods are essential. It’s essential to remember that these methods rely on various data sources and algorithms to estimate traffic. Therefore, the figures should be viewed as directional and comparative, rather than precise numbers, especially for smaller or newer websites. Nevertheless, they can offer a decisive competitive advantage by revealing the online strategies of others.

Third-Party Tools To Check Web Traffic Of A Website

Several specialized platforms have emerged to help analyze a website’s traffic. These tools use a combination of data-gathering techniques to provide estimates of website traffic and other valuable metrics. Here’s a closer look at some of the most popular:

SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb is often the go-to tool for a quick and relatively comprehensive overview of a website’s traffic. It offers a user-friendly interface and provides estimates for a wide range of metrics, including total visits, unique visitors, bounce rate, average visit duration, and a breakdown of traffic sources (such as organic search, direct, referrals, social, and paid). 

This is incredibly useful for competitive analysis, allowing you to compare your website’s performance with that of your rivals. You can also see the geographic distribution of a website’s traffic and, to some extent, the interests of its audience. A significant pro is the breadth of data it provides, making it a good starting point for research. 

However, the free version has limitations on the amount of data you can access, and the paid version can be pretty expensive. It’s also important to remember that all of SimilarWeb’s data is estimations, though they are generally considered more reliable for larger, well-established websites with significant traffic.

Semrush

Primarily known as a powerful SEO and keyword research tool, Semrush also includes robust website traffic analysis features as part of its comprehensive suite. Within Semrush, you can enter a domain to get an estimated traffic overview, including traffic trends over time, a breakdown of traffic sources, and the top keywords driving organic and paid traffic to the site. 

A major pro of using Semrush for this purpose is its strong integration with keyword and SEO data. This allows you to not only see how much traffic a competitor is getting but also where that traffic is coming from in terms of search. 

You can identify their most valuable keywords and understand their organic and paid search strategies. The main con is that Semrush is primarily a paid tool, and its full capabilities can be complex to navigate if your sole purpose is just checking traffic.

Ahrefs

Similar to Semrush, Ahrefs is another industry leader in SEO, particularly renowned for its backlink analysis capabilities. However, it also provides valuable traffic estimations and keyword data. By entering a domain into Ahrefs, you can see an estimated organic traffic figure, the number of ranking keywords, and an in-depth analysis of their backlink profile. 

The key pro of using Ahrefs for traffic analysis is its ability to understand organic search traffic, thanks to its vast keyword database and backlink index. 

You can see which keywords are driving the most organic traffic to a competitor and analyze their backlink strategy to understand their authority in search engines. The primary con is that Ahrefs is also primarily a paid tool, and its subscription costs can be significant.

Moz Pro

Moz Pro is another well-established player in the SEO software space, offering features for website traffic analysis alongside its other tools. Moz is particularly known for its Domain Authority (DA) metric, which predicts how well a website will rank in search engine results. 

Within Moz Pro, you can access traffic estimations and keyword data for any website. A pro of using Moz is its focus on Domain Authority, which can give you a general sense of a website’s overall authority and, indirectly, its potential for traffic. It also provides keyword ranking data. However, like the others in this category, Moz Pro is primarily a paid tool used to check web traffic of a website.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, the power of understanding website traffic lies not just in finding the numbers but in effectively analyzing that data to gain actionable insights. By digging into the metrics, understanding your traffic sources, and comparing your performance to others, you can make informed decisions that directly impact your online success. 

Don’t let your website operate in a black box. Emerging Software encourages you to start tracking your own website’s traffic using a robust tool like Google Analytics today and explore the various third-party tools to gain a competitive edge. The knowledge you gain will empower you to optimize your online presence, attract more visitors, and achieve your digital goals.