If you want to see how much traffic a site gets, it’s not too difficult – there are ways. Some ways provide a rough amount of traffic and some ways are more exact.
You never really know unless you are the website owner but if you use a few of the tools I list here, you’ll get a good idea of how to see website traffic for a particular website.
1. Alexa
Go to alexa.com and enter a website there. You’ll get a number of things like a rank, the keywords used, which other websites link to that website, what sites are related to that one and some demographics. Alexa has been around a long time and they aren’t the major authority that tells all but again, combine a few of the tools I mention on this page to see the traffic of a website and you’ll get some pretty close numbers.
I tried a few of the websites I own using Alexa and that stats are fairly close. It knew some keywords that gets those website traffic and other stats were close, too. It’s a good tool.
2. SimilarWeb
Over at similarweb.com you can get information like Alexa but it’s more detailed and more nicely put together. Their big feature is showing you what other websites are similar to the one you’re inquiring about. There’s a lot of interesting data there, so go check it out.
3. Compete
At compete.com, you can get some good traffic stats. I think Compete is good at demographics for a website. The downside is they want you to become a member and sign up and everything. You can’t blame them but they kind of do it too soon and it’s a little pushy.
4. TrafficEstimate
I haven’t used this website a lot but I do like what it offers. They do just what it says – it lets you see traffic of a website. They give you a nice graph and the website is simple to use. Head over to trafficestimate.com and give it a try.
5. SEM Rush
The semrush.com website is more for SEO purposes as it gives information like backlinks but if you’re looking how to see how much traffic a site gets, this website works just fine. It shows organic and paid traffic, competition, backlinks and more.
6. SearchMetrics
At suite.searchmetrics.com you will find a surprising amount of data about any website. They, of course, hide some data and want you to pay for it but it’s yet another angle on a website and a great way to either look at your website or look at your competition.
7. QuantCast
The quantcast.com website has been around a while, too. They don’t seem to have a lot of data that they’re willing to give out for free, so that’s why it’s lower in the list.
8. Website Informer
When you go to website.informer.com you will see information about the domain name, traffic stats from Alexa, how trustworthy the website is (whatever that means) and more.
9. Hit Counters and Comments
Another good way how to see how much traffic a website gets is to look at any article hit counters they have running and how many comments are on articles. Websites that use WordPress or Joomla as their website software often show this kind of information right up front. Go to whatever website you’re targeting and see if they give you any traffic stats right away. Website owners like to brag, so they might just flat out tell you how much traffic they get.
10. Advertising Pages
Along with looking at hit counters and so forth, see if they have a page about advertising on their website. If so, then they might offer some website traffic stats right there. They’ll need to do that in order to attract advertisers, so they very often list their traffic.
11. Majestic
The majestic.com website doesn’t give you traffic stats but it does give you SEO stats like backlinks and so forth. It’s a good way to spy on your competition and see where they have links and how they’re getting traffic.
12. BuiltWith
At builtwith.com, you can find out what software was used to build a website. It’s a useful tool.
13. Netcraft
This one has been around a while and it tells you a lot of information about a website. It’s a lot more technical than other tools but it’s a nice one to bookmark. Head over to Netcraft Site Report to get the website report.
14. Ahrefs
Ahrefs.com is a great tool I use all the time to find out things about websites I work on and competitors. It’s really a must-have tool for doing SEO… hands down. They have a free, 7-day trial, so go check it out.
How Many Visitors Does Your Website Get?
Above, I listed tools to check out your competition but they can be used on your website as well. It’s good to type in your website and see how good these tools are but if you first of all don’t know how much traffic your own website really gets, then you need to know that information.
1. Hosting Statistics
Your website host often gives you access to statistics software running on the web server. It uses the server access log files and creates reports. It’s accurate statistics because it’s right on the server but some of these packages like AW Stats and Webalizer often don’t go too deep. There’s a really good one called Piwik that is great to install. If it’s not on your hosting, you can ask your host if they will install it for you.
2. Google Analytics
The leader in website statistics is Google Analytics. The software used to be called Urchin and then Google bought it. At the time, it was the best website stats software out there and I remember using it a lot because it listed keywords people were using to get to my websites (this was in the early days of SEO). They’ve since changed it quite a bit but that’s how it started.
If you don’t have Google Analytics installed on your website, get that done now. You need these stats.
3. StatCounter
People who don’t want to be so close to Google use either Piwik or StatCounter. StatCounter is good if you just want basic stats (number of visitors and so forth) without all the extra stuff. It’s true that Google Analytics is a beast and kind of tough to navigate through so if that’s what you think, then try StatCounter instead as it’s more simple.
Conclusion
Hopefully this article has helped you find out how much traffic a website gets – be it your own website or your competition. If you have any comments, please leave them below and also please share this article in your social media accounts if you think it will be helpful for others – I’d really appreciate it!
