Want to grow your business with competitor traffic analysis? You’re in the right place.
In this article, you’ll learn how to analyze your competitors’ website traffic, why this approach works, and which tools give you the most accurate data.
What Is Competitor Traffic Analysis?
Competitor traffic analysis is the process of analyzing your competitors’ website traffic and using the insights you gain to improve your own website’s performance.
With the right tools, you can track a variety of metrics, trends, and behavioral patterns.
For example, here’s a high-level report comparing competitors traffic-related metrics from Semrush’s Traffic & Market Toolkit:
How to Analyze Competitor Website Traffic
You can analyze competitor traffic by diving into their traffic sources, top pages, keywords, and more.
Below, we’ll show you numerous ways to gather insights about rival sites’ traffic and user behavior.
Measure Competitors’ Overall Website Traffic
Starting with a broad view of your competitors’ website traffic (such as how many visits each one gets) helps lay the foundation for more in-depth research later on.
To begin, open the Traffic Analytics dashboard and follow our detailed instructions to get started. When you’re done, you’ll get estimates of each site’s traffic and engagement metrics, including how each has increased or decreased over time.
Here’s a quick overview of what each metric means:
- Visits: The estimated total visits to the website during the specified month
- Unique Visitors: The estimated total unique visitors to the website during the specified month
- Purchase Conversions: The percentage of website sessions that ended in a purchase
- Pages / Visit: The average number of pages viewed for every session on the website
- Avg. Visit Duration: The average amount of time visitors spend on the website
- Bounce Rate: The percentage of sessions that end after a single page
Review Traffic by Channel
Reviewing your competitors’ traffic by channel reveals strategic opportunities and gaps in your own marketing approach.
For example, if a competitor gets 60% of their traffic from organic search but only 8% from social media, that suggests SEO could be a good investment and worth looking further into for your site.
You can view traffic acquisition by channel in Semrush’s Traffic Analytics dashboard.
Compare Website Traffic Against Customer Experience Metrics
Comparing website traffic against metrics like pages per visit, average visit duration, and bounce rate gives a fuller picture of what’s happening on your rivals’ sites.
Open the Daily Trends dashboard to see how your competitors’ user experience metrics compare to yours.
Studying competitors’ user experience metrics gives you clues about whether those users are finding what they want. For example:
- High bounce rates could mean visitors aren’t finding what they need on your competitors’ sites. Review their content to identify gaps you can fill better.
- High pages per visit means your competitors’ content is engaging. Analyze what keeps users clicking on their sites—whether it’s intuitive navigation, links to useful resources, or comprehensive content.
- High visit durations could mean users are highly engaged with your competitors’ content. Study their top-performing pages to understand what’s resonating with visitors.
Track Where Users Go After Leaving Competitors’ Sites
Knowing where users go after visiting a competitor site helps you find potential partnership and advertising opportunities.
Let’s say you notice that 25% of your competitor’s traffic goes to xyz.com. You might want to consider placing sponsored content on that site to get in front of people who are considering your rivals.
To see where users go, head into the Traffic Analytics dashboard and scroll to view the “Traffic Journey” chart—it shows where users come from and where they go after visiting competitor sites.
Explore the Pages, Subdomains, and Subfolders That Users Visit
Knowing a competing site’s top pages, subdomains, and subfolders reveals which content and topics drive the most traffic to help you identify content that’s likely to perform well on your own website.
Head into the Top Pages dashboard and select which site you’d like to view in the drop-down menu. You’ll see a report with detailed data about the selected domain’s most-visited webpages.
Click into a page in the table for more details, like what the traffic trend is and which sources send the most traffic.
Head to the Subfolders & Subdomains dashboard to see your competitor’s top subfolders and subdomains by traffic and channel. Like this:
Use the information you see in the Subdomains & Subfolders dashboard as inspiration for good site architecture.
Find Which Keywords Drive Traffic
Finding which keywords drive traffic to your competitors reveals potential keyword opportunities that can improve your own search performance.
To see competitor keywords, enter a rival domain in Semrush’s Organic Rankings tool and navigate to the “Positions” tab.
You’ll see a complete list of keywords your rival ranks for, along with:
- Search volume for each keyword
- The competitor’s current ranking position for each keyword
- Estimated traffic each keyword drives
- Keyword difficulty scores
- SERP features the competitor has captured
Sort by “Traffic %” to see which keywords drive the most visitors to competing sites and note any that are relevant to you. These are keywords you should be targeting.
Compare How Competitors’ Traffic Overlaps with Yours
Comparing how competitors’ traffic overlaps with yours reveals which competitors pose the biggest threat.
The Audience Overlap dashboard shows the size of your competitors’ audiences. And the extent to which their audiences overlap with each other and with you.
In the image below, the largest circle belongs to Nike, indicating they have the largest audience. They share the largest overlap with Adidas, meaning 2.8M people who visited Nike’s website also visited the Adidas website.
If you and one or more competitors have high overlap, it means you’re directly competing for the same customers and should focus on competitive differentiation.
Low overlap between your audience and your competitors’ audiences suggests untapped audience segments your competitors have reached that you haven’t—study their positioning and channels for ideas on how to expand into those markets.
Track Competitors’ Web Traffic by Location
Tracking competitor web traffic at the country level can help you spot new markets to tap into.
The Countries dashboard shows information about audiences worldwide. For a general picture of a competitor’s global web traffic, start by analyzing the “Traffic Map.”
Also, check the “Traffic Trend” graph to understand how traffic varies across different countries over time.
For example, you might notice competitor traffic from a specific country is increasing. If so, it might be a good idea to do some more research into this specific market.
And the “Traffic by Country” table below shows more detailed data for specific locations. Each entry has a drop-down tab that shows top webpages in that country to help you see which pages and topics are popular.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Find Competitors’ SEO Keywords?
You can find competitor keywords by using competitive research tools like Semrush’s Organic Rankings tool. Enter their domain to see their complete keyword list, search volumes, ranking positions, and estimated traffic per keyword.
What’s the Best Way to Tell How Much Traffic a Website Gets?
The best way to tell how much traffic a website gets is by using tools like Google Analytics 4 (if looking at your own site’s traffic) or third-party tools for looking at your site and competing sites.
Can I Check Competitor Traffic for Free?
Yes, you can check competitor traffic for free with tools like:
- Similarweb Browser Extension (Free): Highlights traffic estimates, basic engagement metrics, and top keywords. It’s best for quick checks while browsing competitors’ sites.
- Ubersuggest Website Traffic Checker (Free): Gives you one free search per day with basic traffic estimates and top SEO keywords. This tool is good for occasional research on a tight budget.
- SpyFu Top Pages (Free):Shows a site’s top six organic pages. It’s useful for spotting high-level SEO opportunities.
- Traffic & Market Toolkit (Free trial): Shows you traffic by channel, engagement metrics, audience overlap, traffic journey mapping, top pages, and more. This option is ideal for those who want full competitive intelligence.
