A large percentage of clients come from the website. That’s why businesses pay so much attention to content, design, and SEO — it’s their best shot at getting high-quality leads nowadays. Driving relevant traffic to the website is one of the important goals of any business. SEO professionals should know how to analyze and optimize web traffic that will ultimately bring more relevant visitors.
A web traffic estimator is an SEO tool that shows and analyzes how users interact with a website. It can show you where your visitors come from, how much time they spend on the website, and who they are. Such tools give the most value when used for the purpose of investigation and comparison. When performing an analysis with a traffic estimator, make sure you check what other websites are using to drive more traffic and what works for them in your niche.
Going after the web traffic of other successful websites can give you lots of information about what you can do to reach such results. Website traffic estimators help you look at competitors from different angles and see how they bring traffic to their websites.
You can discover the best traffic estimators on the market and analyze their features, choosing one that best fits your needs. Let’s dive in.
1. SE Ranking
With SE Ranking’s Traffic Estimator, SEOs and business owners of all levels of expertise can easily dive deep into any website’s or keyword’s traffic numbers. Just enter a domain, an exact URL, or a search query, hit “Analyze traffic”, and the tool will pull up all the relevant data from organic and paid search campaigns.
If, for example, you’re interested in estimating website traffic, you can get a detailed report on any website’s organic and paid traffic volumes, along with the total cost of driving it from each channel, the domain’s as well as the page’s trust scores.
The number of referring domains and backlinks here helps you get a sense of the site’s off-page optimization efforts, while the DT and PT scores point out how authoritative the site is in the eyes of search engines. Moreover, you can see in which other countries the analyzed website’s active, and perhaps, get an idea on how to expand your own operation to other regions.
Note that besides analyzing sitewide overview graphs, you can get more concrete, comprehensive data on the site’s organic and paid traffic numbers.
All of the data is visualized neatly with clear dynamics indicators, which is useful when you want to understand your site’s current state at a glance. The graphs are interactive and can be expanded for a more detailed analysis.
You’re also free to explore the keywords that the analyzed website targets in its organic and paid campaigns and use that info to expand your own site’s keyword list. After all, you’ll have a hard time finding an SEO professional who doesn’t want to know what keywords drive the most leads to their digital rivals.
As was mentioned earlier, SE Ranking also derives statistics on the geography of traffic allowing you to make data-driven decisions on local markets and adjust your online strategy accordingly.
The best part of the tool is that it lets you compare your site with that of your competitors, peek into their strategies, and get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. As a result, you can create a better strategy capable of outranking the competition in both organic and paid search.
As for estimating keyword traffic, follow the same principle to get a detailed report on any search query (aka keyword) in terms of its ranking difficulty, search volume (and dynamics), cost per click, and Google Ads competition level in the selected country.
On top of that, you can see who exactly is ranking at the top of the SERPs for the analyzed search query and move in for a closer inspection, as well as learn what the most popular ads are, which enables you to strengthen your own PPC campaigns.
To recap, keyword and web traffic estimates are just a click away with SE Ranking’s tools. Furthermore, there are a number of other specialized tools in the platform that equip you with all the data you need to succeed in your SEO and PPC campaigns.
Pros:
- All-in-one SEO platform
- Great value at an affordable price
- Excellent for competitor and keyword research
- Great data visualization
Cons:
- API is available only for the Business plan
2. SEMrush
SEMrush is to Ahrefs what Android is to Apple: arch-nemeses. SEMrush specializes in analyzing traffic. They are generous with a 7-day free trial. SEMrush offers a ton of SEO tools for SEO, Content Marketing, PPC Advertising, Social Media, and Competitive Research, and Community. With SEMRush, you can get an estimation of any website’s organic search traffic and even see the keywords that are bringing in that traffic.
SEMrush SEO includes on-page SEO, Keyword Research, Link Building, Local SEO, and Rank Tracking. Link Building finds organic opportunities to make your backlink profile stronger. SEMrush Content includes Marketing, Creation and Distribution, Optimization, and Marketing Analytics. To try SEMRush for free, click the link below and our readers only can get a 14 free trial of SEMRush.
Pros:
- Tons of tools
- Accurate data
Cons:
- Learning Curve
- Expensive for some
3. Serpstat
Serpstat offers some unique services, including Content Marketing Ideation, Reports and Infographics, and API tools.
Content Marketing Ideation works by finding questions that clients want answers for, via database searches. Providing the answers to these frequently asked questions will attract more visitors to your website. After finding and answering those questions, you can input keywords related to your topic to increase search engine clicks.
For business owners with little time to perform their own analysis, Serpstat offers Infographics and Reports. A Simple Dashboard shows you your projects, query history, clicks, and overall success in one single screen. Data Visualization and White Label Reports help with creating reports and presenting information to employers and business associates. Serpstat’s API is developer-friendly, giving daily rankings, competitor analysis, position-tracking, and keyword-research data directly into your reporting systems. Serpstat provides the ease of access that extremely busy people need to effectively run their websites with the best content and the highest number of clicks.
4. Ahrefs
If Similar Web is the best free option, then Ahrefs is one of the best-paid website traffic estimators. Ahrefs offers a trial at $7 for 7 days to help you determine if their services are right for your needs. Ahrefs offers a traffic estimation tool that shows you estimated organic monthly visitors based on the keywords you are ranked for and the volume of searches for that keyword. You can get a pretty accurate traffic estimation by adding a URL to the site explorer.
They have five options, beginning with their Site Explorer. Site Explorer provides several options:
- Organic traffic research shows the keywords competitors rank for and which pages generate the most traffic. There are over 150 million keywords just in the United States that Ahrefs tracks.
- The Backlink checker checks websites that link to competitor websites and analyzes the quality of those backlink profiles. Ahrefs’ backlink checker is big and fast.
- Paid traffic research shows whether competitors are doing paid search advertising, and if so, where they generate their paid traffic.
The next option is their Keywords Explorer, which provides numerous options to help you pick the best keywords for your online presence. Keywords Explorer is supported in 171 different countries, not just the United States, making them very accessible.
Keywords Explorer also gauges the quality of keywords, helping you pick the right keywords to show up on search engines. You can also check the “parent” options to see which keywords your keywords are under. Impressively, you can enter up to 10,000 keywords at a time. Ahrefs ensures accurate and up-to-date metrics by using clickstream data every month to refine and narrow down volume numbers.
Pros:
- Accurate Data
Cons:
- Expensive
- Only organic traffic data
5. Similar Web
One of the websites that provide any competitor traffic information for free is SimilarWeb.com. Similar Web gives insights on websites, apps, and platforms. For basic functions, this website is very easy to use. Simply type the website URL into the “Analyse any Website or App” box at the top of the page.
You will be able to see basic analytics, like which countries visit the website most and how many visitors there have been over the past several months. Bounce rate, pages per visit, and average visit duration are also included. The comparison tool is also very nifty. You can compare websites side by side with this option, eliminating the need to toggle two screens together. Similar Web allows users up to 3 months of web traffic data, 1 month of mobile app data, and 5 metrics per month, all for free. Premium features are available for an upgrade, including experts you can consult with and up to 28 months of statistics.
6. Site Worth Traffic
Site Worth Traffic offers the unique service of showing you how much your domain is worth. It’s free to use. Simply plug in the website domain you want to purchase, or your own for curiosity’s sake, to see how much it’s worth.
This can help you decide what domain might be most ideal if you’re not sure which direction to go. This can also help with narrowing search results. The downside is that subdomain names don’t work with this service. While these free services are good to an extent, they might not provide everything your business needs. This leads us to paid options. Some paid options offer a free trial or offer a lower price for a limited time so you can sample their services. Let’s take a look.
7. Serped
SERPed refers to itself as a “Ninja Suite of SEO Tools.” Among their services are Client Acquisition, Agency, and Domain Finding.
SERPed.net from Colin Klinkert on Vimeo. Client Acquisition uses Site Auditor Pro, Citation Scanner, Review Badges, and Mobile Prospector as a complete package to help bring new clients to your business. Site Auditor Pro is a fully customized widget that analyzes and audits:
- URLs
- Content
- Mobile-friendliness
- Titles and descriptions
- Codes
- Traffic
- Images
- Security
- Metrics and backlinks
- Headings
- Speed
- Social Signals
The Citation Scanner will check across the board, from the Better Business Bureau to Yelp and the Yellow Pages, to find any websites that you should be listed on but are not yet. In addition to nationally known websites, the Citation Scanner searches for hundred of local businesses and services where you can list your business. Greater exposure brings the potential for more clients. Review Badges offer a visually appealing alternative to those famous “follow us on Instagram!” posts. Instead, website visitors can click to go to your social media via a feed preview embedded directly onto your web page. And the Mobile Prospector ensures that websites built on a computer are optimized for viewing on smartphones and other electronic devices.
8. Quantcast
Quantcast offers services in three different fields right on its homepage. Their Marketing option helps you sell content to and understand your audience. Quantcast will also help you get consent to become data complaint. They have free resources on their blog with information regularly updated and relevant to 2020. While some of their services require your credit card information for access, they offer Quantcast Measure for free.
Quantcast Measure gives detailed, real-time insights about your audience, including what motivates them to navigate different parts of your website. That information enables you to speak more directly to their motivations and bring them on board with you. Quantcast also has Q for Publisher, which provides resources for publishers. The Suite provides audience-intelligence applications that help monetize digital audiences via insights and measurements. Q for Publisher tools includes Measure Profile, Content Segments, Audience Planner, and Campaign Reporting. Quantcast’s website does not provide in-depth details on exactly what it means to Measure Profile. Instead, they want you to contact them and see their pricing options.
9. Statshow
Statshow is another free website traffic estimator, but its options are limited compared to other website traffic checker services.
Statshow shows estimated traffic on a monthly and yearly basis, along with monthly page views, monthly visitors, monthly ad revenue, different categories and niches, Alexa ranking, and site age, among other things. Statshow will also do some math for you by calculating the commercial value of your keywords. The downside to Statshow is its estimates of monthly visitors, which are not super accurate. Currently, Ninja Reports is getting around 2,000 page views a month, but Statshow is showing 30 visitors a month.
Conclusion
In this article, we’ve shown various traffic estimator tools that can help you get the most out of website traffic information.
Keep in mind that most of them do not provide 100% accurate information — some of the data can be underestimated. The accuracy of a traffic estimator can vary depending on its price and the purpose it serves.
Yet, it can give you valuable insights on what works for your competitors and offer some important data. You can get 4 metric directions that will help you adjust your website content: audience, your customers’ behavior, how well the content works, and where the customers come from.
Before using website traffic estimators, make sure you understand who your competitors are. You can do some prior research to identify how much traffic they are getting, what keywords they are using, and what their social media presence is. Moreover, you should check out their website, going after web core vitals, website speed, and other important metrics. This way, estimating web traffic will have more of an impact on your overall SEO strategy.
Also, some of the traffic tools overlap with similar SEO audit and analysis tools. That’s why we suggest you analyze your personal goals before making a decision on purchasing any web traffic estimator tool.
While the market offers various tools, our research indicates that SE Ranking is the most reliable web traffic estimator. With it, you can check website traffic, examine traffic costs, and find out how keywords influence traffic.
