Competitor website analytics
- Thread starter Lynn10
- Start date
Check SimilarWeb.com - enter your own website and the scroll down to the section "Also visited websites" it's possible that SimilarWeb only works for larger businesses, if one of them is your competitor go analyse them gives you lots of interesting insights about their acquisition strategies, traffic etc.
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See what exactly?
You won’t be able to see their visitor stats, how well they perform, which keywords convert the best or anything else useful.
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Have you tried SimilarWeb? Depending on how large the competitor is you can learn some interesting stuff for example check moneysavingexpert.com
You will see that most traffic comes from Search - they probably have a great content strategy. A good chunk is Direct, due to their brand. Hardly anything else. I'm surprised that Mail is so low given their strong newsletter. Even though social isn't a strong channel, you can see the breakdown which social media outlet is the most important (here it is Facebook with 47% of social traffic, interestingly followed by Reddit). Lots more you can check...
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No, it's still a guesstimate. The only way to get the numbers is to have access to the site analytics.
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Of course it's not 100% accurate, but it will give some useful insights, and I prefer "guesstimates" than driving completely blind. SimilarWeb is not some small company or a guy who built a tool in his spare time. They have hundreds of employees and >$100m in funding, including some of the world's largest investors (e.g. Naspers). BTW, I don't have any affiliation with the company
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Yes I get all that but you don't need to know anything about your competitors to make a success of your own website.
Doing comparisons will often lead you totally in the wrong direction.
Analysing your own analytics will give you far more insight. Done properly you can transform how your website performs.
Doing comparisons will often lead you totally in the wrong direction.
Analysing your own analytics will give you far more insight. Done properly you can transform how your website performs.
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Agree with @fisicx . No reason in trying to extract value from vague numbers. Only thing we used was checking where our competitors get their backlinks from and what is their linkbuilding strategy. I'd maybe check loading speed of their sites to see if I can beat them by optimising there, but that's again just one specific metric which won't make any big long term difference. Focus on your making your website great.
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Fisicx is talking total sense. It worries me immensely when so many are focused on tracking numbers of backlinks etc., when they should be focusing on converting more of their own traffic.
It's really not difficult:
1. Open up the websites of several competitors.
2. Note down every GOOD thing they do in their sites (e.g. videos, case studies, live chat etc.)
3. Combine all those GOOD things together and prioritise.
4. Go to your web developer/agency to implement the improvements that will get you more business than your competitors.
It's similar to a conversation we have with many of our triallers (who want to use our system to identify companies that visited their websites) - we say "yes, you can do that, but surely it'd make more sense to use analytics intelligently, find reasons people don't engage with you, and then fix the problems?".
(climbing down off my soapbox before my foot goes through it).
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And this can quickly lead you astray. Don't go chasing links, it can get you into all sorts of trouble.
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Do they offer any sort of paid advertising on their site? Or sell products? Pretend to be a supplier or advertiser and ask how much traffic they get. Cheeky. But if they don’t their checks on you, as they should and tell you, then fair game.
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+1 for similarweb.
Gives great analytics on competitors sites, but limited usage on the free version.
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Not really that useful for low traffic sites. It didn't even have data on a site of mine with 2000+ visitors per day
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Yes this is true - not useful on small sites. But I don't know of any other perpetually free tool that will give you this data.
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Hey Lynn10,
As you seen there are several suggestions on possible tools, and although i agree that most of those are great tools however without knowing the context on why you want this information the suggestions you currently are getting is based on everyone own context (SEO , Web performance etc) could you possible share a bit more about what you are trying to achieve and i am sure you will get more relevant suggestions
As you seen there are several suggestions on possible tools, and although i agree that most of those are great tools however without knowing the context on why you want this information the suggestions you currently are getting is based on everyone own context (SEO , Web performance etc) could you possible share a bit more about what you are trying to achieve and i am sure you will get more relevant suggestions
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I don't know why people are advocating not researching competitors. It's like starting a business and not researching the market.
Of course it's good to have some insight into what competitors are doing, where they are getting their traffic from and what they are targeting. It's a normal part of launching a new business or website.
Yes, all of these online tools only give approximate data...but it's better than nothing and adds to your knowledge and understanding when building your own marketing plan. You won't know what's ultimately making them money but some of it will be....otherwise they wouldn't be in business!
AHREFS is my personal favourite, the data there is some of the best I've ever come across and it's not expensive. You can see content that is generating traffic, what (approximate) organic traffic they get, what PPC ads they are running and referring sites. It's very interesting and helpful data.
Of course it's good to have some insight into what competitors are doing, where they are getting their traffic from and what they are targeting. It's a normal part of launching a new business or website.
Yes, all of these online tools only give approximate data...but it's better than nothing and adds to your knowledge and understanding when building your own marketing plan. You won't know what's ultimately making them money but some of it will be....otherwise they wouldn't be in business!
AHREFS is my personal favourite, the data there is some of the best I've ever come across and it's not expensive. You can see content that is generating traffic, what (approximate) organic traffic they get, what PPC ads they are running and referring sites. It's very interesting and helpful data.
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Research is good but sifting through their website and backlinks with a fine tooth comb often achieves little. Get a general overview of what they are doing and how they are marketing their products and services but don't go chasing every link in their profile - that's just daft.
Rather than compete head to head, find an alternate way to do your marketing. It's a lot easier and often a lot cheaper.
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