For most marketers and SEO experts, the question of how to check website traffic is too obvious. But this question is not so simple. It has many nuances that you may not be aware of.
Working on my templates, especially on Google Analytics 4 Looker Studio template, Google Search Console Looker Studio template, and Keyword Ranking Report Template, I discovered that it’s not enough to use the standard interface of the GA4 and GSC. You should dive deeper, and use their data to get more valuable insights.
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Best website traffic checker tools (TL;DR)
Tools to monitor the traffic of your websites
| Tool | Type of data collection | Best use case | Price |
| Google Analytics 4 | Tracking script added to site code | The most popular tool for website analytics of your own or customers’ websites, that is easy to integrate with other tools. | Free |
| GA4 Looker Studio Template | Importing data from GA4 | Get more insights using charts you can’t build in the native GA4 interface. | $199 one-time payment |
| Google Search Console Looker Studio Template | Importing data from GSC | Get more insights about organic search traffic using charts you can’t build in the native Google Search Console interface. | $199 one-time payment |
| Sitechecker | Importing data from GA4 | Monitor website traffic for multiple websites using one simple dashboard. | Starts from $49 per month |
| Amplitude | Tracking script added to site code | The best tool for web and app product analytics. | Free up to 100k monthly unique visitors per month |
Tools to monitor the traffic of your competitors’ websites
| Semrush (affiliate link) | Click-stream data | Check website traffic sources, and count in dynamic for competitors’ websites. | Starts from $139 per month |
| Ahrefs | Click-stream data | Check the organic search traffic count in dynamic for competitors’ websites. | Starts from $99 per month |
| Similarweb | Click-stream data | Check website traffic sources, and count in dynamic for competitors’ websites. | Free up to 15 checks per week in Google Chrome Extension |
In this guide, I will try to explain the different methods of traffic checking analysis, how to do it properly, and which tools to use for that. You also can view this article in the form of a video from my colleague, Simon.
Best tools to check the traffic of your website
It’s always better to use tracking code analytics tools to check and monitor the traffic of your website or the website you have access to.
Data from such tools is much more accurate than you can get from tools that use clickstream data.
1. Google Analytics 4
Here you can see:
- how many page views, events, and conversions your website has;
- from which sources, channels, countries, devices, traffic comes;
- what are the parameters of the audience who visit your website;
- and more.
However, most of my colleagues hate the GA4 interface, even though 89% of active users have decided to migrate from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4.
That’s why I am building templates in Looker Studio.
2. Google Analytics 4 Looker Studio template
My Google Analytics 4 Looker Studio template gives you some unique options like:
Checking the parameters of the last conversions made on the website.
Quickly review the performance of the landing pages, countries, cities, channels, etc.
You can view more in the demo of the template.
3. Google Search Console Looker Studio template
The GSC template helps to get more insights about organic search traffic and your performance in Google SERP.
Here is an example of the tables that help quickly identify the most promising landing pages and keywords.
But you can’t rely on only GSC, because there is no user behavior and conversions data. This is why I also created a template to merge GA4 and GSC data to forecast traffic, conversions, and revenue potential.
4. Sitechecker
Sitechecker is a great platform to monitor GA4 and GSC metrics for multiple websites. You can’t do it in GA4 or GSC native interfaces and it’s too difficult to build in Looker Studio if you manage tens and hundreds of websites.
Here you use unique charts with insights that are not available in GA4 and GSC by default.
For example data about the dynamics of the number of keywords in the top 1, top 3, top 10, etc.
Or data by position dynamics for the most popular keywords per page.
You can automatically get the data about every Google search algorithm update on your charts and easily measure the impact of its updates on your rankings, impressions, and clicks.
4. Amplitude
I like Amplitude much more than Googe Analytics 4 for its user experience, flexibility, and number of features. Primarily it’s used for product analytics, not marketing website traffic analysis, but I do both there.
It also has a free limited version. On a free version, you can track up to 100K monthly unique visitors and have no access to some charts like Revenue LTV, Impact Analysis, Compass, etc.
The only challenge is that Amplitude is a complex platform and you need to invest much time to discover all of its opportunities.
I recommend finishing Amplitude Analytics courses if you are working on some SaaS, e-commerce web-based, or mobile-based product. This knowledge has a direct impact on startup growth.
Best tools to check the traffic of competitors’ websites
You can’t place any tracking code on competitor’s sites, so you need to focus on tools that use clickstream data, even though it’s not as accurate.
Here are the best tools you can use for this purpose.
1. Semrush Traffic Analytics
Semrush displays all data in a very similar manner as it was built in Universal Analytics. And this is a good move. It’s easier for marketers to search for insights in such data.
You should pay a minimum of $130/m to get access to this tool.
2. Ahrefs Site Explorer
Ahrefs doesn’t have data about user behavior on any website and doesn’t have data about traffic from any other channels than organic and paid search. They focus specifically on measuring the success of the website in Google SERP.
And this is his strength. They do it better than anybody on the market.
You should pay a minimum of $99/m to get access to this tool.
3. Similarweb Website Analysis
Similarweb Chrome Extension gives you 15 free checks of website traffic per week. This is a tool I use every day to check the traffic of my competitors and leads that create accounts in the app.
So, this tool is great not only for competitor analysis but for user enrichment too, to improve the sales qualification process for any B2B business.
I researched how accurate Similarweb traffic analysis is here.
What is a website traffic check?
This is an analysis of the following data on the site for the selected period:
- number of visitors;
- visitors’ locations (country, city) and devices (desktop, mobile);
- traffic sources (google, facebook, etc) and channels (organic, ppc, referral, email, affiliate, etc);
- popular website pages and landing pages;
- user behavior on the site (bounce rate, average session time, average viewed pages, etc).
Why and when do you need to check website traffic?
It depends on which website you are checking.
Why check the traffic for your website?
- Measuring the success of a website and specific pages. You can determine whether their site or page is meeting its goals. You also can look for patterns, to understand your audience and how different events (external and internal) cause changes in traffic, conversions, and revenue.
- Identifying areas for improvement. You can find insights into areas where a site performs poorly, such as high bounce rates or low engagement on certain pages, devices, and countries. Based on that data you can try to change your design, set up better hosting, improve technical SEO, rewrite content, etc.
Why check the traffic of others’ websites?
- Conduct general market analysis. Find out what websites exist in a particular market, from which sources and channels they attract an audience, what is the portrait of this audience, what search queries users enter to go to these sites, how many audiences can be obtained in this market, and so on.
- Find valuable ideas for your business. With the above market data, you can delve into the analysis of your closest competitors and find interesting ideas for testing a new traffic source or channel, trying to sell your services in other countries, expanding your content strategy, and more.
What are the types of website traffic-checking tools?
Clickstream data
Data companies collect clickstream data from millions of internet users who agree to share their data. These users are known in the industry as “panelists”. Data companies identify panelists using “panelist hashed IDs”, which render the panelist’s data anonymous, while also allowing for data collection across devices.
While a single user’s clickstream data may not be useful, when you aggregate data from millions and millions of users, you can begin to uncover trends and draw conclusions about the different metrics mentioned above.
It’s important to note that tools that use clickstream data (Similarweb, Semrush, Ahrefs, etc) are distinct from tracking code analytics data (like Google Analytics, Amplitude, Mixpanel, etc). While analytics data shows precise metrics associated with an individual domain, clickstream data is associated with individual users and their navigation across numerous domains.
Tracking code analytics data
Website analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Amplitude are software platforms that provide website owners with insights into the behavior and preferences of their website visitors. These tools work by tracking website user activity, such as page views, clicks, and other interactions, and presenting this data in a user-friendly format.
The process usually begins by placing a tracking code on the website, a small JavaScript code that collects data on user behavior. This code captures information on things like how many users visit the site, how long they stay, which pages they visit, and what actions they take. The data is then sent to the analytics tool’s servers, where it is processed and presented in various reports and dashboards.
That’s it. If you have any questions or need any tips write to the chat on the website. I will be glad to help you.
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