Checking Traffic Tools

Website visit statistics - counters and tools for checking traffic

We believe there is no need to explain how important the analysis of site traffic is? After all, it is these statistics that allow you to understand how much traffic your resource attracts, whether the target audience is interested in your offer, how to competently increase traffic.

We will tell you how you can find out the traffic to a site (including someone else’s), what tools you should use for this, what opportunities it gives you. There will be a lot of information!

What is website traffic statistics?

Traffic statistics is the total number of visits to a web resource for a certain period of time. In most cases, traffic is one of the key criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of website promotion.

Let’s make an important point right away. Here-and-now traffic metrics are of little use on their own. This information acquires maximum value when analyzed in dynamics. We can see an increase or decrease in attendance for objective or subjective reasons. Therefore, it will be possible to perform optimal actions to improve these indicators. Before you get completely confused, let’s see why you need to analyze such data at all.

Why do you need to monitor and analyze website traffic?

Why is it important to know attendance statistics? There are at least four reasons:

  • To understand what percentage of visitors is your target audience. If it is small, this is a good reason to rethink your SEO strategy and advertising campaign. Perhaps you are attracting the wrong target audience, directing funds in the wrong direction.
  • To find out which traffic sources are generating the most visitors and conversions. This allows you to use the maximum of forces and means in the most effective directions, not to spend the budget where it does not give proper results.
  • To understand how much time users spend on the site, whether it is convenient for them, whether it is easy enough to understand. Only then can you determine whether there is a need to change the structure and content, work on UX and UI.
  • To understand where to move on, because the resource must develop, attract more audience, make a profit.

Visitor statistics is one of the key components of the effective promotion of any website. Without it, you will simply move blindly, not understanding how your actions and investments generally justify themselves. And this is the road to nowhere. Analyze statistics, draw appropriate conclusions and act!

Key Attendance Statistics

There are eleven key indicators:

  • Sessions — the total number of visits to a web resource for a certain period of time. A session is considered ended when the user leaves the site or does not perform any actions on the page for more than 30 minutes. Please note: the number of sessions is not equal to the number of visitors. One user can visit the resource two or more times.
  • Browsing depth is the number of pages visited in one session. This allows you to assess the extent to which the site is interesting and relevant for the target audience, how intuitive and easy to navigate it is.
  • Time on the site — the duration of the user’s presence on the site and his activity. That is, the time is fixed taking into account the actions of a person on the site, and not just when he keeps an open tab in the browser.
  • The number of unique users is the number of visitors to a web resource for a certain period. It will always be less than the number of sessions. Remember this.
  • Bounce rate is the percentage of site visitors who leave the site in less than 15 seconds. The lower the bounce rate, the better for site ranking.
  • Traffic sources are channels that attract the main traffic: search results, social networks, targeted or contextual advertising, etc.
  • Devices is an indicator that shows how many visitors to your web resource use personal computers, tablets and smartphones. This is important information for further optimization.
  • Site positions — data about the positions of a web resource in the search results for relevant key queries.
  • CTR — the ratio of the number of page impressions in organic SERPs and the number of clicks on the results of SERPs. The higher the CTR, the better.
  • Click-through rate of elements is an indicator that demonstrates the activity of interactions of site visitors with various page elements. It allows you to understand which elements users interact with most often, and which remain without their attention.
  • The scroll map is an auxiliary indicator for studying the depth of the site’s browsing. Relevant for long pages that have to be scrolled to study all the necessary information.

How to find out the statistics of visits to your site?

So, we figured out what site visit statistics are, what data it includes. Now the next question is how to recognize it? Fortunately, there is no need to reinvent the wheel for this. The developers have already taken care of everything. You just need to choose the most suitable tool.

Google Analytics

A proprietary service from Google Corporation, through which you can conduct a comprehensive analysis of site traffic. Google Analytics allows you to evaluate data at the current moment and view trends in its changes. You can also determine traffic sources, the main parameters of the target audience, find out the most popular site pages and conversion rates from them.

One of the main advantages of Google Analytics is that the service is completely free and relatively easy to learn. You only need a Google account to use it.

Google Search Console

Another popular web service from Google, which allows not only to analyze traffic, but also to study problems on the site along with recommendations for their elimination. It also helps to analyze a web resource in terms of SEO in order to promote it more effectively.

Plerdy

A very functional platform that allows you to track many key site indicators. Plerdy tools: click map, SEO Checker, video sessions, goal tracking, PopUP forms, sales performance, conversion funnel, NPS index, etc.

The basic functionality of Plerdy is available for free, but it is quite limited compared to paid plans. The cost of All-in-one tariffs is from $23 per month. A free demo is available for 14 days.

SE Ranking

A multi-tasking service with which you can track the number of site visits, analyze changes and trends, perform SEO checks of pages, collect keywords, use a report builder, etc.

If you only need a service for traffic analysis, then the SE Ranking functionality may seem a bit redundant. If you need a complex tool that will close several work tasks at once, we recommend taking a closer look. The cost of a paid subscription is from $7 per month.

SEMrush

The service allows you to analyze the dynamics of the site by visitors, visits, browsing depth and other parameters. With its help, you can compare several domains in terms of traffic volume, engagement level, distribution of target audience from desktop and mobile devices.

The platform offers over 50 useful tools and reports. The service is conditionally free (with limited functionality). Paid plans start at $119.95 per month.

Services for checking website traffic

If the listed sites seem too complicated for you, and their functionality is overloaded, we can recommend several simpler alternatives:

  • RDS Bar;
  • Alex;
  • similarweb;
  • PR-CY.

They cannot boast the same extensive feature set. If you do not need it, we advise you to take a closer look at them. Perhaps there is something on the list that suits you.

Website traffic counters

A website hit counter is a relatively simple tool that integrates into a website and tracks visitors, views, sessions. Among the popular and easy-to-use hit counters, we can name the following:

  • AWStats is another free counter, but a little more complex. It can not only track the number of visits and unique visitors, but also analyze user activity on individual pages. Also in AWStats there is a keyword count and information about the number of site views by search robots;
  • Stuffed Tracker is also a free service that provides a comprehensive report on website traffic. Can track cookies and IP addresses, which allows it to generate more accurate and visual statistics;
  • Bigmir is a good service, but it is used only in Ukraine. Provides global site statistics on audience reach and engagement from different regions.

In addition to the listed counters, we advise you to take a closer look at StatCounter, Easy Counter and AngelFish.

Comparison of key performance indicators with the previous period

As mentioned above, the «here and now» statistics are of little value. It is important to be aware of changes in dynamics. To analyze them, fortunately, is not so difficult. Let’s take a quick look at Google Analytics examples.

Google Analytics

In a standard report, you need to go to the «Time interval» block and configure the display of the graph for a given time. Just select the date range for which you need data.

How to check the statistics of visits to someone else's site

First, let’s figure out why you even need data about visits to someone else’s site. In what situations should they be studied:

  • You are planning to advertise on a third-party resource and want to make sure that it is actually seen, because your income directly depends on the traffic to this resource.
  • You want to buy a ready site. If he has zero traffic now, he will have to spend a lot of money and a lot of time on optimization and promotion.
  • You analyze competitors. Knowing their attendance figures is useful. Therefore, when conducting an SEO audit, this moment should also be taken into account.

Also, the analysis of competitors’ website traffic helps to evaluate the average performance in a niche, the maximum traffic of companies from organic issuance, track the impact of seasonality on traffic, as well as the impact of the marketing tools used on these indicators. Simply put, you can learn from the mistakes of others, use someone else’s successful experience to your advantage.

How to analyze the statistics of visits to a competitor's website?

Now let’s look at the tools with which you can see the statistics of a competitor’s website. Let’s make a reservation right away that in most cases you will not receive the same comprehensive information as for your web resource. However, you can study the basic data without problems.

The first and easiest way is to look at the counters on the site itself, if any. Many owners of web resources place them on the main page. By clicking on such a counter, you can get quite comprehensive information about the statistics of visits.

If this is not enough, it makes sense to use auxiliary tools:

  • Similarweb is an English-language platform with which you can track statistics of a third-party site (number of visits, average session duration, bounce rate, etc.). The data is provided with a small error, so the service is worthy of attention. A free 7-day period is available;
  • Netpeak Checker is a program that allows you to analyze and compare the traffic of different resources. It is very convenient when you need to study several competitors at once or sites where you plan to place ads. The process is maximally automated, saving you from unnecessary routine actions. A free version of the program with limited functionality is available;
  • Alexa is a service where you can see the traffic of someone else’s site, find out traffic data, user geolocation, as well as see session duration statistics and bounce rate. Alexa has a free trial period, after which you will need to sign up for a paid subscription;
  • Serpstat is a useful platform that supports batch analysis of domains. In this regard, the service is similar to Netpeak Checker. To use all the functionality of Serpstat, you will have to subscribe to a paid subscription;
  • Ahrefs is a functional paid platform for SEO analysis and studying the site’s link profile. Ahrefs also allows you to track visit statistics, but this is not its main function.

We have listed far from all services for analyzing site traffic. There are many, but none will give 100% accurate statistics. It is available only when you have access to the site itself, which in the case of third-party resources is excluded in most situations.

Conclusions

Traffic is one of the key performance indicators of any website. Every serious marketer is simply obliged to analyze this data in his work. Today, there are many tools with which you can quickly and without special skills check the statistics of a site (both your own and someone else’s). And many of them are completely free.

If you have your own site, but for some reason you do not track its traffic indicators, we strongly recommend that you work in this direction.

FAQ

What is website traffic statistics?

This is the number of unique users of the web resource and session statistics. It is important to distinguish between these two metrics because one visitor can initiate multiple sessions. Therefore, the number of unique users will always be less than the number of transitions and sessions.

How to find out the number of site visitors?

This data can be obtained from Google Analytics, as well as using services such as Search Console, Plerdy, SE Ranking, SEMrush, etc. They have their advantages and disadvantages when compared to solutions from Google. But they still deserve your attention.

How to check website traffic for free?

Free analysis can be carried out using the Google Analytics service. There are also alternative tools from third-party developers, but they are mostly paid. For starters, we recommend limiting yourself to free platforms.

How to find out the traffic of a competitor's website?

There are two options: study the counters directly on the web resource or use third-party analysis services (Similarweb, Netpeak Checker, Alexa). But keep in mind that you won’t be able to get the same comprehensive information as for your site.

                 
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