Website statistics is data about how many users have visited the resource. Its analysis allows you to evaluate the success of the website, determine the target audience, identify the most effective sources of traffic and much more. If you regularly monitor the dynamics of this indicator, you can easily detect possible problems and quickly take the necessary measures. In this article, Contenthub specialists will tell you about other reasons why it is important to monitor website traffic, as well as provide information about various tools for this analysis.

What is "website traffic"

It is an indicator that measures the number of users who have come to a web resource over a certain period of time. It is an important tool for assessing the effectiveness of the platform and understanding its popularity among users. Knowing this indicator helps you identify the key characteristics of the audience, understand how successful are marketing strategies and what sources bring the largest influx of people.

Analyzing site traffic in terms of traffic channels provides a deeper look at the sources through which users go to the resource. 

They can be as follows:

• organic - through entering the URL directly into the browser address bar;
• search - through search engines;
• linking - via links from other sites;
• social - from social media platforms.

Analysis of site traffic by channel allows you to determine which marketing strategies should be improved to attract more target audience, and how to optimize interaction with different sources of traffic.

How to know the statistics of your website

Tracking statistics is necessary to:

• evaluating effectiveness - allows you to determine how successful you are at attracting and retaining readers;
• audience understanding - provides information on geography, interests and behavior;
• optimizing marketing - helps you identify the most effective traffic channels and advertising campaigns;
• user experience improvement - analyzing user behavior helps in interface and content optimization.

Tracking site visit statistics is an integral part of effective web presence management and ensures continuous improvement of the online resource.

There are all sorts of web analytics tools available to monitor this metric. One of the most popular is Google Analytics. It provides extensive data about the flow of visitors, their behavior, traffic sources and conversions. To use it, the owner of a web-site should register with Google Analytics, add a tracking code to his resource, and can then monitor a variety of indicators and receive detailed reports.

1. Google Analytics

If you need complete and detailed statistics on website traffic, Google Analytics is one of the key tools to get it. This free (if you don`t need advanced functionality) web analytics tool provides the maximum amount of useful information.

In particular:

• current traffic and its dynamics in certain time intervals;
• distribution of site traffic across different channels, identifying the most effective and those where it is almost absent;
• analyzing the main characteristics of the audience, including location, age and gender of visitors;
• reader behavior: most viewed pages, depth of browsing, time spent on the website and other parameters.

Google Analytics provides an extensive set of reports and analytics to evaluate website performance. These reports cover different aspects of how visitors interact with your content. In addition, Google Analytics integrates with other Google products to enrich its functionality (Ads, Data Studio, Search Console).

Checking website traffic for free with Google Analytics is a great option, especially if you are looking for a free, functional and easy to understand tool. It is a great alternative to many other services, including paid ones.

2. Google Search Console

If you are looking for a way to find out the traffic to your website, take a look at Google Search Console. This is a series of tools for evaluating the ranking of a web resource in Google. All you need to do to work with them is to add a web resource and confirm the rights to use it. You can do this in several ways: through Domain, URL prefix, etc. In the first case, confirmation is done through the creation of a new record in the DNS settings. In the second case, you can confirm ownership through an HTML file, by adding a special meta tag to the code of the homepage or a TXT record in the DNS domain. Obtaining confirmation is also available through Google services such as Tag Manager and Analytics.

Google Search Console features:

• tracking of web-site indexing by Google;
• identifying problems in the functioning;
• checking external links;
• evaluation of the correctness of such fragments as events, how-to, faq, etc. in Google`s output.

To monitor the location of the resource in the search results, the Search Results section is widely used. 

Here you can check the following parameters:

• the total number of displays in the search results;
• the number of clicks received from the search results;
• the average position of the website in the search results for a certain period;
• average CTR, which is the percentage of displays that resulted in a visit.

Here is an example of a report on one of the website pages, where the average position in the search results for the last three months was 9.3, which, in general, can be considered a good result. 

Google Search Console allows you to create similar reports for:

• individual search queries;
• search regions;
• different device types (desktop, smartphone, tablet);
• various time intervals.

This information is fundamental to optimize and improve the position of the web-site in the search engine, as well as to attract organic traffic.

How to know the traffic of a competitor`s site

There are several ways to check the attendance of the site. The most effective of them is the use of special tools.

Information that can be obtained with the help of special services:

• tracking the sources of visitor inflow and their interaction with the web resource;
• the real scale of the customer base in a particular niche;
• the impact of seasonal fluctuations on the industry;
• opportunities to expand the audience and functionality of your web-resource;
• expediency of advertising placement;
• the reasonableness of purchasing a ready-made solution and its domain to attract customers.

1. Similarweb

It is an online tool with an English-language interface that can be used to obtain a vast amount of data about the mobile and desktop versions of a website.

Namely:

• online website traffic;
• average session duration;
• number of pages viewed per session;
• bounce rate;
• information on the geographic distribution of traffic by country in percentage terms, as well as trends in changes and the type of device (mobile or desktop) for which the data is provided;
• information about the sources of inflow and their percentage ratio;
• details of referral sites from which the most conversions take place.

SImilarweb allows you to find out your website traffic and provides tips on how to develop it if the data is insufficient. 

These recommendations include:

1. Data on the most popular search queries and the ratio of paid and free traffic by query.
2. The number of conversions from social networks and their percentage ratio for each of them.
3. Information about contextual advertising, including the percentage of clicks on ads, and the websites where advertising is most effective.
4. Ratio of reader inflows from advertising platforms.
5. Information about audience interests by category and other websites visited by users.

In addition, Similarweb allows you to check the site traffic of competitors and similar resources, as well as compare and analyze various parameters. To get more extensive materials, you need to purchase the RRO-version of the service. However, even the Trial-version is enough to compare the data on transitions to your and other people`s resources. 

Similarweb collects data using several methods, including processing and analyzing its own data (by plugin), using data from other extensions (purchased from other sources), cooperating with providers and obtaining information from them, as well as using search robots. The service operates on a paid subscription basis, but also has a trial period.

2. Ahrefs

Another way to check website traffic is to use the Ahrefs SEO promotion platform. 

Its main functions include:

• backlink analysis - assessing the quality and quantity of external links to a website;
• keyword research - identifying the most relevant keywords for content optimization;
• tracking positioning in the results - monitoring changes in keyword rankings;
• competitor content evaluation - studying strategies and successful methods of competing web resources;
• audience reach monitoring - checking click-throughs, reviews and social signals.

3. Serpstat

You can also use Serpstat to check website traffic. It is a web analytics service and SEO tool that has a wide range of functionality.

We suggest familiarizing yourself with some of its features:

• SEO-analysis. You can also track information about resource positions in search results, backlinks, keywords, and competitors.
• Keyword research. You can determine effective keywords for your content here, analyzing their popularity, complexity and other parameters.
• Competitor monitoring. The service provides information about competitors, their strategies, keywords and location in search results.
• Website traffic statistics. With Serpstat, you can see data on the number of clicks, unique visitors, pages viewed per session and other metrics.
• Search for content ideas. The service suggests ideas for content based on research of popular queries and topics in your niche.
• Position tracking. With Serpstat, you can monitor changes in your website`s keyword positions in search engines.

Serpstat provides various paid plans, depending on the functionality and amount of usage.

4. Semrush

SEMrush is a popular marketing and SEO optimization service that provides a wide range of features to improve web projects, including checking websites for traffic.

Its most important aspects:

• Keyword research. SEMrush allows you to analyze popular keys, evaluate their popularity and competitiveness. 
• Competitors. The service makes it possible to study competitors` strategies, identify their keywords, analyze their ads in search engines and identify sources of Internet traffic.
• SEO audit. SEMrush conducts a website audit, identifying technical problems that may affect ranking in search results.
• Traffic analysis. The service allows you to find out website traffic, get information about unique guests, page views, and other traffic indicators for web resources.
• Position tracking. The service monitors the positions of your pages in search results over time, which allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
• Domain comparison. SEMrush has functionality for comparing the performance of different domains.
• Social media. Owners receive reports on social media activity, including research on content popularity and audience engagement.

5. RDS Bar

RDS Bar is a well-known SEO plugin compatible with Chrome, Firefox and Opera browsers. It provides analysis of various SEO parameters such as domain age, page indexing and backlinks. It is important to note that the plugin also allows you to check a site`s traffic by providing data for the last 24 hours. While this information doesn`t provide a complete view of the situation, it is great for a quick assessment. It is worth saying that you can get an accurate summary of transitions only if an open counter is installed on the resource being examined.

6. PR-CY

PR-CY is an online service for comprehensive analysis of a web resource and SEO audit. It is a counter of site visits for a certain period, which tracks changes in Internet traffic, checks SEO-optimization, website visibility, etc. Information about the influx of readers is displayed based on information from open counters, such as LiveInternet. In case of their absence, data from Alexa is used.

PR-CY provides extensive opportunities for comprehensive website analysis. Users can check competitors` resources, identify keys, as well as determine the position of their website in search engines. A free plan is present, and paid options are available at reasonable prices.

Nevertheless, there are some disadvantages. The data of the online website traffic checker are provided approximate due to a special calculation formula, and the free plan is limited in functionality. There are also no details about the audience, including demographics and interests, and there is no way to view traffic trends, etc.