Back when the internet was new, the only thing you needed to bring in traffic was content relevant to your audience’s interests. Nowadays, while content still reigns as king, it’s supported by a deeper understanding of how search engines work. If your website isn’t on the first page of Google, a corpse would be easier to find.
No one bothers checking page 2 of Google results. So, if you want to be seen, you need to know the Google website traffic stats of your competitors. How can you check website traffic and read Google Analytics to see your competitors’ performance? Here’s what you need to know.
What Are the Benefits of Analyzing Google Website Traffic?
As we mentioned above, you could hide a dead body on the second page of Google search results and no one would blink an eye. However, understanding Google website traffic doesn’t just boost your own pure visibility. It provides several other benefits, including:
Understanding What Content Drives Users
If you check website traffic for a competitor, you can see which of their pages and posts brought in the most traffic. This can give you better insight into the type of content you need to create for your own website. Plus, you can see what incentives or deals your competitors offered around certain times. Then, you can schedule your own accordingly.
Finding Keywords Your Competitors Rank for in Google
A website traffic checker often also includes keyword research tools. This makes it easier for you to see which keywords your competitors rank for in Google. That can, in turn, give you a chance to re-evaluate your current keyword strategy and use the words that worked for them.
Learning Which Channels Bring the Most Traffic
Websites get traffic from about 8 different channels, including email listings, referrals, paid searches, and social media posts. By learning which channels brought the most visitors to their sites, you can adjust your content marketing to reach those channels. That way, instead of banging your head against a wall of organic searches, you can diversify your channels effectively.
What Stats Can Indicate a Website’s Success?
When you look at Google Analytics or any other traffic checker, you’re going to be confronted with a lot of different numbers and abbreviations. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, it can be hard to see which stats indicate a website’s success or failure. Some of the stats you should look for on these pages include:
It’s All About the Sessions
In SEO, it’s all about the sessions. One “session” means one completed website visit from a user. These sessions conclude after 30 minutes of inactivity, or after the user leaves the site. So, the more sessions you have, the more users your promotions attract.
However, when you look at sessions, it’s important to also consider the session length and depth. The longer each user’s session, the higher the rankings on Google. The more pages the user visits when in a session, the more convenient and useful your website is as a resource.
Number of Users
The number of users shows the number of unique visitors to the website. As such, the number of sessions will often outweigh the number of actual unique users. Make sure you keep that in mind before panicking about your user numbers.
Clicks, Click-Through, and Bounce Rates
By analyzing the number of clicks on your website or a competitor’s, you can see which elements users interacted with the most. This can, in turn, improve your session duration and click-through rate while reducing your bounce rate.
A high bounce rate indicates user dissatisfaction with your site, as it didn’t have what they needed within 15 seconds of loading. It could also indicate that you lacked attention-grabbing content to draw users in and maintain their attention.
Diverse Channels and Devices
When you check website traffic, you should also bear in mind the channels and devices that bring users there. Are they visiting the site on their phones or computers? From email links or organic search results?
Does your competitor have much higher numbers of mobile device users than you? If so, it could be an indication that it’s time to re-evaluate your website’s mobile design.
Understanding How to Check Website Traffic
Now you understand why it’s important to research Google website traffic. You also know what stats can indicate a website’s success and pain points. So, let’s dive into more specifics.
Figuring out how to check website traffic can be difficult, especially if you don’t have much funding to allocate to your SEO efforts at the start. The following tools are some of the best available traffic checkers on the market now.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that lets you analyze your site’s traffic. In order to use it, all you need to do is add your website to the search console. Then, you’ll get data regarding impressions, clicks, your click-through rate, and the average position of your usual keywords.
SEMRush
SEMRush is by far the best traffic checker currently available and offers the most complete overview of your competitor’s overall traffic. You can even use this website traffic checker for free courtesy of The HOTH. This can then help you gauge your competitor’s monthly traffic, most-ranked keywords, traffic over time, and many other crucial stats.
You can even analyze your competitors’ traffic stats in bulk, which is an incredible time-saving measure for your SEO strategy.
Let’s Review the Basics
Understanding Google website traffic, both for your own site and your competitors’, is crucial to increasing your search rankings on Google. It can help you understand where and why your competition succeeds and you lag behind in internet search results. Plus, there are a variety of paid and free traffic checker sites that can give you the information and results you need, no matter your budget.
Whatever tools you use, we hope the above guide helped you understand the importance of and metrics behind Google website traffic. If you want to read more content about SEO, check out the SEO section of our blog for more!
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