How to Analyze and Compare Competitor Website Traffic in 2026

Do you want to grow your business with competitive traffic analysis? You are in the right place.

In this article, you will learn how to analyze your competitors’ website traffic, why this method works, and which tools give you the most accurate data.

What is Competitor Traffic Analysis?

Competitive traffic analysis is the process of analyzing your competitors’ website traffic and using the information you get to improve your website’s performance.

With the right tools, you can track various metrics, trends, and behavioral patterns.

For example, here’s a high-level report comparing traffic-related metrics to our competitors from Semrush’s Traffic & Market Toolkit:

How To Analyze Your Competitors Website Traffic

You can analyze your competitors’ traffic by logging into their traffic sources, top pages, keywords, and more.

Below, we will show you several ways to collect information about competitor sites’ traffic and user behavior.

Measure Competitor Website Traffic

Starting with a broad view of your competitors’ website traffic (such as how many visits each person receives) helps lay the foundation for more in-depth research later on.

To get started, open the Traffic Statistics dashboard and follow our detailed instructions to get started. When you’re done, you’ll get estimates of each site’s traffic and engagement metrics, including how each has increased or decreased over time.

Here’s a quick overview of what each metric means:

• Visiting: Estimated total number of visits to the website during the specified month
• Unique Guests: Average total unique visitors to the website during the specified month
• Buy Conversions: Percentage of website sessions that ended in a purchase
• Pages / Visit: The average number of pages viewed each time on a website
• Average. Visit Duration: Average amount of time visitors spend on the website
• Bounce Rate: Percentage of sessions that end after one page

Review traffic by channel

Reviewing your competitors’ traffic by channel reveals key opportunities and gaps in your marketing strategy.

For example, if a competitor gets 60% of their traffic from organic search but only 8% from social media, that suggests that SEO can be a good investment and that you should pay close attention to your site.

You can view traffic gains by channel in Semrush’s Traffic Analytics dashboard.

Compare website traffic against customer experience metrics

Comparing website traffic against metrics like pages per visit, average visit duration, and bounce rate gives a full picture of what’s happening on your competitors’ sites.

Open the Daily Trends dashboard to see how your competitor’s user experience metrics compare to yours.

Studying your competitor’s user experience metrics gives you clues about whether those users are getting what they’re looking for. For example:

• High bounce rates can mean that visitors aren’t finding what they need on your competitors’ sites. Review their content to identify the gaps you can best fill.
• High pages per visit means that your competitors’ content is engaging. Analyze what keeps users clicking through to their sites—whether it’s intuitive navigation, links to useful resources, or overall content.
• A higher visit duration may mean that users are more engaged with your competitors’ content. Read their best performing pages to understand what resonates with visitors.

Track Where Users Go After Leaving Competitors’ Sites

Knowing where users go after visiting a competitor’s site helps you find potential partnerships and advertising opportunities.

Let’s say you notice that 25% of your competitor’s traffic is going to xyz.com. You may want to consider placing sponsored content on that site to get in front of people who are considering your competitors.

To see where users are going, go to the Traffic Analytics dashboard and scroll down to view the “Traffic Journey” chart—it shows where users are coming from and where they’re going after visiting competitor sites.

Check the Pages, Subdomains, and Subfolders visited by users

Knowing a competitor’s site’s top pages, subdomains, and subfolders reveals what content and topics drive the most traffic to help you target content that is likely to perform well on your website.

Log in to the Top Pages dashboard and select which site you’d like to view from the drop-down menu. You will see a report with detailed data about the most visited web pages of the selected domain.

Click on the page in the table for more information, such as what traffic is and which sources send the most traffic.

Go to Subfolders and Subdomains in the dashboard to see your competitors’ top subfolders and domains by traffic and channel. Like this:

Use the information you see in the Subdomains and Subfolders dashboard as inspiration for good site layouts.

Find Out Which Keywords Drive Traffic

Finding out which keywords are driving traffic from your competitors reveals keyword opportunities that can improve your search performance.

To see your competitor’s keywords, enter a competitor’s domain into Semrush’s Organic Rankings tool and navigate to “Positions“tab.

You’ll see a complete list of your competitors’ keywords, as well as:

• Search volume for each keyword
• The current position is competing for each keyword
• Estimated traffic you drive for each keyword
• Keyword difficulty scores
• SERP includes the feature your competitor has taken

Sort by “traffic %” to see which keywords are driving the most visitors to competing sites and note any that are relevant to you. These are the keywords you should be targeting.

Compare Your Competitor’s Traffic to Yours

Comparing how your competitors’ traffic overlaps with yours reveals which competitors are the biggest threat.

The Audience Overlap Dashboard shows the size of your competitors’ audiences. And the extent to which their audience overlaps with each other and with you.

In the picture below, the biggest circle is for Nike, which shows that they have a very large audience. They share a large overlap with Adidas, meaning that 2.8M people who visited the Nike website also visited the Adidas website.

If you and one or more competitors have high overlap, then you are competing directly with the same customers and should focus on competitive differentiation.

Low overlap between your audience and your competitors’ audiences suggests untapped audience segments your competitors haven’t reached—study their positioning and channels for ideas on how to expand into those markets.

Track Competitors’ Web Traffic by Location

Tracking competitor web traffic at the country level can help you identify new markets to enter.

The Countries Dashboard displays information about audiences around the world. To get a general picture of a competitor’s web traffic, start by analyzing the “Traffic Map.”

Also, check out the “Traffic Trend” graph to understand how traffic varies in different countries over time.

For example, you may notice that the traffic of competitors from a certain country is increasing. If so, it would be a good idea to do some more research on this particular market.

And the table below “Traffic by Country” shows more detailed data for specific areas. Each entry has a drop-down tab that shows the top web pages in that country to help you see which pages and topics are popular.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I Find My Competitor’s SEO Keywords?

You can find your competitor’s keywords by using competitive research tools like Semrush’s Organic Rankings tool. Enter their site to see a list of complete keywords, search volumes, rank positions, and traffic estimates for the keyword.

What’s the Best Way to Tell How Much Traffic a Website is Getting?

The best way to tell how much traffic a website is getting is to use tools like Google Analytics 4 (if you are looking at your site traffic) or third party tools by looking at your site and competitor sites.

Can I Check My Competitor’s Traffic For Free?

Yes, you can check competitor traffic for free with tools like these:

• Similar Web Browser Extension (Free): Highlights traffic metrics, basic engagement metrics, and top keywords. It’s best to do a quick check while browsing competitor sites.
• Ubersuggest Website Traffic Monitor (Free): Gives you one free search per day with basic traffic metrics and top SEO keywords. This tool is perfect for occasional research on a tight budget.
• SpyFu Top Pages (Free):Displays the top six pages of the site. It is helpful in identifying high SEO opportunities.
• Traffic & Market Toolkit (Free trial): It shows you traffic by channel, engagement metrics, audience overlap, traffic journey map, top pages, and more. This option is suitable for those who want full competitive intelligence.