When you analyze a competitor’s traffic you can see:

• Their total number of visitors and how their traffic changes over time
• The keywords driving the most traffic
• Their top-performing pages
• The channels their visitors come from

Website traffic checkers are the tools that give you the ability to analyze the traffic of any website around the world.

These traffic checkers use a variety of sources to collect data including web crawlers, ISPs, and browser extensions among others.

A lot of data is needed to give an accurate picture of a website’s performance which is why you may find that smaller sites do not show up when you search for them in a traffic checker.

But for websites with a steady amount of traffic, site checker tools can prove an essential asset for planning and growing your business.

Important Website Traffic Metrics to Analyze

So what should you look for when analyzing a website’s traffic?

There are several important metrics that give great insight into a website’s performance and the strategies the business is using.

Important website traffic metrics to analyze include:

• Unique visitors: The number of people who visited a website at least once in a given period.
• Pageviews: The total number of pages viewed on a website within a given period.
• Organic search traffic: The number of people who arrived at a website from a search through a search engine.
• Average visit duration: The average amount of time each visitor spends on a website.
• Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors that leave a website without viewing a second page.
• Top traffic sources: The online channels that drive the most visitors to the site.

Top 8 Free Website Traffic Checker Tools

These are the best tools you can use to check website traffic for any site for free.

1. SEMRush
2. Alexa
3. Sitechecker Pro
4. SimilarWeb
5. SerpStat
6. SERanking
7. UberSuggest
8. WebCEO

1. SEMRush

SEMRush is a comprehensive suite of marketing solutions for online businesses.

The platform offers a robust set of tools for everything from backlink analysis and content planning to SEO audits and ranking tracking.

One such tool is their Traffic Analytics solution which can be used to check competitor website traffic.

SEMRush has both paid and free versions. With the free version of SEMRush’s Traffic Analytics, you are able to view up to 10 traffic overview reports a day.

The overview tab will provide important metrics for the website you are analyzing including:

• Total visits
• Unique visitors
• Pages per visit
• Average visit duration
• Bounce rate

There is a feature called Bulk Traffic Analysis that enables you to check the traffic for multiple websites at once. You can add up to 200 websites to compile data into a single report which can then be exported to .csv.

You can gain even more insights from additional traffic reports including:

• Audience Insights: See which websites the users of a competitor’s site also visit to gain a better understanding of their audience.
• Traffic Journey: Discover how competitors gain their website visitors and see who their top referring sites are. You can also see the top destinations visitors progress after leaving the competitor’s website.
• Top Pages: Gain insights into what is working best for a website with a report of its top-performing pages. You can also see which products or services the business is promoting and the channels it is using for promotions.
• Geo Distribution: See the geographic locations driving the majority of a website’s traffic and analyze how user behavior varies between countries.

With the free version of SEMRush, you are only able to see a sample of the data in the report. For example, in the Top Pages tab, you will only be able to see the first 10 results for the website you are analyzing.

You’ll get started by providing your email, phone number, and password to create an account. Next, you’ll provide your billing information which will be used to set up your recurring payments. You won’t be charged when you submit the information and your trial will begin.

For 14 days you’ll have access to SEMRush’s full suite of 45 marketing tools to help grow your business. If you don’t wish to continue your plan once the trial has ended you can simply cancel your plan at any time during the 14-day period.

Check Website Traffic with SEMRush

2. Alexa

Alexa is an SEO and competitive analysis solution designed to help businesses better understand their target audience and plan their marketing strategies.

Alexa has a site checker that is free for anyone to use without signing up. With this tool, you can gain valuable insights into the performance of any website. Here are some of the useful reports you can view:

• Keyword Opportunities: See the top ranking keywords for the website as well as keyword gaps where the website is not ranking but competitors are. There is also a list of keywords the site could easily rank for given its position in the market.
• Competitive Analysis: See how a website’s traffic, ranking keywords, and backlinks compare to its competitors. The competitive analysis also details the percentage of traffic from each channel for the website and its competitors along with the website’s top referring sites.
• Traffic Statistics: See the website’s Alexa Rank, a list that orders websites around the world based on popularity. You can also see a geographic breakdown of the website’s visitors as well as important metrics such as page views per visitor, average time on site, and bounce rate.
• Audience Insights: Understand a website’s audience better with a list of the topics they are most interested in and what keywords they use. You can also find overlaps between audiences by comparing which other websites they visit.

The free tool comes with the same reports included in its paid plans however some of the data is gated.

To create your account you’ll provide personal info including name, email,  job function, and industry.

Once your account is set up, you’ll add your billing information to process future payments. If you don’t want to continue beyond the trial, you can cancel the plan at any time.

Check Website Traffic With Alexa

3. Sitechecker

Sitechecker is an SEO solution with a variety of tools designed to help businesses improve their search performance.

The platform’s most prominent features are the Site Monitoring, Rank Tracker, and Backlink Tracker tools which are all part of its paid pricing plans.

It does however provide several free tools including its Traffic Checker which can be used to check the website traffic of any domain you provide.

To use the tool, simply visit Traffic Checker and type the name of the website you want to analyze.

After the results load, you will find plenty of useful insights to gauge the site’s performance and better understand its strategy.

Some of the helpful traffic reports include:

• Traffic overview: A graph showing the total volume of traffic over the past 6 months.
• Engagement: Important metrics for measuring site performance including overall visits per month, average visit duration, average page visits, and bounce rate.
• Traffic by countries: A breakdown of how much and what percentage of traffic comes from different countries.
• Traffic by sources: See how much traffic comes from each channel along with its percentage of total traffic.
• Top keywords: A list of the top five paid and organic keywords that lead visitors to the site.

Unlike some of the other solutions on this list, all the data from Sitechecker’s Traffic Checker is available for free. If however, you want to take advantage of the other tools offered by Sitechecker, plans start at $19 per month.

Check Website Traffic with SiteChecker

4. Similar Web

Similar Web is a traffic intelligence solution built to provide users a detailed analysis of any website’s visitors.

While some of the other companies on this list offer a range of SEO and marketing tools, Similar Web focuses singularly on website traffic analysis.

When you search for a website you’ll get insights broken into the following sections:

• Traffic Overview: The Traffic Overview shows the global, country, and category rank for the website’s traffic. It also provides basic engagement stats such as average visit duration, pages per visit, and bounce rate as well as a geographic breakdown of the website’s traffic along with its top traffic sources.
• Referrals: See which websites are sending traffic to the site as well as the most popular exit destination when visitors leave the site.
• Search: A detailed analysis of the website’s top-performing paid and organic keywords
• Social: See which social channels are driving the most traffic to the website.
• Display Advertising: A list of the publishers and ad networks the website uses for display advertising.
• Audience: Find out which other categories the website’s audience is interested in. Audience Insights also gives a list of the other websites most visited by the site’s users.
• Competitors: A list of the website’s close competitors and other similar sites.

Similar provides both free and paid versions of its platform.

If you want to get access to the full set of data, SimilarWeb offers plans centered around search, display, and affiliate marketing. There is also an enterprise plan fully equipped with all the features from each of these plans.

There is a free trial available but it is only for one day so I recommend that you plan how you want to test the solution in advance to be able to make the most of it.

Check Website Traffic With SimilarWeb

5. SerpStat

Serpstat is a suite of SEO solutions that has grown from a simple keyword research tool to now provide users a more comprehensive set of features to understand their website’s performance.

This includes backlink analysis, rank tracking, site auditing, and traffic checking for other websites.

The platform comes in both free and paid versions. Before you can use the free version of SerpStat you must create an account by providing an email address, phone number, and password.

After creating your account, you can use the search field on the homepage to enter any website and begin analyzing its traffic.

The results page will give many valuable insights including:

• Keywords: A list of the paid and SEO keywords that are driving traffic to the site. For the organic keywords, you can see how many queries are new, how many have been lost, and how many have improved their ranking.
• Visibility: An index that measures how often the website appears in search results for the keywords that it is ranking for. Higher visibility tends to indicate a higher level of traffic.
• Traffic Trend: A line graph showing the number of visitors the website receives per month. You can toggle the graph to show the year-to-date or all-time statistics.
• Keywords Trend: A line graph showing how users’ interest in the site’s ranking keywords has changed over time.
• Top Pages: A list of the pages driving the most traffic to the website from organic search results. For each page, you can see all the keywords for which that page ranks in the top 50 of Google’s search results.

The results provided by the free version are only a sample of the available data. The free version also does not allow for searching and filtering of the results.

Serpstat does not offer a free trial upon signing up for any of its plans.

That being said, the free version provides enough functionality for you to get a good feel for the solution before committing to a paid plan.

Check Website Traffic With SerpStat

6. SERanking

SERanking is an all-in-one SEO solution that allows users to research keywords, track rankings, and check the website traffic of sites around the world.

When you search for a website you’ll get a quick overview of the site’s total organic and paid traffic per month as well as the total number of keywords the site is ranking for.

Further down the results page, you will find line graphs showing the trend of total traffic and ranking keywords and how they are progressing over time.

SERanking also provides a list of all the website’s ranking keywords, its top-performing pages, and a breakdown of its main organic and paid competitors.

Like other solutions on this list, the amount of data you are able to view in the free version is limited.

For example, with the organic keywords and top page reports, only the top ten results are visible.

SERanking has three paid plans starting at $31 per month.

There is no credit card required for sign-up, as users only need to provide their name, email, phone number and password to get started.

Check Website Traffic with SERanking

7. UberSuggest

Ubersuggest is an SEO solution designed to help users perform keyword research, plan their content marketing, and check competitor website traffic.

The platform comes in both free and paid versions.

The free version of Ubersuggest allows you to search for three websites a day.

To see a website’s traffic simply type the domain into the search field on the Ubersuggest homepage.

The results page will show a quick overview of the website’s traffic including the total number of organic keywords the site ranks for as well as its total monthly organic traffic.

You will also find a list of the website’s top SEO pages and keywords.

There are other modules available including a historical view of the site’s traffic and keyword ranking data but these are only accessible with a paid plan.

There are three paid plans designed for individuals, small businesses, and agencies.

Prices start at $29 a month however there is the potential to save considerably by signing up for a lifetime plan with a one-time fee.

The trial grants full access to all Ubersugest’s features and a credit card is required at signup.

Check Website Traffic with UberSuggest

8. WebCEO

WebCEO is a robust suite of SEO tools designed for agencies and individuals looking to manage multiple projects in a single solution.

WebCEO is different from the other tools on this list in that it does not allow you to search for another website’s traffic data directly.

Instead, users create a project with their own website and then use the Competitor Metrics tool to analyze the traffic of related sites.

The platform pulls data from Alexa to provide traffic statistics from your website’s closest competitors.

This enables you to see these websites’ traffic over time, average ranking position, and shared keywords.

There isn’t a free version of the service and you will have to sign up for a plan to be able to use it.

A credit card is not required to sign up as you can simply provide your personal information and get started right away.

The free trial provides access to all 21 of WebCEO’s SEO tools.

Check Website Traffic with WebCEO

How to Analyze Your Website’s Traffic

The tools we have covered answer the question of how to check the website traffic of competitors. However, it is just as important to continually monitor your own website’s traffic.

There are several free solutions available to analyze your website’s traffic.

Google Analytics

One of the most popular among them is Google Analytics. The platform provides extensive reports that you can use to track traffic sources and user behavior on your site.

It allows you to see your visitors’ demographic characteristics like age and gender, where they live, and how they found your website.

To use Google Analytics, you will need to add a simple tracking code to your website. If you have a WordPress site there are several plugins available to simplify the process.

Google Analytics can integrate with some of the tools mentioned on this list allowing you to connect your website data to a more comprehensive solution to view alongside competitors.

Google Search Console

Another helpful free tool to analyze your website’s traffic is Google Search Console.

Google Search Console is essentially a hub for managing how the search engine treats your website. You can see which pages are included in the index and if Google’s crawlers have any errors when finding your site.

The platform provides a comprehensive list of the keywords your site ranks for and you can track performance over time to see how your rankings are changing and which pages are driving the most traffic to your website.