Tracking competitiors' traffic

Hey blackhatters,

Lately I've been quite into competitors reseach, so I was wondering if any of you could recommend (and share your thoughts about) any tools that track and analyze competitors' traffic (amount, destribution, etc). Also, how usefull and how accurate do you find that data?

Thnx in advance!

Semrush is an absolute must in this regards. I LOVE it! It's not 100% accurate - they are only extrapolating data, but it gives you some really great info to take back and show a client. Remember that clients HATE to see competitors doing better than they are, so show them a traffic report of a competitor who has 10x the amount of traffic and then ask for more money to replicate their success!

Also great for keyword ideas.

Hi @DKolen,
We've been using ahrefs to check not only on the competitor's traffic but also organic keywords, social data, and PPC data. Our clients used those information to understand what has been working in their market and use it to develop their own marketing strategy.

I have yet to find a tool that is vaguely accurate. They might be good for client reporting, but as analytical tools, they suck.

The reason is that they estimate traffic based on search volume and position for keywords they can see your site ranks for. However:

• they don't pick up all the keywords a site ranks for
• search volume is not accurate
• search position changes based on many factors (e.g. local, personalised etc)

They work even less well for small sites than large sites.