How To Track Competitors’ Website Traffic & Level Up Your SEO Strategy
1. Keep track of the numbers for your competitors.
Most of the best ways to do this are through Google’s webmaster tools, which allow you to easily compare how your site’s rankings stack up against competing sites. Another method is to use a tool like SimilarWeb, which allows you to visualize the performance of web pages relative to other sites using the latest versions of Google Search Console. (SimilarWeb offers free and paid plans.) SimilarWeb has a handy tool that allows you to compare URLs. You can even track your own site’s URL performance through the tool!
Here’s a screenshot of the top 5 most popular URLs in the US to see how my company fares:
Each of the five links has been tracked for weeks and months to see how it’s performed against competitors like Amazon, The New York Times, and even Twitter.
A). Find URLs with the most referral traffic (particularly the first 5 links) on other domains. Then set up Google Alerts to receive these referral traffic statistics.
B). Post back links to those traffic hot-links to your site.
Then search traffic typically takes time to build, so you want to follow this traffic with links back to your website.
C). Don’t spam links to your site. Expose a huge amount of the URL so that people will learn the link exists and click on it. Instead, offer valuable content, customer reviews, and testimonials as ways to get more referral traffic to your site.
D). Be patient and wait for the traffic to build on the initial links.
While you can use SimilarWeb to keep track of the hot-links, tracking the traffic from these hot-links is a much better way to get an idea of how they perform relative to your competitors.
(Tip: SimilarWeb’s Universal Traffic tracking is a fantastic tool if you’re only tracking traffic to your site. Simply install it in your web browser and you’ll be able to monitor all of your traffic, including what pages are driving traffic, and who’s visiting your site.)
E). Once traffic to your site starts building, share the URL publicly on Twitter. The key here is to be excited about the traffic you’re getting and use social media to create more traffic to your website.
Obviously, this approach only works if your competitors are providing traffic to your site – otherwise, you won’t be able to build a list of hot-links. Plus, these hot-links will slow down your organic sear
2. Use Social Analytics Tools
In addition to social media monitoring, you can also track traffic from other platforms such as content social, blogging, and Reddit.
These tools track the traffic of websites and their content. So they’re useful for people who want to understand the content you create, which will lead to the spread of your content.
Examples of tools you can use are SocialRank, Semrush, or SimilarWeb.
3. Monitor Google Analytics
Google Analytics is also a great tool to monitor your website traffic and learn how your competitors are gaining visitors.
Use the “Audience” and “Website” reports to see which keywords are driving traffic to your website. You can also compare traffic to your site to other sites in your niche to see the trends.
4. Monitor Traffic Sources
Now that you’ve found out which keywords your competition is using to drive traffic, it’s time to analyze the source of the traffic.
Do the keywords drive traffic directly to your site?
Do they drive traffic from links on external websites?
Do the keywords drive traffic from social media posts?
How many of the keywords link to your site?
Analyze all traffic sources to learn what each will bring your website.
5. Track Social Interactions on Your Website
Social interactions are a great indicator of your business’ popularity.
The more “shares, comments, follows, and comments” a post receives, the more popular it is.
Use the “Social Shares” and “Social Faves” reports to see which posts are shared the most.
They’re a good indicator of the content that performs best with your audience and allows your competitors to see what makes your content successful.
6. Measure Customer Journey
Now that you have a better idea of which keywords drive traffic to your website, it’s time to look at your website in the context of the entire customer journey.
Do visitors complete the entire customer journey within your website?
Are they coming to your site to find a specific product, or are they just interested in your website’s design?
To know what the end user is looking for, you need to measure the entire experience.
Use the “Click Through Rates” to determine how many people are engaged with your website and which pages drive the most traffic.
You can also analyze the time of your visitors to learn which pages generate the most engagement.
7. Look for a Relevant Domain
Another tool to help you understand your website’s potential is finding the right domain name.
Some are more popular than others, which means you could drive more traffic to your website if you have a more relevant domain.
If you’re starting from scratch, Google may help you find the perfect domain name. There are several sites to help you search for a domain name you’re passionate about.
8. Get More People to Your Website
The more people who come to your website, the more impact your content can have.
This will make it more likely that you will attract the people who will be interested in your content and give you leads who want to buy your product or service.
Knowing where your traffic is coming from is also an important aspect of your website’s success.
If you notice that most of your traffic comes from external links, you may want to work on optimizing those links.
Some organic search signals such as “meta description” and “clicks on reviews” are also helpful to boost your visibility in search.
9. Stay on Top of Platform Updates
One of the most important pieces of advice about your website’s content is to stay on top of platform updates.
Today, there are countless platforms, including Google, Facebook, and YouTube, that could dramatically affect your audience.
You can choose to ignore updates, but if you miss out on a critical update, it could have a lasting impact on your website and your business’s visibility.
10. Increase Your Privacy
One of the biggest mistakes many businesses make is protecting their content in ways that may come back to haunt them.
Using a free hosting service is an example of this:
Rather than purchasing a more expensive hosting package, a business might turn to free web hosting services, knowing they can set up a site quickly, be safe in the knowledge that they can modify it later, and do whatever they want to their site.
The issue with free hosting is that your content is wide open.
There’s no protection against theft or abuse.
By using a paid, professional host, you can take control of your website’s reputation and content and ensure that it stays confidential and authentic.
11. Stop Blogging about Your Business
Brief blogs about your own business are great to give an idea of your thought process on a particular topic.
But your blog should be more than that: it should contribute to your business’s overall goal.
If you’re just writing about what you love to do and the experiences you’ve had, you can think of this as a journal.
Or if you’re writing a case study or an article for your blog, you can add it to your professional work to add credibility and credibility to your website.
By making sure the blog you’re creating is focused on helping your customers, your content will offer something unique that your competitors may not have.
12. Decide If You Want a Blog or a Site
Before deciding whether you want a website or a blog, you need to make a choice about your website’s purpose.
If you plan to sell a product or a service, a blog would work better.
But if your goal is to entertain and inspire your audience, you’ll want to consider a website as the best option for your business.
If you have a product to sell, your website is a great way to educate and inform your customers.
13. Consider Selecting Your Domain Name for a Website
Choosing your domain name is important.
If you’re starting from scratch, you’ll have to look for a relevant domain name to include in your email address and landing pages.
But you also need to think about your site’s purpose.
If your goal is to promote your product, you’ll want to choose a title that contains your keyword, such as “Use of SEO to Sell High-Quality Personalized High-End Clothing Online.”
As you build your website, you can look for a number of good domain names to include in your landing pages, email addresses, and social media platforms.
14. Be Authentic with Your Content
Creating a website is a great way to showcase your business.
But don’t go too far with marketing – remember that you’re in business to help your customers and your website should be a reflection of you and your business.
If you see a statement you wouldn’t normally make in your normal business, ask yourself if it’s authentic for your website.
If not, you may need to adjust it for the website you’re building.
15. Utilize People to Clean Your Site
Your website is your office, and it should be as clean as possible.
Too many businesses allow images to clog up their site, making it difficult for visitors to see what they’re looking for.
You should definitely look for ways to cut down on clutter, but you should also look for people who can help your business avoid slow loading times and content that’s difficult to read.
Here are a few tools that can help you clean your website:
16. Utilize This Type of Content for Your Website
Your content shouldn’t be all text – you need to make your website useful for your visitors.
That means using videos, infographics, images, and interactive forms for the benefits they provide.
If you don’t think you can effectively use videos, infographics, and images in your content, consider creating some.
Otherwise, you’ll likely spend a lot of time on how you’ll incorporate them on your website and too much time on potential waste of your resources.
17. Create a Chatbot for a Website
You may have considered using a chatbot for your website.
But I’ve had clients who are thinking about starting a new website and have never gotten around to using chatbots because they think it’s too complex and doesn’t make sense to build on top of their website instead of trying to use it on their website.
You’ll find that some chatbots have all the features you’ll ever need, but you also have the option of building a website that works without having to do the legwork of making it work.
There are many free chatbot platforms that you can get started with.
18. Use Google AMP
Google AMP is the perfect way to boost your website and get more traffic to it.
Why?
It’s built on a new technology called webscale, which is really a major shift in how the web is accessed.
It can dramatically reduce your page load times and it makes it easier for people to navigate your website.
There are a few benefits to building with webscale:
Webpages are delivered as webpages instead of HTML. This means that if you have images, links, or other things that aren’t required for webpages to display, they won’t be displayed.
You can display videos without having to link to them on your website.
But if you’re creating a new website, using AMP is worth considering.
To help you decide, Google has a list of AMP sites that show how they can improve your webpages’ load time.
If you have the time and resources to implement AMP, it will definitely provide a large increase in your website’s conversions and traffic.
19. Watch Out for Incorrect and Non-Quality Websites
Did you know that around 2.5 billion people visited a webpage in 2016?
That’s one of the best studies I’ve seen.
But sadly, not every webpage is worth taking the time to read or view.
When I was building sites for a client, it was often frustrating to find websites with poor layouts or incorrect information.
Because the internet is a difficult medium to master, anyone can become a designer.
So I often see webpages that are poorly designed, poorly edited, and with poor content.
The people who design these websites often haven’t properly learned how to build websites.
They usually don’t even understand basic principles like typography or web design, or they are just starting out in web design.
If you find a website that’s poorly built, please help me fix it by commenting below.
20. Look for Responsive Forms
You can make your website a more engaging and useful experience by designing forms that respond to the device and the actions you want them to perform.
I’ve seen so many forms that make this mistake.
They simply aren’t responsive or don’t take the necessary steps to optimize for each screen size.
Also, if your form is not search-friendly, users will usually leave your website.
If you want to improve your website’s conversion rate, take the time to optimize it with responsive forms.
21. Keep Page Positioning in Mind
You’ve spent a lot of time making sure your page is organized, or unorganized, with the information that you want to share.
But if you don’t have your page position in mind, it can make it difficult to understand where to begin and which section to navigate.
First, decide how important your information is.
Then determine where it should appear on the page and use an accordion to organize it in an easy-to-access section.
22. Include Email Signup Form on Your Homepage
Does your website have a “Download Form” button?
If so, why don’t you include an email signup form as well?
Although it’s tempting to make your signup form the most prominent feature on your page, people often forget that they can easily submit their email address by just scrolling through your website.
This may sound counterintuitive, but it will increase conversions by hundreds of percent!
23. Don’t Skip From a High to a Low Page
Some websites automatically start from the home page.
But while the home page is always important, it’s important to not forget that there are some pages that are much higher than others.
If you’re trying to drive more traffic, it’s critical to consider the user’s “reading continuum.”
Users often skip from a high to a low page. This can lead to an overwhelmingly high-traffic high-conversion low-conversion high-conversion cycle.
It may take a little bit more work and strategy, but it will provide a much higher return on investment.
So instead of working your way up and down the page hierarchy, consider adding high-conversion content to every section of your website.
24. Display Higher-Quality Images on Your Homepage
If your page doesn’t have a “Image Download” button, most users will assume the image is too small and won’t view it.
But by adding higher-quality images to your homepage, you can provide users with a much better experience.
Also, don’t forget to include a Shutterstock link to ensure your images are high-quality and without watermarks.
25. Include Enhanced Snippets on Your Homepage
If your website isn’t converting as well as you’d like, there are a few things you can do to help improve the conversion rate.
One of the biggest conversion-boosting techniques is to put more emphasis on the most important part of your website: the call-to-action.
According to UserTesting.com, placing your call-to-action (CTA) on the home page is one of the best conversion boosting techniques for online businesses.
At the end of your homepage, you should have a few call-to-actions on it.
Most people will make the first click on the CTA to go to the next section of the website. But some of your most important conversions should come from the very first click.
You can include a CTAs at the top, middle, or bottom of your homepage. The important thing is to have at least one CTA in the top of your website.
26. Have a Sign-up Form on Your Page to Encourage Them to Enter Their Email Address
While you don’t necessarily have to offer an email address as part of your sign-up form, many users prefer to receive email notifications from companies before signing up.
If your site is already serving a high-quality signup form, consider adding an additional form for people who would like to receive email notifications about sales, promotions, and other marketing information.
Remember, people are often hesitant to give their email address out. Adding a form will provide your users with extra motivation to enter it.
27. Include an Easter Egg in Your Signup Form
Many users won’t click the “Submit” button if they can’t find it.
But it doesn’t have to be so hard.
An Easter egg can be added to your sign-up form to help users figure out where to find it.
For example, if your sign-up form is on the top, put the “button” on the first button bar. Or, if your sign-up form is on the right side, put the “button” on the left side.
Easter eggs can be especially effective if you set a rate limit on signups or limit the number of emails sent to your users.
28. Include a Video on Your Signup Form
One of the biggest reasons many users won’t sign up is because they are turned off by long, non-intimate videos.
Video may be seen as intimidating by many users, who may think it’s overwhelming and time-consuming to view.
But by putting a video on your sign-up form, you can help overcome this obstacle.
The video on your sign-up form can easily be changed and updated to suit the current theme or current message.
And by using a video, you can increase the number of users who sign up for your website.
29. Include a Privacy Policy in Your Signup Form
Giving your visitors the option to leave a review is a great way to increase the value of your brand.
But if your sign-up form doesn’t provide your visitors with the option to leave a review, you’ll be missing out on the value this exercise provides.
Fortunately, there’s a simple solution to this dilemma.
Just add a Privacy Policy to your sign-up form.
Users should have the ability to sign up for your email list, but you don’t want to give them their personal information, like their name and address, without their consent.
If you sign up users, you may share their email address with partners you work with, or offer other forms of advertising.
A privacy policy lets users know what information you will and won’t provide them with.
30. Include a Compliment in Your Sign-Up Form
In addition to a Privacy Policy, adding a comment to your sign-up form can help encourage users to sign up for your email list.
People love feedback. And, most of the time, they’ll be more inclined to provide feedback if they feel their experience with you was pleasant and they were happy with the service they received.
If your website provides an easy sign-up process and encourages them to leave a comment, you can help your website stand out from the competition.
Even better, you can turn the feedback you receive into valuable leads, and even make them into clients in the future.
Conclusion
Adding a sign-up form to your website is a great way to generate new leads and help build your email list.
To give you a few ideas on what to include on your sign-up form, here are a few examples:
All four of these sign-up forms give users a choice to leave a review, and one of them includes a “don’t miss” bonus.
Remember, you can even add a timer to your sign-up form to help users become more efficient.
The sign-up form can act as a marketing tool to help your website stand out in the crowd.
For example, my company creates email marketing tools. One of the things we focus on is adding great photography to the interface and making the sign-up process enjoyable for users.
