- You cannot see a competitor's real analytics. You can track modelled estimates that are directionally useful, and the shape of the trend is what to monitor — not the absolute number.
- Two tools beat one. Cross-reference Similarweb and either Semrush or Ahrefs, and treat any figure that agrees within 30 percent as a fair estimate of your competitors' traffic.
- Keyword rankings, referring domains and top pages tell you far more about what your competitors are doing than the headline traffic number does.
- Monitor monthly, not weekly. A one-hour cadence with two tools and a shared spreadsheet is what most competitor monitoring programmes actually need.
- The point of the analysis is to decide what your team should do next — not to build a dashboard for its own sake.
Competitor analysis · Website traffic
How to Find and Use Keywords for SEO
Every B2B marketing team wants to get competitor website traffic estimates that hold up under scrutiny — and most end up paying for tools they never open twice. This piece covers the analysis method that actually works, the tools worth a subscription, and a monthly workflow SMEs, scale-ups and agencies can repeat without hiring an analyst.
The short version
Why competitor website traffic analysis matters
Every team benchmarks against something. The question is whether the benchmark is a real competitor or a generic industry average — and a competitor benchmark is worth several times more. A number from your own niche tells your team what "good" looks like on a website of similar age and commercial model. A global average tells you nothing you can act on.
What a rigorous competitor analysis really answers is not "how much traffic does the competitor get?" — it is "which of their plays are working, and which of those can our team copy or leapfrog?" That is a more actionable question, and it is the reason a competitor monitoring programme changes decisions rather than decorating reports.
For SMEs, scale-ups, agencies and SaaS marketing teams the same three use cases keep coming up. First, sizing the market — competitors with visible traffic prove the demand exists. Second, prioritising channels — if two competitors both grew through content and one through paid, your next quarter is probably about content. Third, defending share — a competitor pulling ahead on branded search is a signal you need to track and respond to, not a spreadsheet.
None of that needs a full-time analyst. What it needs is the right tools, the right handful of metrics to track, and a workflow the marketing owner can keep up with.
What your competitors leak about their website traffic
A competitor cannot hide most of what matters. Their website is public, their content is public, their inbound links are public, and every third-party tool that models website traffic reads the same signals. Knowing what to track — and what to skip — helps your team spend an hour on the data that changes decisions.
| What competitors leak | What tool sees it | How much decision it supports |
|---|---|---|
| Estimated monthly website traffic | Similarweb, Semrush, Ahrefs | Directional — trend is more reliable than the number |
| Ranking keywords and top pages | Ahrefs, Semrush, Serpstat | High — tells you what content is actually working |
| Referring domains and link velocity | Ahrefs, Majestic | High — shows the authority strategy your competitors use |
| Paid keywords and ad copy | Semrush, SpyFu | Useful for scale-ups; SMEs can usually skip it |
| Social share of voice | BuzzSumo, Sparktoro | Useful for content-heavy competitors |
| Technology stack | BuiltWith, Wappalyzer | Rarely changes a marketing decision — skip most months |
Notice how much of what your competitors leak lives in tools your team can open for free. The paid tiers add depth on top pages, keyword history and referring domains — the layers that support real decisions. The rest is noise most of the time.
Tool choice
Which tools to use for competitor traffic analysis
Four tools cover 95 percent of what a marketing team needs to track competitors. Pick two — a traffic tool and a search tool — and skip the rest until a specific question demands them.
Similarweb — traffic and channel mix
The default tool for a headline website traffic estimate, channel split and country breakdown for any competitor. Trend is reliable, absolute numbers are not — treat the graph as the truth and the label as a rough guide.
Ahrefs — keywords and links
The strongest tool for the keyword universe your competitor ranks for and the referring domains they have earned. Use it to see what content and authority your competitors are actually building.
Semrush — the all-rounder
A single tool that covers traffic estimates, paid search keywords, position tracking and ad copy. Weaker than Ahrefs on links and than Similarweb on channel mix, but a fair choice if your marketing team can only fund one paid tool.
Google Search Console + a spreadsheet
Free, and the only tool that reports your own website's true position. Combine what you rank for with a competitor's public ranking data from Ahrefs, and you have a keyword gap analysis no paid tool sells better.
How to get competitor website traffic estimates that hold up
The single biggest mistake teams make on a competitor traffic analysis is trusting a single tool. Every tool models website traffic from a different panel, so their numbers disagree — sometimes by a factor of two. The fix is straightforward: use two tools, note where they agree and where they diverge, and treat the agreement zone as the fair estimate.
Here is the practical method our analysts use to get competitor website traffic figures that survive a management review. It takes about twenty minutes per competitor and delivers a number you can defend without an asterisk.
- Pull the monthly traffic estimate from Similarweb. Note the number and the trend line for the last twelve months. If the tool marks the estimate as "low confidence" — a small competitor site — the absolute figure is not worth quoting.
- Pull the equivalent from Ahrefs or Semrush. Focus on organic traffic; each tool models it separately, so a second number is a second data point.
- Compare the two. If they land within 30 percent of each other, take the midpoint. If they diverge more, quote both and let the reader see the range.
- Cross-check against a proxy signal. Referring domains, ranking keyword count and branded search volume all move alongside real traffic — a competitor's tool numbers should not disagree with those proxies.
- Log the number in a shared spreadsheet. One row per competitor, one column per month. The value of the analysis compounds only if the history exists.
Do this once and the numbers look noisy. Do it every month for two quarters and the shape of each competitor's website traffic becomes obvious — who is genuinely growing, who is stalling, and who is buying visibility rather than earning it. That shape is what a marketing team can actually act on.
How much traffic does my competitor get, really?
"How much traffic does my competitor get?" is the first question a marketing owner asks, and the honest answer is that nobody outside the competitor's own analytics knows the exact number. The tools estimate it, and the estimates disagree — often by a wide margin. What you can trust is the order of magnitude and the direction of travel.
To make that concrete, here are the bands our analysts use when a client asks how much traffic a competitor's website is really getting. Treat them as directional, and always compare a competitor against websites of similar age and niche rather than against a global average.
| Modelled monthly traffic | What it usually means | How much confidence to put in the number |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5,000 sessions | New or small B2B website, likely under the tool's detection floor | Low — the estimate can be off by 3x either way |
| 5,000 to 50,000 | Established SME website with a working content or paid channel | Medium — trend reliable, absolute number roughly indicative |
| 50,000 to 500,000 | Scale-up website with a real content library and link base | Good — tools converge, trend is highly reliable |
| 500,000+ | Category leader; tools disagree on absolutes but agree on shape | Good on trend, poor on the label |
What matters commercially is rarely the headline number. It is how much of that competitor traffic your website could plausibly capture, which comes back to keyword overlap, referring domain overlap, and the shape of each competitor's channel mix. A competitor with 200,000 monthly sessions almost entirely from branded search is a much weaker threat than one with 40,000 sessions from your exact commercial keywords.
Understanding SEO Keywords
What are keywords in SEO? They are words or phrases that describe a search need. A keyword can be broad, such as “running shoes,” or specific, such as “waterproof running shoes for winter.”
Keywords connect your page with the words people type into search. Search engines also review meaning, links, page quality, and user needs. The phrase alone does not earn a high rank.
Learning how keywords work in SEO starts with search intent. Intent means the goal behind a query. A reader may seek an answer, compare options, find a site, or buy something.
To define keywords for SEO, describe the page in plain language. Then list the questions and needs that page will solve. This gives your research a clear path.
Why Keywords Still Matter in SEO
Do keywords still matter for SEO? Yes. They help you choose a useful topic and align content with real demand.
How important are keywords in SEO? They matter most at the planning stage. Clear terms help search engines and readers grasp your page topic.
How important are keywords to SEO depends on context. A new guide needs clear subject signals. An established page may gain more from better answers and stronger links.
Keywords should guide content, not control every line. Exact repetition can make writing dull and hard to read. Useful coverage works better.
- Broad terms set the main subject.
- Related terms cover key subtopics.
- Question terms help answer clear needs.
- Action terms support sales or sign-ups.
How to Conduct Keyword Research Step by Step
Start with your audience before opening a keyword tool. Write down their problems, goals, products, and common questions. Review sales calls, support chats, reviews, and site searches.
- Set the page goal. Decide if the page should teach, compare, sell, or support.
- Build seed terms. List five to ten plain phrases about the topic.
- Expand the list. Add questions, features, places, problems, and close synonyms.
- Check the results. Study top pages for format, depth, and search intent.
- Review the data. Compare volume, difficulty, trend, and business value.
- Group close terms. Put phrases with the same goal on one page.
- Choose a main term. Pick one focus phrase and several support terms.
This process shows how to find keywords for SEO without chasing random ideas. It also explains how to search keywords for SEO with a clear goal.
To create keywords for SEO, start with customer language. Do not invent odd phrases just to sound different. Expand real words into useful, specific searches.
To get keywords for SEO, use customer research, site data, search suggestions, and trusted tools. To figure out keywords for SEO, compare those ideas with the pages already ranking.
To decide keywords for SEO, ask whether one page can answer the query well. To decide on keywords for SEO, weigh intent, effort, value, and fit.
To determine keywords for SEO, check the search results before checking volume. To identify keywords for SEO, look for repeated needs across searches and top pages.
Using Keyword Research Tools Wisely
Keyword tools speed up research, but they do not make the final choice. Use more than one source when possible. Each source offers a different view of demand.
| Tool | Useful for | Main benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Google Keyword Planner | Ad demand and ideas | Shows search ranges and related terms |
| Google Search Console | Existing site data | Finds queries that earn impressions |
| Google Trends | Seasonal interest | Compares demand over time |
| Ahrefs Keywords Explorer | Rank checks and rivals | Pairs difficulty data with result checks |
| Semrush Keyword Magic Tool | Large keyword lists | Groups related terms and search goals |
Google Search Console is often the best first tool for an active site. It shows queries that earn impressions, even when clicks stay low.
Use Google’s SEO starter guide for a sound base. It explains how search systems understand useful pages and site structure.
Paid tools can compare rival pages and estimate ranking effort. Treat their scores as guides, not facts. Your site strength and links still affect results.
How to Analyse Keyword Metrics
Learn how to analyse keywords for SEO by checking several signals together. No single number can predict success. Always review the live results too.
- Search volume: This estimates searches during a set time. High volume can bring more visits, but rivals may be strong.
- Keyword difficulty: This estimates how hard it may be to rank. Check the strength and quality of current pages.
- Search intent: This shows what the searcher wants. Match the page type to that need.
- Business value: This shows whether the term can support a useful action.
- Trend: This shows whether interest rises, falls, or changes by season.
How to test keywords for SEO? Build a small page or update an existing one. Track impressions, clicks, rankings, and useful actions over time.
Do not reject a term because its volume looks small. A focused phrase may bring fewer visitors but more ready buyers. Relevance beats empty reach.
Strategies for Choosing and Using Keywords
How to select keywords for SEO starts with page purpose. Pick terms that your page can answer better than current results.
How to optimize keywords for SEO means placing them where they clarify the page. Use the main phrase in the title, opening text, URL, and one suitable heading.
Where to place keywords for SEO also includes image descriptions, link text, and page summaries. Where to put keywords for SEO depends on meaning, not a fixed count.
How to use keywords for SEO well means writing for people first. How to write keywords for SEO is simple: use natural phrases in clear, useful sentences.
How to enter keywords for SEO depends on your site tool. Add the page title, summary, headings, body copy, and image descriptions with care.
How to give keywords in SEO work means sharing one focus term with your writer. Add the audience, goal, intent, and key points. Do not hand over a long list without context.
How many keywords are good for SEO? There is no fixed number. How many keywords per page SEO needs depends on page length, topic depth, and intent.
One main term plus a few close terms often works well. A large guide may need more related terms. Never add a phrase when it harms clarity.
Long-Tail Keywords and Their Benefits
Long-tail keywords are specific phrases with several words. They often have lower search volume than broad terms. They can still attract readers with a clear need.
For example, “running shoes” is broad. “Best waterproof running shoes for icy paths” shows a narrower goal. That second phrase may suit a comparison guide.
Long-tail terms help smaller sites build trust. They also reveal questions, features, and limits that broad terms hide. This makes content easier to plan.
Use long-tail phrases in headings when they fit the reader’s question. Add close variants in the answer. Avoid forcing the full phrase into every section.
How to find keywords for link building requires a different check. Seek phrases tied to useful resources, original data, or expert guides. Those assets give other sites a reason to link.
Negative keywords are mainly an advertising term. What is negative keywords in SEO? In paid search, they block unwanted searches. For organic SEO, use them as a filter for topics that do not fit your page.
A Simple Keyword Workflow
Good keyword work ends with a brief that a writer can use. Record the main term, intent, audience, page type, and support topics.
Then set a clear result to watch. You might track qualified visits, sign-ups, sales, or calls. Rankings matter, but business results matter more.
- Choose one clear page goal.
- Map one main phrase to that goal.
- Add close terms that deepen the answer.
- Place phrases in useful page elements.
- Review results and improve weak sections.
Keywords are a map, not a script. Use them to serve the search need with clear, complete content.
Monthly workflow
One hour a month, four steps
A repeatable competitor website traffic analysis workflow the marketing owner can run alone.
01
Pull and track the numbers
Open your two tools, pull the five metrics above for each competitor, and drop them into the shared spreadsheet you use to track everything. Fifteen minutes if your list has five competitors.
02
Spot the moves
Look for any metric you track that changed more than 20 percent month over month. Those are the moves worth understanding — everything else is noise your team can ignore.
03
Investigate the top move
Open the competitor's website, find the new content, links or campaigns that explain the move. Screenshot the evidence and paste it into the same spreadsheet.
04
Write five lines
Summarise for the team: what changed, why it changed, what your marketing should do about it. A five-line summary read in a stand-up beats a 20-tab dashboard nobody opens.
One hour a month, two tools and a spreadsheet — enough to track what competitors are doing and monitor how their moves compare to yours.
What goes wrong
Six ways teams waste the analysis
Every mistake here is common on a competitor analysis programme — and every one turns useful data into a report nobody reads.
Trusting one tool
A single tool's number is a modelled guess. Two tools that agree within 30 percent are worth quoting; one tool alone is not.
Tracking too many competitors
Five is the ceiling most marketing teams can actually track monthly. Ten becomes a chore, twenty becomes abandoned, and the analysis dies inside a quarter.
Chasing the absolute number
Debating whether a competitor gets 42,000 or 58,000 monthly sessions is time your marketing team will never get back. Trend and channel mix change decisions; the label does not.
Skipping the spreadsheet
Without a monthly log, no trend exists. A screenshot in Slack is not an analysis — it is a snapshot that will be forgotten in a week.
No follow-through action
If nothing in the marketing plan changes because of the analysis, the analysis is decoration. Every monthly review must end with an owner and a next step.
Comparing to giants
Benchmarking a 12-month-old SME website against the category leader tells your team nothing useful. Compare like with like or the numbers demoralise everyone.
If your competitors are pulling ahead
Move the numbers your competitors watch
Once your competitor analysis shows a rival's Similarweb curve climbing on their traffic buys, our Similarweb traffic service and managed web traffic move your own website into the same reporting bracket — with a written plan, live dashboard and SLA.
Common questions
Competitor traffic analysis, answered
What SME marketing owners and agencies actually ask when they start monitoring competitor websites.
How much traffic does my competitor get, and can I see the real number?
You cannot see the exact number — only the competitor themselves can. What you can see is a modelled estimate from Similarweb, Semrush or Ahrefs, plus the search visibility those tools track. Use two tools rather than one, and treat the trend as more reliable than the absolute figure.
How do I get competitor website traffic estimates for free?
The free tiers of Similarweb, Ubersuggest and Semrush all show a monthly traffic estimate for any public domain. It is enough to spot which competitor is growing and which is stalling — buying a paid tool only becomes worthwhile once your marketing team wants to track keyword-level movement or referring domains in detail.
Which competitor traffic tool is the most accurate?
None of them are accurate in absolute terms — each tool models traffic from different panel data, and figures routinely differ by 30 to 60 percent across tools for the same competitor. Similarweb tends to over-estimate large B2C sites, Ahrefs under-estimates them, and Semrush lands somewhere between. Trust the trend line, not the label.
How often should a marketing team monitor competitor websites?
Monthly is enough for most SMEs. A weekly cadence adds noise without signal, and a quarterly cadence misses the moves worth reacting to. One hour a month with two tools, one shared spreadsheet and a five-line summary covers what most marketing teams actually need to track.
How many competitors should I track?
Five is the practical maximum for a one-person marketing function. Split them into three direct competitors and two aspirational competitors — enough to see the shape of the market without turning the analysis into a weekly chore.
What if a competitor's website traffic estimate looks suspiciously high?
Cross-check with a second tool and monitor their referring domains. If competitors' traffic is climbing while their ranking keyword count and referring domains are flat, they may be buying traffic rather than earning it. Useful information — it tells you how much of their visible growth is defensible.
Can I get competitor website traffic data without paying for a tool?
Yes, to a limited depth. Similarweb and Ubersuggest free tiers cover the headline monthly traffic estimate. Google Trends covers branded search interest over time. Together they answer the "how much" question well enough for most SMEs — the paid tools earn their subscription when your team needs keyword-level detail every month.
How does competitor analysis feed into our own marketing plan?
Every monthly analysis should end with one decision. If a competitor gained on branded search, your marketing plan needs a brand response. If they added referring domains, your team owes itself a link push. If nothing changed, do nothing — a quiet month for your competitors is a quiet month for your plan too.