I don’t know how much traffic my competitors are getting
How to stop guessing and start making data-driven decisions
If you run a digital project, you’ve probably asked yourself this question more than once:
“Am I really growing, or am I just spinning my wheels?”
And behind that question, there’s often a more uncomfortable one:
“Is my competition doing better than me?”
That’s exactly María’s situation.
The Real Scenario: María and her healthy recipes blog
María runs a blog focused on healthy recipes. Over time, her blog has grown steadily.
She’s not just a hobbyist:
Her blog generates around 230,000 monthly visits.
She ranks at position 35 on Google for the keyword “healthy recipes.”
She publishes quality content, does basic SEO, and maintains an active presence on social media.
From the outside, things seem to be going well. But there’s something that bothers her.
On Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, she sees other creators in her niche with:
More comments.
More likes.
More brand collaborations.
Her impression is clear:
“It looks like they’re killing it… and I’m falling behind.”
The problem is that María only sees the public facade:
she sees numbers of followers, likes, and shares, but she doesn’t see the real metrics that matter:
the actual web traffic these sites receive, where their visitors come from, and how users interact with their websites.
So she faces the big strategic question:
“Should I change my strategy? Am I really falling behind, or does it just seem that way?”
She tries to find clues:
She checks her own Google Analytics statistics.
She observes her month-to-month growth.
She compares herself to her “past self.”
But she still lacks the answer to the fundamental question:
How does my traffic compare to that of my direct competitors?
The Underlying Problem: You’re Flying Blind
This isn’t just María’s problem.
It’s the problem of almost every content creator, online business, or SEO project that doesn’t have access to competitive data.
When you don’t know how much traffic other sites in your niche are getting:
You can’t do realistic benchmarking.
You don’t know if your 230,000 visits are excellent, average, or worryingly low.
You risk falling into two dangerous traps:
Thinking you’re doing great and relaxing… when in reality, you’re far below the industry standard.
Thinking you’re failing and pivoting your strategy… when in fact, you’re above average.
In other words:
without competitive traffic data, you’re navigating in the dark.
You’re comparing yourself to subjective impressions, social media likes, or assumptions, but not to actual figures. Making strategic decisions like that is like driving at night with your headlights off.
Why Your Own Metrics Aren’t Enough
María looks at her 230,000 visits and thinks:
“That sounds like a lot… but is it really?”
Context changes everything:
230,000 visits in a niche where the average is 20,000 → you’re a beast.
230,000 visits in a niche where the average is 2 million → you’re way behind.
230,000 visits when the top 10 move between 100,000 and 300,000 → you’re well positioned with room for growth.
Your internal metrics tell you how you’re evolving compared to your past.
Competitive data tells you how you stand compared to the market today.
Without that comparative snapshot:
You can’t set ambitious but realistic goals.
You don’t know whether you should prioritize SEO, social media, branding, CRO, or evergreen content.
You lack a compass for deciding where to focus your efforts.
The Solution: Stop Guessing and Analyze Competitive Traffic
Here’s where María’s solution comes in (and yours, if you identify with her):
using a competitive traffic analysis tool.
A tool like the Website Competitor Analysis Tool from lookkle allows you to analyze the traffic of other sites without needing access to their Google Analytics.
In other words: you can “peek” at the key numbers of public websites.
How does it work in practice?
Enter your website URL.
The tool detects your niche and suggests your main competitors.Get a list of up to 20 competitor sites.
These can be:Sites that share your main keywords.
Websites ranking high on Google in your sector.
Other similar projects in size or topic.
For each of these sites, you can see, in an estimated way:
Estimated monthly traffic volume:
Do they get 10,000, 50,000, or 500,000 visits per month?Main traffic sources:
Do they get more traffic from:
Organic search?
Social media?
Direct traffic (strong brand)?
Referrals?
Artificial intelligence or aggregators?
User interaction:
Average time on site.
Pages per session.
Approximate bounce rate.
Site creation date:
Is it an old project with years of advantage?
Or a new one that has grown quickly?
With this information, you’re suddenly no longer in the dark.
You start to see patterns, gaps, and opportunities.
María’s Practical Case: From Uncertainty to Potential
Let’s go back to María.
She decides to use the tool to finally answer her big question:
“How much traffic are my direct competitors actually getting?”
Step 1: Identify Real Competitors
Instead of just focusing on those making the most noise on social media, María decides to base her analysis on data:
She enters her blog’s URL into the tool.
She gets a list of 20 similar sites in the healthy recipes niche.
She filters first those ranking around her position on Google, starting from position 30 for the keyword “healthy recipes.”
Step 2: Analyze Concrete Numbers
When she looks at the estimated traffic numbers for the three blogs she perceived as “very big,” she’s in for a surprise:
Blog A: ~40,000 monthly visits.
Blog B: ~60,000 monthly visits.
Blog C: ~80,000 monthly visits.
María compares this to her own 230,000 monthly visits.
The story she was telling herself (“I’m falling behind, others are way ahead”) was simply false.
In reality:
Her blog is well above the traffic of her direct competitors.
That feeling of “lagging behind” came from social perception (likes, followers, collaborations), not real data.
Step 3: Discover Where the Real Potential Lies
Far from settling, María uses the tool to go one step further:
She analyzes now the sites that are on page 1 and 2 of Google for her main keywords.
She observes:
Their traffic volumes.
Their main sources (for example, more SEO weight than social media).
Their interaction metrics.
And she realizes something important:
The top referents in the niche, ranked 1 to 10 for “healthy recipes,” move much higher figures, but not unreachable ones.
They are in ranges of several hundred thousand or even over a million monthly visits.
Many of them, however, don’t have as much social media presence as she imagined; their real strength is in SEO, content optimization, and domain authority.
Suddenly, María shifts from thinking:
“I’m behind, I need to do everything differently”
to:
“I’m above many competitors and have room to play in the big leagues if I adjust my strategy.”
What Changes When You Have Competitive Data on the Table
Having access to this type of analysis leads to several key changes in your decision-making:
You move from intuition to evidence.
You stop relying on feelings and start basing decisions on numbers.You redefine your goals realistically.
Instead of saying “I want more traffic,” you can say:“My current average is 230,000 visits.”
“The sector average for the top players is 500,000–800,000.”
“My 12–18 month goal is to approach that range.”
You adjust your channel strategy.
By seeing the traffic sources of others:If leaders get most of their traffic from SEO, you know that’s a key lever.
If others grow from social media, you might want to strengthen your presence there, but knowing its actual impact.
You better understand your strengths and weaknesses.
You might discover that:You have more traffic but worse retention (lower time on page).
You have less traffic but much better engagement.
You’re underutilizing channels that work well for others.
How You Can Apply This Logic (Even If You’re Not María)
If you have a website, blog, e‑commerce, or any digital project, you can replicate exactly what María did:
Define your starting point.
How many monthly visits do you have?
What are your 3–5 main keywords?
What type of content is your core?
Identify your real competitors.
Not just those you see on social media, but those that appear:
On Google near you.
For the same keywords.
Use a competitive analysis tool to get a broad list.
Analyze their traffic and sources.
Estimated monthly volume.
Weight of each channel (SEO, social, direct, referrals, etc.).
Observe their interaction.
Do they retain better than you?
What type of content seems to engage more?
Draw actionable conclusions.
Are you above, below, or average?
What channel are you underutilizing?
What traffic goal makes sense for you in the coming months?
Conclusion: Stop Feeling Small and Start Thinking Big
María’s problem wasn’t her traffic numbers.
It was the lack of context and competitive data.
Her 230,000 monthly visits didn’t change overnight.
What changed was her perception when she realized that many of her competitors, who seemed larger on social media, actually had less traffic than she did.
By using a competitive analysis tool, she stopped comparing herself to appearances and started comparing herself to realities.
And that’s exactly what you can do:
stop feeling like you’re in the dark and start making decisions based on data, not assumptions.
If you currently feel like “you have no idea how much traffic your competitors are getting,” that’s the first problem to solve. Because once you see the full picture, everything else—goals, strategy, priorities—becomes much clearer.
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