The Ultimate Guide to SEMrush Traffic Analytics- Everything You Need to Know!
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Are you thinking about using the SEMrush traffic analytics tool, but don’t know where to start?
If so, here is my SEMrush traffic analytics guide to learn about its features and how it can help you drive more traffic to your website.
By using SEMrush’s traffic analytics tool you can discover your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, optimize your website’s SEO, and develop an effective media buying campaign.
Let’s go!
Table of Contents
What is SEMush Traffic Analytics (Overview)
Semrush Traffic Analytics is a competitive and market intelligence research tool that gives desktop and mobile traffic estimations of any website online. SEMrush Traffic Analytics can help you benchmark and evaluate a new niche or potential market you can enter.
This helps businesses know their own website traffic and also learn from their direct competitors.
SEMrush began releasing its traffic analytics feature as an add-on to its core subscription in November 2019. And back then it used to cost $200 on top of your chosen SEMrush premium plan.
The good news is that now SEMrush Traffic Analytics comes with all SEMrush paid plans and no additional cost. (Note: if you take advantage of SEMrush’s lifetime sale you can get any SEMrush plan with a permanent 17% discount, including the Traffic analytics feature).
So, how much online traffic is your main competitor really getting? If you can’t answer that question, SEMrush Traffic Analytics is the tool for you.
Continue scrolling to learn more!
How is Traffic Analytics Different from Domain Analytics in SEMrush?
Note: I’ll use the Ahrefs.com domain for demonstration purposes.
Let’s see the domain analytics first, the SEMrush domain analytics reveal the overall estimation metrics of the domain based on the ranking keywords and backlinks of the website.
So when you insert and scan your domain in SEMrush domain overview, it gives you the domain’s overall authority, ranking keywords, estimated organic monthly traffic, traffic from paid ads, traffic distribution by country, referring domains, and backlinks.
Moreover, with SEMrush Traffic Analytics it’s more focused on website traffic metrics, and it gives us more in-depth reports based on website visitors. It’s a more advanced feature that allows you to track and find key reports that show how visitors arrive at a website.
Here’s Ahrefs in SEMrush Traffic Analytics:
Traffic Analytics reveals where a website gets its traffic, where visitors go after browsing the domain, what sources your competitors use to get traffic, and much more.
Why Do You Need to Use SEMrush Traffic Analytics?
You need to use SEMrush Traffic Analytics tool because it allows you to learn more about your website visitors and their activities on your site.
It can show you what content your users enjoy and provide insights to help you boost conversions.
In fact, SEMrush Trafic Analytics will give you answers or show you the metrics like:
- The amount of traffic your website gets in a certain time period.
- How many new visitors does your site get?
- Where your visitors are coming from.
- What is the most popular content?
- Your website’s bounce rate.
- How long do visitors spend on various pages?
- How frequently do visitors return to your website?
- And so much more.
Those analytics may be used to determine which content engages with visitors, which marketing strategies are most effective, and even which pages are pushing visitors away from your website.
Guide to Using SEMrush Traffic Analytics
Here’s how SEMrush Traffic Analytics works.
I take about six essential website traffic reports that this tool can discover.
#1- Traffic Analytics Overview Report
To do a traffic analysis, go to the SEMrush SEO Dashboard area and select the Traffic Analytics tool in the left sidebar.
You may use this tool to examine the traffic of your competitors or your domain, as well as compare and analyze the traffic of four domain names at the same time.
Estimated monthly visits, unique visitors, average visit duration, and bounce rate will be found, as displayed in the screenshot above.
Keep in mind that Google Analytics can do reliable especially with the advancements in GA4 vs. universal analytics. However, Semrush Traffic Analytics can give you precious data on your competitors which you can then use to your advantage to beat them in the SERPS.
When you scroll down (our example is Ahrefs.com), you will see more detailed information, including a graph of traffic based on the device.
Below that you can see the traffic distribution graph showing you where Ahrefs’s traffic is coming from
Further below it’s the “traffic by region and country” report.
You can even see the traffic journey for a domain i.e., where traffic goes after leaving the domain.
This report is less actionable when looking at a competitor but much more so when investigating your own as you can see which external links get clicked the most and potentially remove them.
You can also see if your site is not satisfying a particular search intent and then satisfy it with a target page before Google notices.
More on these reports further below.
#2- Benchmark Traffic Statistics of Multiple Websites
Traffic Analytics provides a lot of excellent options for comparing the traffic data of a couple of competitive websites. To make a comparison on various websites, just enter the domain or website URL into the search areas at the top of the overview report and press compare.
You can see in the screenshot the comparison chart of the selected domains, together with estimations of their page views, visitors, visit duration, bounce rate, and so on. In the reports, each website will be represented by a specific color.
Each website will be represented by a different colored line on the line graph, with a darker line denoting previous patterns and a lighter line indicating a prediction of performance for the coming month. Weekly traffic forecasts are issued.
You can customize the chart to show the number of unique visitors, average visit time, and bounce rate.
What more from the benchmark traffic multiple websites report?
Further below you can see the traffic breakdown by country for all websites compared.
The Traffic Sources widget analyzes the traffic volume from each of each website’s five traffic sources.
Websites will be identified by their allocated color and can be excluded from this comparison by checking the boxes next to their names.
This comparison demonstrates how the selected websites have different strengths and weaknesses in various channels. By using the Historical Data filter at the top of the overview report, you may adjust the analyzed month and year.
#3- Traffic Sources Report
You want to know where the traffic to your competitor comes from, right? If this is the case, SEMrush provides the Visitors Sources chart, which breaks out the percentage of traffic produced by five different sources: direct, referral, search, social, and paid.
Let me explain those six traffic sources one by one:
- Search Traffic: This channel source refers to visitors that found your website using a search engine such as Google or Bing.
- Direct: Traffic coming from URLs typed into a browser’s search box, bookmarks stored, or links outside of a browser such as PDFs.
- Referral: Traffic from a link on another website that goes to a certain domain except for social media domains.
- Social: Visitors who come from social media platforms to your website.
- Paid: Visitors who see your website via a targeted advertising campaign like Google Adwords or who click on a link that contains tracking parameters (UTM or tracking code).
Note: you can get this type of information for your website from Google Analytics. But you don’t have GA data for your competitors’ domains. Here SEMrush Trafic Analyc fills in the gap because you can see how the niche traffic finds your direct competition and then you can make appropriate changes to your strategy.
Maybe you need to invest more in social promotion. Or perhaps ads are working well?
SEMrush Traffic Analytics will show that to you, and more.
#4- Traffic Analytics Geographic Distribution Report
The SEMrush Geographical Distribution report identifies the countries, regions, or subcontinents where a website receives the majority of its traffic. Geo Distribution may be used to analyze both subdomains and root domains.
You may also view how many visitors came from specific countries over a given time period. Currently, SEMrush can analyze traffic across 190 countries and regions.
To determine which geographic markets engage the most with this website, you can analyze visitor behavior in terms of pages or visits, average visit time, and bounce rate. You can also view a chart or map that shows the total volume of traffic coming from each country or region.
As I previously stated in the section on benchmark traffic data of multiple websites, again the Historical Data filter allows you to evaluate different time periods.
Use this data in competitive research to see which part of the world marketplaces your competitors or partners are leveraging.
You ca use this to find a location that could provide a fresh chance for your own web business.
#5- Traffic Analytics Destination Sites Report
The SEMrush destination site report includes a list of all the external websites that users often visit after visiting the initial website. As a result, you can be aware of all the websites that users visit after visiting your or your competitor’s website.
You can see all of the destination websites and their URLs in your SEMrush dashboard. You can also discover their URL’s and quickly calculate their traffic percentage share based on the estimated traffic.
Actually, this report is really useful for learning about your competitors’ exit strategies. Alternatively, you may easily locate the relevant web pages. As a result, you might obtain a whole new list of competitors’ websites.
Note: you can easily spot a mismatch between search intent and your content. For example, you can see in the image that 4% of Ahrefs’ traffic goes back to Google to find answers. That’s 4% of unsatisfied visitors. You can also drill deeper and find the exact pages not fulfilling the search intent.
#6- Traffic Analytics Subdomains Report
Many websites make use of subdomains as part of their content marketing strategy and SEO. It is critical to understand what their subdomains report would look at in relation to the subdomains on the website. The same is responsible for directing the majority of traffic to a particular website or domain.
The SEMrush subdomains report gives you a rough estimate of the monthly visitors to each subdomain for a certain domain. It also includes data from mobile and desktop devices.
Like the other previously mentioned reports it’s important, this report makes it simple to gain straight access to the top landing pages of any site on the market. And also, it is useful for locating the top-performing pages on the bulk of your competitors’ websites.
SEMrush Traffic Analytics FAQ- Your Questions Answered!
My SEMrush Analytic guide would be an incomplete resource without a thorough FAQ section answering the questions you and other people have. Agree?
#1- Does SEMrush Traffic Analytic Tool Come With all SEMrush Plans?
SEMrush Traffic Analytics tool does come with all paid SEMrush plans.
You can use it on any SEMruh subscription you own. Even with a free SEMrush account, you can use it, albeit severely handicapped in data and how much you can use the tool.
#2- Does SEMrush Traffic Analytic Tool Come While on a SEMrush Free Trial?
Yes, being on a SEMrush free trial run unlocks Traffic Analytics for the duration of the trial.
#3- Does it Matter that I Used A Coupon Code to Get My SEMrush Subscription? Will I Be Able to use SEMrush Traffic Analytics?
You will be able to use SEMrush Traffic Analytics regardless of whether you used a coupon code or not.
Learn about SEMrush coupon guidelines here.
#4- Does it Matter that I Used a SEMrush Lifetime Deal to Get My SEMrush Subscription? Will I Be Able to use SEMrush Traffic Analytics
You will be able to use SEMrush Traffic Analytics regardless of whether you took advantage of the lifetime deal or not.
Learn about SEMrush lifetime deal here.
#5- Can I use SEMrush Traffic Analytic Tool With a Cracked Version of SEMrush?
There is no SEMrush cracked version.
Cracked and downloadable SEMrush is a scam ad you can’t use Traffic Analytics or any other tool with a “cracked version SEMrush”.
SEMrush Traffic Analytics (Conclusion)
When you first begin using SEMrush, it might be confusing. Don’t worry, that happens to all people. There are literally hundreds of functions accessible with the tool.
In the beginning, I suggest that you first analyze where your current website traffic is coming from. This may be handled using SEMrush traffic analysis or a domain overview tool.
Once you have a strong idea of it, look at your competitors to discover which channels they are using to generate traffic. And when you are familiar with the tool, you can use the more advanced SEMrush features that I mentioned earlier.
Finally, my in-depth guide to SEMrush traffic analytics ends here, I hope you got some value from it!
If you have some views on the tool or specific features, drop them in the comment section, thank you for your reading.
Nikola Roza
Nikola Roza is an affiliate marketer and blogger behind Nikola Roza- SEO for the Poor and Determined. He writes for bloggers who don't have huge marketing budgets and who still want to carve out a niche online and a better life for themselves. He's also passionate about precious metals IRAs and how to invest in gold and silver for a safer financial future. Learn about Nikola here, or read his blog posts and guides here.