10 Ways How To Track Site Traffic, Popularity, Statistics

I know from myself people are obsessed with traffic, statistics, looking at other sites – tracking their stats and so on. And if there is enough demand, of course there are sites to satisfy You. I wanted to put those sites and tools in one list together, because at least for me this field was really unclear – I didn’t know what means Google Pagerank, Alexa, Compete, Technorati rankings and I could continue so on. I must say not always these stats are precise, but however they give at least overview, how popular the certain page is, how many visitors that sites gets – and if You compare those stats with Your site statistics, You can get pretty precise results then.

I also use several FireFox add-ons, so I don’t have to type and go to statistic related webpage to get the results, results actually came to me in this way, allowing me comfortably browse, explore and compare sites I visit. Now I am so used to live with these toolbars, I can’t imagine my browsing life without them.  And just a thought – can You imagine how useful in marketing is information about Your competitors?? I just love Internet world :). Okay, now let’s get to the actual article.

I will start with actual FireFox plugins I use and later in order to the most popular and know traffic tracking sites. If You want to get a full list of SEO related Firefox plugins check out my other article – Popular Firefox Extensions for SEO masters.

1. SearchStatus

I couldn’t live without this useful plugin, which tracks Alexa, Compete ranking and Google LivePageRank. If You didn’t know Alexa and Compete sites are the most popular and trustworthy sites letting You track statistic about sites worldwide, compare them and so on. And who aren’t heard about popular Google ranking system, however if You don’t, check out Google official blog to find out more.

And yes, Alexa and Compete has it’s own Top and rating system, so that’s the number meaning, maybe I was silly, but I didn’t realize that at first, so I am pointing it out for You too.

You can download this add-on here.

2. Compete Toolbar + Compete Site

This site is very similar to Alexa, offering alternative or even better some really good site to compare ratings so You have more objective information. I use Compete always together with Alexa, however in compete my site is ranked much higher, so I think Alexa rating is more objective..or I don’t know, I am just critical against myself.

And they offer also toolbar, it is second add-on I use regularly, it’s official Compete.com site toolbar, tracking also average people count visiting site. Maybe this information is not so precise, but when I compare those stats with my site, I can get actual overview, how many people are visiting other sites too – pretty great. There are many other features in this toolbar however, but I am not using them in my workflow however, but You can do Your own research, maybe some feature is useful for You.

You can download this add-on here.

3. Google Analytics

Yes, this is the best statistic site available I think and the most popular one too. Google Analytics tracks information from Your site so detailed, You can spend hours comparing and analyzing Your website stats. I am sure everybody are using Analytics service by now, however if You don’t use it – You should go to their site and take video tour, explaining You everything much better than I could.

4. Alexa

I mentioned this site before, but now detailed overview Alexa provides a wide range of statistics based on popularity rank, reach, speed and in-links. You can compare site statistics also up to 3 sites. And information is precise, because everybody participate in it with help of Alexa Toolbar. When You install Alexa toolbar You get very useful tool and also give Alexa back just by visiting pages and using toolbar. I really like this system, check out maybe You’ll find it useful too.

Get Alexa Toolbar here / Visit Homepage

5. Quarkbase

I heard from this site at the first from Nick from ResourcePile, and since then I always been using it.

Quarkbase is a free tool to find complete information about a website. It is a mashup of over 30 data sources and many algorithms gathering information from Internet on various topics like social popularity, traffic, associated people, etc. – and yes, really complete starting from digg, delicious, reddit links, technorati ratings until RSS readers, traffic stats. Just type in – website url and enjoy huge information amount in seconds!

6. QuantCast

QuantCast is powerful statistic gathering website with information to help web publishers understand clearly their audience, what sites they like after visiting Yours, very powerful. Also if you want to get precise information about Your site, You can become QuantCast Publisher and  add simple code snippet in Your website, to let quantcast track and show You detailed statistics.

7. StatsAholic

If You are looking for simple and fast statistic, You should visit Statsaholic site, where fellows over there offer data and graphs, which are generously provided by Compete and Quantcast. Enter up to 3 domain names and compare.

8. PopUri.us

Also one simple and great site, just type in website address and get Google pagerank, alexa, compete, quantcast rank, technorati links, yahoo backlinks and more.

9. Website Grader

“Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.”

Every information piece about site is very useful giving You several SEO related advices, domain age, expiration, Google indexed pages, traffic rank, last google crawl date, also You can compare Your site with others and so on. Very useful, must know site.

10. BuySellAds

Maybe some people will laugh, I added this site too, since it’s not generally related to statistic information gathering, but I see from my site details Est.Impressions are very precise there. And now many people use this service, so You can just click to Advertise Here button and see precise results of that site monthly unique visitors and also alexa, compete rank, Google pagerank, delicious bookmarks and so on.  I just love that little thing about unique visitors.

You can see my account details by clicking on the link as an example.

I could continue, but I thought for statistics with these sites should be already more than enough. Enjoy the list to help You in marketing, SEO or just to satisfy Your curiosity about other site statistics.