Traffic Share 101: How to Measure Your Website’s Success

As digital marketers we’re all seeking the same, elusive thing: audience attention. (AKA The Holy Grail.)

And one of the best ways to see if you’re on the right track is knowing how big a slice of the attention pie you’ve got.

That, my friends, is traffic share in a nutshell.

This is a comprehensive look into how to use traffic share data to boost your digital marketing strategies. We’ll also show you how to get yourself a bigger slice of that attention pie using Similarweb Digital Marketing Intelligence.

Off we go.

What is traffic share?

A super straightforward way to define traffic share is the share of traffic that your website gets out of the total traffic in your industry. But there’s so much more nuance to it than that, so let’s go into a little more detail.

When it comes to traffic share in the digital world, it’s not quite the honking, hustle and bustle of road traffic you join every day to get where you need to be. Or is it? 

In many ways, understanding traffic share is very similar to how a car on the road (an individual internet user), drives to places like restaurants and shops (different websites) in a busy city (your industry).

So if every website is a shop or restaurant in the city, then the number of cars that drive to your particular shop compared to the total number of cars driving around = your traffic share.

How to calculate traffic share

Traffic share is calculated by dividing your website’s visitors by the total number of visitors to all sites in your sector, then multiplied by 100.

Here are the formulas you can use to calculate traffic share for websites, marketing channels, and keywords:

Website: Traffic to a specific website / Total traffic to the competitive set x 100

Marketing Channel: Traffic generated by a specific marketing channel / Total traffic to the site x 100

Keyword: Traffic generated by a specific keyword / Total search traffic to the site x 100

Why is traffic share important?

What’s all the fuss about? Why should you care how big or small your percentage is?

In general, understanding your traffic share is a great indicator of how popular your website is compared to others within your sector or industry. It’s a snapshot of your relative market position, and whether your SEO, content marketing, social media, and other digital strategies are drawing in the right crowd.

Are you the front-runner, the underdog, or one of many smaller contenders? It goes without saying that the more popular your website, the more website visits, and sessions you receive, which in turn leads to more engagement, more conversions, more leads, more sales…. You get it.

There’s more to it than gauging popularity, though. Here are just a few reasons why traffic share needs to be on your radar:

1) Spy on the competition

Knowing your traffic share lets you sneak a peek into your competitors’ performance. If their slice of the pie is looking bigger than yours, it may be time to unleash your inner Sherlock Holmes and find out why with a competitive analysis tool. What are they doing differently?

2) Rethink your strategy

Whatever you discover that other companies are doing better can help guide your digital marketing strategy back on track. It may be time to up your SEO game, rethink PPC ads, or mix things up with your content strategy.

3) Track the tides

Watching your traffic share over time is crucial for analyzing your marketing efforts. Is your slice of the pie getting bigger or smaller over time?

How can you find out your traffic share?

Ready to scoop up some of that traffic share action?

Step into the spotlight, Similarweb!

Inside Similarweb’s Digital Marketing platform, you’ll find a world of data insights around traffic share. You’ll get the nitty-gritty on everything from share of traffic by device, to PPC vs organic and even regional distribution.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the traffic share information available to you and how this data can boost your marketing strategies.

Overall traffic share for a group of websites

Looking at your overall traffic share gives you a high-level look into your industry’s competitive landscape. It shines a light on the websites and domains that are winning your audience’s attention.

To look at your overall traffic share on Similarweb, head to the main Website Performance tab and enter up to five competitor websites you want to analyze. You can pick either the big players or a few new kids on the block, or a healthy mix of both, to get a picture of how website traffic is shared between you and them.

Top Tip: Look at the traffic share overview as a benchmark for brilliance. Let it chart a path for what you need to be doing to compete with, and eventually, outperform the competition. Use the data to set some realistic KPIs and identify areas of improvement.

Traffic share per marketing channel

Eager to know which of your marketing channels is taking center stage?

Similarweb’s Marketing Channel overview shows which channels, from organic search to social media, are in the spotlight and which are edging into the shadows.

Depending on business models and audience preferences, ideal channel mixes vary from business to business. Similarweb shows you the industry average for each channel, so you can identify where you’re ahead, behind and where you might just be able to stand out.

The example above shows the two biggest channels are direct and organic – this is the healthiest traffic share, as it shows SEO and brand awareness efforts are working.

Device and location

Dissecting traffic share data by things like device and region on Similarweb is like having a telescope that gives you a glimpse into very specific user behavior. You’ll see exactly where your audience is coming from and what their interactional habits are.

By Device

Your share of web traffic by device (desktop vs mobile) hints at what sort of experience your audience wants and how they like to receive messaging.

A higher mobile traffic share shows you’re drawing in digital nomads who love to browse on the go. Keeping your website optimized for mobile should be a big priority.

Top Tip: Make sure your page loading speed is tip-top shape!

Keyboard kings and queens tend to prefer more in-depth engagement. They spend a lot of time in front of large screens so longer-form content and detailed infographics will tick their boxes. Be sure to give your user experience extra care if you have a high desktop traffic share.

By location

Another great indicator of where your audience is most active is filtering by location or region on Similarweb.

You’ll know where to target marketing campaigns, where to bolster local SEO efforts, and whether you need to tailor your content, promotions, or products for the particular markets you are attracting or want to attract.

You might find you’re getting traffic from a few unexpected sources! This could give way to a world of untapped markets for you to delve headfirst into, and who knows where that could lead.

Traffic share per keyword

In the example above, we tapped into our Keyword Phrases feature, which allows you to compare up to five sites, and lists the top-performing keywords, which you can then filter by branded and non-branded terms.

Here you can see how the traffic share is divided up, and you can also see the share of organic vs paid traffic.

This advanced view of traffic share allows you to understand both your own and your competitors’ place in the market on the granular level of impactful keywords. From this, you can spot opportunities, low-hanging fruit, and better judge the priority on where to place your PPC budget.

Our final thoughts on traffic share

That’s a wrap, ladies and gentlemen!

In this high-level guide to traffic share, you’ve been given the tools to unearth some real web traffic gems.

Let’s sum things up quickly. By gathering traffic share data with Similarweb’s powerful platform you’ll 1) gain invaluable insight into your current market position 2) keep tabs on the competition and 3) be able to drive strategic decisions to achieve new heights of audience engagement and growth.

FAQs

Why is traffic share important?

Traffic share refers to the proportion of total website visits within your industry that your website captures, and indicates how popular your website is compared to others in your industry.

What is traffic share in Similarweb?

Similarweb’s website analytics platform is a great tool in getting a comprehensive look into your website’s traffic share, and that of your competitors. The platform allows you to dissect traffic share on a deep level to give you actionable insights.

How do you calculate traffic share?

Traffic share can be calculated by dividing your website’s visitors by the total number of visitors to all sites in your sector, then multiplying it by 100 to obtain a percentage. The formula is: (Website’s visitors / Total sector visitors) * 100.

Why should you care about your traffic share percentage?

Your traffic share percentage reflects your relative market position and competitiveness. A higher traffic share indicates greater popularity and can lead to more engagement, conversions, leads, and sales.

How can traffic share help you analyze competitors?

By comparing your traffic share with that of competitors, you can gain insights into their performance. If their share is larger, it prompts you to investigate their strategies and identify potential areas of improvement in your own marketing efforts.