Site Traffic Analysis Tools

For those of us who don't have access to ComScore, Neilsen//NetRatings or Hitwise, here are a few tools to check out:

• Alexa (of course!)



• Compete (a relatively new Idealab offering)



• Marketleap: link popularity, search engine saturation and keyword verification tools



• UPDATE: Popuri [link via Techcrunch]



• UPDATE: Quantcast

Typically the paid services are much more accurate, but also much more expensive. Alexa is currently the standard because of its universal availability, but Compete is looking to provide a more accurate offering, while remaining free of charge.

The most compelling reason for anyone to buy traffic score reports is not to look at relative rankings, but to look at traffic patterns. For example, Hitwise tracks over 25 million users at the ISP level, and can give you both upstream and downstream click information on a competitor. So, if you're HP, or Lenovo, or Acer, wouldn't you love to know how people are getting to Dell.com, including the search terms they used, if they came from a search engine? Then, wouldn't you love to see where they go after they leave Dell's site? Hitwise provides these reports.

I'll have to admit that overall, Alexa is a really fun and addictive tool, but is mostly used for verification and due diligence. However, I think that most competent online marketing managers would be able to turn a Hitwise competitive analysis report into additional revenues for their companies.