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8 Best Competitor Analysis Tools for Your Online Store

competitor analysis tools

Knowing and understanding your competitor(s) is the basis of an excellent business strategy. With the increasing popularity of e-commerce business platforms, a host of competitor analysis tools have come up, allowing brands to compare their search engine rankings, ad spend patterns, as well as website traffic estimates.

There are numerous website competitor analysis tools available, each focusing on a specific area of the competition’s business model. Following are the most extensively used competitor analysis tools that provide unique insights into your competition.

Top Competitor Analysis Tools
SimilarWeb
Kompyte
Ahrefs
Talkwalker
Spyfu
Mention
SurveyMonkey
Alexa

 

1. SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb is one of the most credible competitor analysis tools to estimate the volume of traffic that a competitor website is attracting. SimilarWeb ranks websites internationally, and for specific countries in order of the online traffic they have.

In addition to traffic-driven website competitor analysis, this tool also provides information on the top search keywords (both paid and organic) as well as top referring websites (information not available on other competitor analysis tools).

There is both a free and paid version available. Given SimilarWeb’s focus on only the top five key search phrases, it is not ideal for companies interested in making Search Engine Optimization comparisons with competitors.

2. Kompyte

kompyte

This is one of the most comprehensive competitor analysis tools which allows you to compare and analyze traffic data and search ranking(s) with respect to your competitors.  Kompyte is particularly useful for website competitor analysis because it allows you to select specific competitors whom you want to track.

In some cases, it even provides a list of suggested competitors that you should keep an eye on based on the search keywords that you’re focusing on. Kompyte has a trial period of 14 days (with no cost), after which you will have to pay a monthly subscription fee which starts from around $95.

3. Ahrefs

ahrefs

When it comes to competitor analysis tools dedicated to SEO and keyword/phrase searches, Ahrefs is your go-to option. In addition to being affordable (useful for start-ups and/or small businesses), this tool allows website competitor analysis with respect to the volume of organic traffic that a competitor is attracting as well as analyze what kind of content is getting the most likes and shares.

Ahrefs boasts a database of more than 190 billion pages, and therefore provides access to the largest collection of key search words, Ahrefs provides the subscribers with the option to conduct a website competitor analysis by isolating and identifying which content pages are attracting and driving the most traffic, and also the amount of projected traffic you can attract by adding new keywords.

4. Talkwalker

talkwalker

This falls in the category of competitor analysis tools exclusively for social listening for brands and organizations. Offering its services in almost 200 languages, Talkwaker listens to all online chatter as and when it is happening, regardless of the social media platform. This allows website competitor analysis in terms of how a specific brand campaign is faring with regards to competition by measuring and analyzing channel performance in different markets.

In addition, it also allows companies to identify the brand stories that are attracting the most attention online, as well as industry news and/or developments that are generating conversations. Given the suite of Analytics services it offers, customers can choose from three subscription options (all paid for): Basic ($9,600 annually), Corporate and Enterprise.

The last two packages are for organizations that are investing in digital media for their brands, and there is no stated cost. You will have to pay the price depending on the requirements. Talkwalker is different as compared to other competitor analysis tools listed, thus far because it goes beyond social listening to developing a consolidated network of influence’s curated from all social media sites that are most suited for your specific brand categories.

5. Spyfu

spyfu

There are some competitor analysis tools that are for exclusively designed for in-depth and comprehensive website competitor analysis – and Spyfu is one of them. In addition to monitoring and tracking backlinks to pages, it has a great feature which allows you to see which search phrases rank on the top page of search engines.

Moreover, with Spyfu, companies can also gain knowledge of the keywords which their competitors have a ranking for, and the keyword searches that intersect. Spyfu also allows subscribers to track their own PPC advertising spends as well as those of their competitors. In terms of cost, it is one of the more affordable competitors research tools with a monthly subscription starting at approximately $33.

For businesses that want to try it out before paying, can opt for the free version, but there is a data limit on it.

6. Mention

mention

Similar to Talkwalker, Mention is also one of the most highly ranked competitor analysis tools dedicated to social listening for companies, brands, and specific marketing campaigns. Serving customers in more than 120 countries with more than twelve billion mentions delivered to customers, Mention focuses on identifying all social media posts, comments, and blogs that mention a particular brand, its campaigns as well as what is being said online about a brand’s competitors and the industry.

Its services include social media monitoring and brand tracking as well as dedicated suites for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube track. The good news is that unlike other social media monitoring competitor analysis tools, Mention offers an annual as well as a monthly subscription plan. The Solo Plan is for the monitoring and tracking of only one brand by one user for $29 per month only.

Small business owners can opt for the Starter Plan for $99 per month. With this package, up to three people will be able to log in and monitor the ‘mentions’. The Company Plan is for advertising agencies or organizations that are spending on increasing the digital footprints of their brands.

7. SurveyMonkey

survey monkey

A useful competitor analysis tool, geared towards deriving insights from “Big Data” collected from customers, employees of an organization as well as the markets in which a brand is available. SurveyMonkey falls in the category of competitor research tools which measure the opinions of people relevant to a company or a brand.

The tool also allows bench marking by getting customer and employee feedback about existing products or processes, thereby allowing companies to modify their operations and output to maximize internal and external satisfaction.

This, in turn, helps in improving existing products and services and in deciding what kind of new launches to plan. By using SurveyMonkey to conduct in-house HR research, organizations can find out ways to keep employees happy and engaged. To customize services according to customer demands, SurveyMonkey offers a variety of Individual and Team Plans. To test the service, people can also opt for the Basic Plan which is free of cost, but there is a limit to include only 10 questions per survey.

Apart from SurveyMonkey, there are other field survey software, which can help you create insightful surveys.

8. Alexa

alexa

Established more than twenty years ago by Amazon, Alexa is the real benchmark competitor analysis tool. It is not surprising then that the ranking that Alexa gives to websites (globally and for each country) is extremely sought-after by digital marketers across the world. Its ‘Audience Overlap Tool’, in particular, is very popular for website competitor analysis because it identifies the websites that you are competing with, and goes on to pinpoint the key search words that you are competing for.

A dark-colored cell even tells you who is winning in real-time! In addition to ranking sites according to their popularity (traffic volumes), it is one of the very few competitor analysis tools that also collate data about customer behaviors such as the demographic details of people visiting a particular site, the time they spend on your and/or competitors’ sites as well as the bounce rate.

To incentivize people to pay for the unique competitor research tools it offers, Alexa offers a free 7-day trial after which visitors can choose from different paid plans which start at $99 for a monthly subscription.

For more tools like this one, check out the comprehensive list presented on the Magenticians Ecommerce Hub. We’re sure you’ll find something awesome.

Wrapping Up

Competitor analysis tools are useful in determining the popularity of your website compared to your competitors as well as in identifying ‘social mentions’ of your brand(s) to find out what people think about the products and services your business offer.

Conducting a website competitor analysis particularly comes in handy before you are about to launch a web-based business, or when contemplating a revamp of your online store. Choose competitor research tools that have features that will benefit your business the most, depending on what your business/campaign objectives are.

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