Evaluating Similarweb Accuracy for Digital Marketing Insights

Similarweb is a popular tool for digital marketing insights, but is it accurate? Let's take a closer look.

Similarweb's data is based on a sample of the internet population, which can lead to inaccuracies, especially for small websites or niche markets.

The accuracy of Similarweb's data can be affected by various factors, including the quality of the sample, the methodology used to collect data, and the frequency of updates.

To get the most out of Similarweb, it's essential to understand its limitations and potential biases.

Similarweb usually exaggerates data on the amount of traffic by 2-3 times. This means you can't always rely on the exact numbers, but you can use it as a rough estimate.

The more traffic there is on a site, the more accurate the Similarweb data. This is because the error margin is smaller when dealing with larger traffic volumes.

Data on the share of traffic by country and channel is inaccurate, but it fairly accurately reflects the ranking of countries and channels that bring more traffic and that bring less. This means you can get a sense of which channels are performing well, even if the exact numbers are off.

Keyword traffic data is close to reality, with 6 of the top 10 keywords according to Search Console being in the top 10 keywords in Similarweb. This suggests that Similarweb is doing a good job of identifying the most important keywords.

Data on the amount of traffic for keywords in Similarweb sometimes coincides with data on clicks in the Search Console and sometimes 2-3 times more or less. This variability means you should take the numbers with a grain of salt and consider other sources to get a more complete picture.

Here's a summary of the accuracy of Similarweb data:

Similarweb's accuracy was put to the test by analyzing 25 websites using Google Analytics data. They recorded organic traffic estimate numbers for each of the 3 tools – SimilarWeb, Ahrefs, and SEMrush.

The test showed that SimilarWeb was the most accurate tool, overestimating organic traffic by 1%. Ahrefs and SEMrush, on the other hand, underestimated traffic by 17% and 30% respectively. The site with the highest actual traffic, 'Charity 1', was wildly differently estimated by the three tools.

Here's a breakdown of the estimated traffic for the 3 tools:

SimilarWeb is a powerful tool for market research, and its features are designed to help you get the job done efficiently. The platform offers several functionalities to carry out complete and accurate market research.

One of the key features of SimilarWeb is its ability to provide complete and accurate market research. The platform's functionalities are tailored to help you make informed decisions.

SimilarWeb's platform offers a range of tools to help you analyze your competitors and identify areas for improvement. This is especially useful for businesses looking to gain a competitive edge.

With SimilarWeb, you can gain a deeper understanding of your target audience and their online behavior. This information can be used to inform your marketing strategies and improve your overall online presence.

Testing SimilarWeb has been a game-changer for e-retailers, allowing them to analyze and compare different marketing channels.

By conducting a detailed analysis of the competition, you can identify the most successful marketing channels in your target market. This helps you optimize your traffic acquisition strategies.

SimilarWeb breaks down marketing channels into six key areas: search engine queries, direct searches, referrals, social networks, e-mails, and display ads.

Understanding the effectiveness of these channels is crucial for e-retailers, as it helps them allocate resources effectively and optimize marketing strategies for maximum reach and conversion.

Here are the key marketing channels that SimilarWeb helps you analyze:

By analyzing these channels, you can make data-driven decisions to improve your marketing strategies and drive more sales with positive ROI.

SimilarWeb's Lead Generator is a powerful tool for sales representatives. It allows them to create multiple lists based on targeted site categories.

This tool is particularly useful in commercial logic as it enables comparing the performance of selected websites and analyzing which ones are most interesting for your business.

By analyzing website traffic, engagement, and other indicators, e-retailers can identify potential business leads and prospects. This helps them expand their customer base and drive sales opportunities.

The Lead Generator in SimilarWeb can help you identify companies or individuals showing interest in your products or services.

Keyword difficulty scores are a crucial metric for SEO, but have you ever wondered how they're calculated? Semrush bases 2/3 of its score on backlinks, specifically the number of links to high-ranking pages and the "authority scores" of the domains from which they come.

Ahrefs takes a different approach, basing its keyword difficulty score entirely on the number of linking domains to the top 10 ranking pages for a keyword. No other factors are used.

Brightedge and Similarweb have a keyword difficulty score, but no public information on how it is calculated. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to understand how these scores are generated.

SEO PowerSuite Rank Tracker uses the backlink profiles of top-ranking pages to determine its keyword difficulty score. This approach is similar to Semrush's method.

Ubersuggest assigns a domain score to the top 20 ranking pages based on the number of backlinks to each, and also claims to measure the "depth and richness" of content on the pages. However, it gives no details on how it quantifies that.

Here's a brief overview of how some popular SEO tools calculate keyword difficulty scores:

We wanted to put Similarweb's accuracy to the test, so we did a thorough analysis of their data against actual traffic numbers from Google Analytics. We selected 25 websites, all with UK organic traffic, to ensure a fair comparison.

We chose websites that covered a range of verticals, target audiences, and purposes, as well as varying traffic levels, from millions of visits per month to just hundreds. This selection allowed us to identify trends in the accuracy of Similarweb's estimates for different types of websites.

We analyzed these 25 websites using three tools: Similarweb, Ahrefs, and SEMrush. We recorded organic traffic estimate numbers for each website, focusing exclusively on UK traffic to match up with our Google Analytics data.

Here's a breakdown of the tools we used in the test:

We measured actual traffic against estimated traffic for each tool, and the results showed that Similarweb was the most accurate, with an average overestimation of 1%. Ahrefs and SEMrush, on the other hand, underestimated total traffic by 17% and 30%, respectively.

Sitechecker.pro had a unique visitor count of 2.6M according to Semrush, but this is exaggerated by 2.5 times.

The traffic distribution by country in Amplitude shows a good result, with 7 out of 10 countries matching Semrush.

The traffic distribution by channel in Amplitude reveals a significant difference between direct and organic search traffic shares.

Stats from Amplitude are surprisingly accurate, especially when it comes to the amount of traffic from email and referrals.

8 out of 10 landing pages are the same in Google Search Console and Semrush, but the amount of search traffic per page is 6-10 times bigger in Semrush.

4 out of 10 top keywords are the same in Google Search Console and Semrush, with search traffic per page being 2-3 times bigger in Semrush.

Semrush displayed almost exact traffic for a small website, but the dynamic month-over-month differs from real data.

Our test results show that traffic estimators have varying levels of accuracy.

The test was not a thorough experiment, but rather a quick test to gauge the accuracy of such tools.

Patrick, the Head of SEO at Screaming Frog, notes that there are ways to improve the test, including increasing the number of traffic estimator tools and websites analyzed.

Increasing the number of territories to include the US, Europe, or worldwide could also provide more comprehensive results.

We could also use more precise analytical data, such as Google Analytics numbers, to get a more accurate picture.

In fact, Patrick mentions that GA numbers often come with a pinch of salt, indicating that they may not be entirely reliable.

Our rather limited test has shown that all traffic estimators have strengths and weaknesses.

The test is just the tip of the iceberg, but it has given us a glimpse into the varying levels of accuracy among these tools.

Here are some possible ways to improve the test: