is there a way for me to know if a site is getting traffic?

[Dimensions]

Hi,

Is there a way for me to know if a site (not my site) is getting any traffic?

Thanks

[pete_m]

Alexa is the site that I use most. It's not at all accurate, but gives you a (very) rough estimate.

If you want to spend money, I believe Hitwise is pretty good.

[philhancox]

Google Analytics is free and the one I use. Statcounter is also a very good tool and also free but has log limits. Both require a snippet of code to be placed at the bottom of all of your pages and will tell you how much traffic you're getting, from where, where they went, how long they stayed etc etc.
Alexa is very innacurate and isn't a statistical tool like the others mentioned but can be good for your ego as the figure can jump hundreds of thousands every day.

[tbp]

Unfortunately, Analytics couldn't be used as its not the posters site so they couldn't add the code.

There is nothing really accurate, Alexa gives a rough indication but is incredibly skewed. The users have to install a toolbar to use it, and its only really techy types who do that, so the results are heavily skewed to the type of sites they like. If you have a site you own and compare results between real stats and alexa you can see that its wildly inaccurate.

Even expensive tools like Hitwise are inaccurate, as they only monitor around 40% of all traffic, so you can get a rough idea but thats it.

[philhancox]

Originally Posted by tbp Unfortunately, Analytics couldn't be used as its not the posters site so they couldn't add the code.

Oops that'll teach me to read before posting.

New smilies?

[amisuggests]

why would you want traffic figures for someone else's site?
Unless you are planning to buy banner space, smells a little iffy to me
No wonder Phil thought you were asking about your own site, it is an understandable mistake. One i almost made till i read phil's post