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THE METHOD: TRAFFIC

How to check if website traffic is real, and from your market

To check if a website’s traffic is real, look at its organic search traffic in an SEO tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush and ask three questions: which countries it comes from, how many keywords carry it, and whether it holds steady over time. Traffic in your market, spread across many keywords and steady over months, is traffic that reaches your buyers. Scout, our backlink bot, checks this for every site.

Email your briefHow we know

Big traffic is nice. Traffic in your market is nicer.

WHAT TO AIM FOR

What checking traffic by market gets you

Where traffic comes from matters as much as how much of it there is.

  • Backlinks on sites your buyers in your country actually visit.
  • Traffic you can see by country, not only as one total.
  • A search audience that rests on many keywords, not one post.
  • A clear decision on every site, even when the data is hard to read.
TRY IT YOURSELF

Is your market one of the site’s top countries?

Pick your market and see which of two sites passes. No shares and no volumes, just whether your country is one of its top traffic countries.

TRY IT

Pick your market

ILLUSTRATION

Choose the country your buyers are in. A site passes only if your market is one of its top traffic countries.

Your market (one of 203 in a real brief)
clinicwire.exampleTOP TRAFFIC COUNTRIES, RANKED
  1. United States1st
  2. Canada2nd
  3. United Kingdom3rd

The real check also needs a minimum volume in your market.

PICK A MARKET
praxisnotes.exampleTOP TRAFFIC COUNTRIES, RANKED
  1. Germany1st
  2. Austria2nd
  3. Switzerland3rd

The real check also needs a minimum volume in your market.

PICK A MARKET

Pick your market. Two sites, each ranked by where its organic search traffic comes from.

Your market: pick oneEmail your brief
See the answer

clinicwire.example passes for the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. praxisnotes.example passes for Germany. For Australia or India, neither site does: both are Below OK, which means not a bad site, just below your bar.

Illustrative example, not real output or real sites.

DO IT YOURSELF

How to check if website traffic is real in five steps

A few minutes per site, with any SEO tool that shows traffic by country. The traffic step of The LabsMedia Method, our link building process, asks the same questions of every site, and it sits beside the other checks behind a high quality backlink.

  1. Step 1: Start from organic search traffic

    Look the site up in an SEO tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush and read its organic search traffic. It is an estimate of visits from search, not the site’s own analytics, and it measures every site with the same yardstick, so sites are compared on equal terms.

  2. Step 2: Check traffic by country

    Open the traffic-by-country breakdown. Your market should be one of the site’s top countries, with real volume there. For a US brand, a site where the US is a leading market can do more than a bigger site where the US is a sliver.

  3. Step 3: Count the keywords behind it

    Traffic worth paying for rests on many keywords. If a handful of terms, one viral post or the site’s own brand name carries most of it, one ranking change can wipe it out.

  4. Step 4: Read the trend line

    Look back a year or more. Steady or rising is a good sign. A cliff after a search update, or a spike that came from nowhere, deserves a closer look before you pay.

  5. Step 5: Match the traffic to the pages and the authority

    Open the top pages: they should be articles your buyers would read, on topics the site covers. Then set the traffic beside the site’s authority. How to check domain rating shows what to look for on that side.

HOW WE KNOW

How Scout checks a site’s traffic

Three questions for every site: is your market one of its top markets, is the traffic broad, and was the data clear?

1. Your market, not a total

  • WHAT WE DOYour target country must be one of the site’s top sources of organic search traffic, with a minimum volume there.
    WHY IT HELPSWhere the traffic comes from is checked, not only how much there is.
    WHAT YOU GETBacklinks that reach the buyers you actually sell to.
  • WHAT WE DO203 countries, and every site judged against the country in your brief.
    WHY IT HELPSEach brief gets its own verdict, so one site can suit one market and not another.
    WHAT YOU GETThe right sites for each market, even if you sell in several.

2. A real search footprint

  • WHAT WE DOTraffic has to be backed by a broad spread of keywords.
    WHY IT HELPSIt shows what DR and total traffic can’t: how broad the audience is.
    WHAT YOU GETYour budget goes on traffic that lasts.
  • WHAT WE DOA site under your bar is set aside as “Below OK”: not a bad site, just below your bar.
    WHY IT HELPSGood small sites get a fair verdict, never a spam label.
    WHAT YOU GETA clean shortlist, and a fair verdict on every publisher.

3. No guessing

  • WHAT WE DOWhen a new site’s traffic or country data can’t be read, a person decides.
    WHY IT HELPSHard cases get a person’s judgment instead of a guess.
    WHAT YOU GETNo borderline site slips through, and no good one is thrown out on a glitch.
  • WHAT WE DOEvery decision is stored with its number and its reason.
    WHY IT HELPSEvery verdict can be revisited with the number behind it.
    WHAT YOU GETEvery keep and every drop can be explained.
DEPTH, NOT A RECIPE

Judged against your market, site by site

The shape of the check, without the recipe. Traffic here means organic search traffic, as estimated by independent SEO data.

  • 203
    countries it can target
  • Your market
    must be one of the site’s top traffic countries
  • Below OK
    not a bad site, just below your bar
  • No guessing
    unclear data on a new site goes to a person
THE RUNNING EXAMPLE

US buyers, or just big numbers?

The brief wants the US as one of each site’s top traffic countries. Here’s how three candidates read.

EXAMPLE: A MEDICAL SAAS BRIEFILLUSTRATION

Healthcare and medical blogs, DR 50–70, with the US as one of their top traffic countries.

A general health blogOver a million in monthly search traffic, but its top markets are elsewhere. The US is a small slice.
SET ASIDE
A wellness site with one viral postHealthy US traffic, but it rides on a handful of keywords from one post. Below OK.
SET ASIDE
A clinic-technology blogThe US is one of its top markets, with traffic spread across hundreds of keywords.
SHORTLISTED

Run several client sites in different countries? See link building for agencies, each client in its own market.

Illustrative example, not real output or real sites.

FAQ

Checking website traffic: common questions

Is the traffic an SEO tool shows real traffic?

It’s an estimate. Tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush estimate a site’s monthly visits from organic search, worked out from where it ranks and how often those terms are searched. It is not the site’s own analytics, and it doesn’t include direct, social or paid visits. Its value is that it measures every site the same way, so a seller’s claim can be checked against one yardstick.

How can I see which countries a website’s traffic comes from?

Open the traffic-by-country report for the domain in an SEO tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush. It lists the countries sending the most organic search traffic and roughly how much each sends. For a backlink, check that your target market is one of the leading countries, with real volume there, and not a small slice of a big total.

What are the signs of fake or inflated website traffic?

Watch for traffic carried by a few keywords or one viral post, a spike with no new content behind it, visits from countries unrelated to the site’s topic, and big traffic with almost no search presence behind it. A seller’s analytics screenshot can’t be checked from outside, so compare it with an independent estimate before you pay.

Does a site need a lot of traffic to be a good backlink?

No. A smaller site whose readers are your buyers, in your country, can be worth more than a big one whose traffic comes from elsewhere. What matters is that the traffic sits in your market and rests on many keywords. At LabsMedia a site below your bar is marked “Below OK”: not a bad site, just not a fit for this brief.

Can LabsMedia target a country other than the US?

Yes. Traffic is judged against the country in your brief, and 203 countries are available for geo-targeting. The same site can pass for a US brief and fail for a German one, so if you run several sites in different markets, each one is checked against its own country.

PRESS START

Tell us your market

Email your brief: your site and the country you sell to. We reply with a short form, and Scout gets to work.

Your market, one of 203
Email your briefPrefer a call? Talk to a backlink specialistMeet Scout, our backlink botAll the ways to reach us
support@labsmedia.com