competitor can see my traffic?

Or is he blowing smoke?

[weblamer2]

Hello,

My boss just called me into his office. He claimed he was talking to a competitor of ours who claimed he was able to tell how many hits a month we were receiving.

This baffled me.. or stats page is password protected, and we do not show any counters on our site..

Is this guy blowing smoke, or is there a service out there that can show how many hits my website gets?

[redzone]

unless he has the password, he is blowing smoke...
Why would a competitor tell on himself?

[weblamer2]

Well, we do alot of brokerage, so competitor's are also sometimes our customers... it's complicated. ;)

I wonder what this guy is claiming to see, then...

[too much information]

There is actually a tool that estimates traffic to a URL. I can't find the address right now, maybe someone else has it?

As far as I can tell it's a good estimate, but it's by no means accurate. I had some fun checking my site against some of my competators but other than that I would not give too much creditability to their statements.

If you are concerned, ask the guy what numbers he has, then tell him "Ok, and what about our traffic the day before". Even if he knows how much traffic you get, shoudn't that give him something to worry about not you?

It could also be that he's using the Alexa info and thinking it's actual traffic. Who knows.

[martinibuster]

alexa toolbar data is a guess and therefore not reliable. Hitwise partners with isp's and reportedley can give you the best intelligence. It costs too much for me (around $5k for reports, that neighborhood).

[PCInk]

If your boss is not too technical, I would just show him Alexa. Showing that will remove some of his fear when he realises everyone can see everyone's stats.

[weblamer2]

Yeah, I did just that. He seems a bit calmer now.

Guy is really paranoid. Even had his office swept for bugs once.

Paranoid CEO + No technical knowledge = 1 very weary web developer.

:)

[cfx211]

Anyway can take a Hitwise demo for free and get a ton of information about a website that way.