Compete has developed a unique methodology created by experts in the fields of mathematics, statistics and the data sciences to aggregate, transform, enhance and normalize data in order to estimate U.S. Internet traffic.

Based on the daily web usage of more than two million members (and growing!) of the Compete community, Compete calculates and estimates total traffic and rank for nearly every site on the web. We use rigorous statistics to make sure our estimates balance demographic and connection factors that match the entire U.S. Internet population. Currently, we’re calculating the number of people in the U.S. that visit any given Web site each month.

We balance multiple data sources, including ISPs, ASPs, Opt-In Panels and the Compete Toolbar. We strongly believe in our multiple data source strategy and its ability to detect and correct for bias across diverse data sources to ensure accurate projections.

We estimate traffic to the pageview level, which makes it possible for us to calculate conversion rates and analyze conversion funnels for almost all websites.

Compete online metrics are leveraged by some of the largest companies in the U.S. and are often cited in publications like USA Today, Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Read more detailed FAQs here.

Traffic estimates are most accurate for large sites with variability increasing for smaller sites.

For a detailed Compete vs Alexa comparison, read this blog post.

For more information, see the websites of these companies:
Alexa.com
Comscore.com
Hitwise.com
Netratings.com