Brand-tracking and social-listening tools are expensive, and most small businesses don't need 90% of what they do. What they actually want to know is simple: are more people interested in us, or in them, and is the gap changing?
If your brand, your competitors, or your category have Wikipedia articles, you can track that for free. I built a Google Sheet for it, the Wikipedia Trends Tracker. It charts five years of monthly Wikipedia readers for any two to five pages.
The short answer
To track brand or competitor interest over time for free, compare the monthly Wikipedia page views of each brand's article. Wikimedia publishes them free, with history back to 2015. Paste the articles into a Google Sheet template, check the chart once a month, and watch whether the gap is growing or shrinking.
What you can track this way
- Two competitors head to head. Who gets looked up more, and since when.
- Your category. Is the whole market getting more attention, or less? Chart the category article next to the leader.
- Launches and news. Did their big announcement change anything a month later, or just for a week?
- The challenger. A small competitor's line on its own scale shows growth long before it threatens the leader.
How to set it up, step by step
- List your competitors and find each one's Wikipedia article. Use the company article if there's no product article.
- Get the free template from the Trend Tracker page and make a copy.
- Open the Controls tab. It's the first one.
- Paste the leader into Page 1 and the competitor you care most about into Page 2. For a three-way view, add the category article as Page 3.
- Set Range to All time and Daily or monthly to Monthly.
- Click Fetch views + chart. The first time, Google asks you to allow the script.
- Add a new tab called Log. List the pairs you watch, one per row, with their two links.
- Once a month, paste each pair into the Controls tab, click Fetch views + chart, and write one line in the Log: the date, who was ahead, what changed, and what you think caused it.
That last step is the one that pays off. After six months you have a dated log of what moved interest in your market, which no paid tool will write for you.
A real example: Tesla vs BYD
From Wikimedia's API (English Wikipedia, human readers):
- In 2022, the Tesla, Inc. article had about 3.55 million views. BYD Auto's had about 388,000. Tesla was ahead about nine to one.
- In 2025, Tesla had about 2.47 million and BYD about 1.40 million. Less than two to one.
Tesla is still the bigger name. But if you were a competitor watching this market, the important line was BYD's, climbing year after year while Tesla's drifted down. You can see it on the Tesla vs BYD page.
Another one worth looking at: Shopify vs WooCommerce. WooCommerce runs a huge number of stores, but Shopify gets far more readers.
What if my brand doesn't have a Wikipedia article?
Most small businesses don't, and that's fine. Track the things around you that do:
- Your category: "Meal kit", "Electric bicycle", "Padel".
- The big competitors you're positioned against.
- The problem you solve: "Insomnia", "Sourdough", "Personal finance".
If the category is growing and the leader is flat, there's room. If the category is shrinking, everyone in it is fighting over less attention.
FAQ
Can I track competitors without paying for a tool?
Yes. Wikipedia page views are free and public. They won't replace a full social-listening tool, but they answer the most common question, "are more people interested in us or them?", for nothing.
How often should I check?
Monthly. The data is monthly, and checking more often just shows you the partial current month.
Do Wikipedia page views include bots?
Wikimedia separates known bots and crawlers from human readers. The numbers in this post are human readers only.
Start watching your market this month. Get the free Wikipedia Trends Tracker, paste your competitors, and keep the sheet.