alexa rank does not tell the whole story reciprocal links

[jasse]

hi everyone,
i don't understand alexa; i have done many reciprocal links with quality websites,and they have linked back to me (i have checked); when i check my rank on alexa, it tells me that currently there are no sites linked to mine...can anyone help me figure this out; website is www.cottagetapestry.com

[cbp]

Alexa get there link data from Google and Google only ever displays a sample of links.

CBP

[awall19]

Google typically shows links of PR4 or above pages linking to you.

In addition it has lag time. Google does a deep update of the links about once a month

[Elite Skills]

For my site - eliteskills.com - it says I have 9 inward links. It has said I have 9 for the last 6 months even though my ranking has been scaping the bottom of the top 100,000 sites recently. Google has me as having thousands of inwards links. Alexa's just on crack. It's always sketchy accuracy in any of it's stats.

[Panky]

Consult Google for reciprocal link information, not Alexa. Alexa is designed to measure traffic based on Alexa toolbar users.

Read this about Alexa and how their system works. Pay close attention to the Disclaimer. Alexa admits their stats are flawed. Alexa is simply a tool. Do not give much weight to Alexa ratings when trading with sites because of the gross inaccuracy of their results.

[cbp]

Panky

The original question was not about the Alexa ranking (which is dodgey), but was about the backlinks that Alexa show to a site - they get this from Google and generally do show more. Alexa do not get the link information from their toolbar.

CBP

[cbp]

for example, here are the Alexa backlinks to WebProWorld, which show 21 links (and is 'powered by Google')

and on Google, 904 are shown

CBP

[minstrel]

That's correct, cbp, but the page referenced by Panky is nonetheless well worth reading for anyone who worries about their Alexa rankings and reviews.

Perhaps the strongest thing about the "Disclaimer" is that these are not coming from an Alexa critic (like me) but from Alexa's own mouth.

I have to applaud them for their honesty.

[Robban]

Ok - This was helpful. I had asked something similar earlier. Bunch of Great replies.

I too have some 50 sites coming in but only two shows in Alexa. One is ranked 13,535 and the other is 666,378. The only thing they have in common is that they were one of the very first links that I got. (April 2003 - when I launched my site) Since then I have added a bunch of other high ranking sites. Some very high ranking and some not so high. So it might take much much longer to get any site to show which we've learned are stemmed from Google. As for Alexa, I think it's time to give Alexa a break. ( I have to defend a fellow San Francisco company) Alexa is not the answer to everyhting nor does it pretend to be. It is however, a great tool for someone like me who discovered SEO about 2-3 months ago and have since been watching my ranking steadily and quite accurately climb week for week - hand in hand with my own website traffic stats. (very exciting and motivating to push forward) So don't use Alexa for what it' s NOT. This Forum Rocks.

[cbp]

Something real odd has happen at Alexa sometime in the last week or so. The list of sites they have in the 'Browse by Subject' and the rankings they gice these sites has had a major timewarp. They get this Directory from ODP/DMOZ and when I checked a week or so ago, it was a version of DMOZ that was about a month old. In the last week it has reverted to version that is greater than 8-9 months old - a lot of sites not in DMOZ back then are MIA. I have emailed ALexa (will have to wait abd see if their replies equal that of Google :-)

CBP