Alexa Rankings

[hbonline]

I think Alexa is the best way to gauge the amount of traffic a site is receiving.

The power in the Alexa ranking is your ability to tell if someone is telling the truth about their traffic levels, whether its good to purchase advertising space on a website and you want to see if they are really getting the unique hits they say they are. Check domains you could buy with traffic, show you where traffic is going on the web, show you which of your websites is more popular. How about determining what method your competitors are using to advertise their websites? Hmmm...is it search engine traffic or is it email marketing campaigns? Is it short-term targeted hit traffic or is it pop-unders over a longer period of time?

Every website whether or not its wants an Alexa rating, will get one. So forget about writing the Alexa company requesting to be removed.

Next time you come upon a website, and you want to know more. Click on the "Info" button to the left of the Alexa rating. What this will do is take you to the page telling you information about the website you are at. It shows you the traffic rank, snapshot of the website, various links, and possibly a review by an editor. Look over to the LEFT of the screen. Click the "Traffic Detail" link. This will take you the page with detailed traffic information.
Check out Alexa at http://www.alexa.com

Later,

Nick

[cbp]

I did not realise you had started another thread on this, so I responded to you elsewhere. Here is a cut and paste of my message to you in case people actually want to beleive that there is something good about Alexa:

We have been around this so many times here before.... Ignore Alexa rankings as they are crap.

Alexa gives sites a ranking based on the number of visits to a site by those with the Alexa tool bar installed (a very biased population - more likely to be webmasters or technically orientated people - certainly not representative of the www surfing public).

Alexa is so easy to manipulate.
I can get any site to under 50 000 to 60 000 in a few weeks by clicking on them regularly - -- problem is if I uninstall the toolbar, they drop back to > 1 000 000 ..... very dodgey of one person can change a sites Alexa ranking that easy.

If you do not beleive me, install the tool bar - find a site with an Alexa ranking of >2 000 000 -- click on the site and several internal pages for a few times a day for a few weeks - watch its ranking shoot up to under 100 000. Uninstall the toolbar and give it a few weeks to see what happens to their Alexa ranking !!!!!! (Sometimes it helps if you can get someone to help you by doing teh same from another IP address).

There are now scripts that you can buy to automatically do the above from a whole lot of different IP addresses to get a massive improvement in your ranking.....

Any webmaster who says they have a good ALexa ranking, are really saying they have the toolbar installed.

So, again if you have a high ranking in Alexa it means you have high TRAFFIC, compared to the other 3 Billion other sites out there whatever they are about.

No it dosen't - it means you have got the toolbar installed.

CBP

[hbonline]

First off I really like this debate, it is fun to stir the pot and get the dialogue going!

But.... how is Alexa bias in the traffic ranking?? Bias towards my site, maybe yours, or and automotive site, or an E-Book site??

All it could be bias about is whether someone installed the toolbar, that in and of itself does not make it bias towards a site or a particular type of site. I will take the results from 10 million anytime, I know it is not perfect but it is a VERY, VERY VERY GOOD GAUGE OF TRAFFIC

And Alexa is random, in that there are people who do not even know my site exists, though, I find that hard to believe ;)

And when you think about it how many people really use the internet?? keeping in mind that there are 250 million people in the US and if you divide that by 3 for an approx average for a household you end up with 83 million and then take off about 25% for households that don't have the internet and you have 53 million, and yeah there is the rest of the world but that is Europe, Canada, and the Far East which arn't nearly as big as the US, as far as internet usage, and I don't market to them anyways. Even combined they maybe rival the US so that means ther are about 120 million people and the Alexa toolbar is installed on nearly 10% that is a huge sample!

(And don't count work computers, I have five at work and two at home, that does not mean I am 7 users).

I wont' be able to respond for a week as I am meeting other Alexa toolbar users in Hawaii for a surf vacation!!

Later

Nick

[cbp]

We really should be keeping this is one thread:
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=16982

how is Alexa bias in the traffic ranking??

It biased, as people who use the Alexa toolbar are more likely to be webmasters or technically oriented people --> bias as to which sites this group of people are likely to surf.

it is a VERY, VERY VERY GOOD GAUGE OF TRAFFIC

I dsagree - becasue of the bias and the manipulation, it a bad gauge of traffic.

CBP

[rmcintire3]

I would have to agree with cbp.
When I first installed the Alexa toolbar my site had a ranking of somewhere around 1,200,000. Now that I have had the toolbar for around 2 months my ranking is somewhere around 120,000 and getting better every week.
I believe that it is counting hits when I publish new areas to my site as well.
I would be more than happy to get rid of the Alexa toolbar for 30 days just to see what happens to my ranking. Let me know.

[cbp]

When I first installed the Alexa toolbar my site had a ranking of somewhere around 1,200,000. Now that I have had the toolbar for around 2 months my ranking is somewhere around 120,000 and getting better every week.

Thats the point I was making about how easy it is to manipulate.

What has happened to the traffic to your site in the two months when your Alexa ranking went from 1,200,000 to 120,00? Did it stay the same?

CBP

[rmcintire3]

As far as an increase in "Unique visitors" I don't see much of a change.
Oct. 7345
Nov. 7869
Dec. 5203
Jan. 6211
Feb. 6742
Mar. 8221
April clip 7895

WAIT A MINUTE!!
I just decided to do a little test with my domain aliases.
www.thepurchasepoint.com
www.yoursellingpoint.com

They both are aliases for yourcrafts.com yet the rankings are different.

yourcrafts.com Alexa ranking is: 122,762 today.
thepurchasepoint.com Alexa ranking is: 122,762 today.
yoursellingpoint.com Alexa ranking is:1,979,382 today.

Very few,if any, people enter yourcrafts through either alias. So, at this point I am not sure that Alexa ranking is even based on traffic at all.

[info107]

Originally Posted by hbonline

I think Alexa is the best way to gauge the amount of traffic a site is receiving.

The power in the Alexa ranking is your ability to tell if someone is telling the truth about their traffic levels, whether its good to purchase advertising space on a website and you want to see if they are really getting the unique hits they say they are. Check domains you could buy with traffic, show you where traffic is going on the web, show you which of your websites is more popular. How about determining what method your competitors are using to advertise their websites? Hmmm...is it search engine traffic or is it email marketing campaigns? Is it short-term targeted hit traffic or is it pop-unders over a longer period of time?

Every website whether or not its wants an Alexa rating, will get one. So forget about writing the Alexa company requesting to be removed.

Next time you come upon a website, and you want to know more. Click on the "Info" button to the left of the Alexa rating. What this will do is take you to the page telling you information about the website you are at. It shows you the traffic rank, snapshot of the website, various links, and possibly a review by an editor. Look over to the LEFT of the screen. Click the "Traffic Detail" link. This will take you the page with detailed traffic information.
Check out Alexa at http://www.alexa.com

Later,

Nick

Nick, you are probably joking.
Alexa is waisting people's time.
It does not do nothing for you, does not give you a real data.
Pay attention to something important. Alexa is just a waste.

[Offshore]

Alexa ranking is great if your website's rank is 10K or better.

If not, I thing that everything can be changed if you (and several your friendds) wiht installed toolbars will visit the webiste once a day.

I've tried it many many times.

After I create the new website, I'm able to make its Alexa ranking = 100K just visiting it several times a day for a week or so.

__
Igor.

[cbp]

After I create the new website, I'm able to make its Alexa ranking = 100K just visiting it several times a day for a week or so.

Only 100k :-) .... I usually can get it down to 60-70K :-) (BTW - clicking on some internal pages as well as the home page helps a lot when trying to do this)

Just confirms what I said about how dodgey the Alexa rankings are.

CBP

[eko]

Alexa is definetly manipulating the web. After I uninstalled their toolbar,my site went down dramaticly(according to them) but my hosting stats tells the opposite;)

As a company they are careless and not trusteable(Even Amazon is their main)

My spybot program alerted to the remaining of Alexa toolbar in my registry,I think this is enough proof about Alexa.

[astralone]

Oh what have we hit here? Please don't get me started about that crooked alexa. When I first found out about alexa i was amazed. I wondered how a business could do this. Then as time went on I saw the fakers for what they really are. I actually got into an argument with someone who wanted to sell something on my site. He said your alexa ranking is 900,000 I don't think my items will sell on your site. As a business owner I was supposed to be composed but i had to let him have it about alexa. What a piece of junk. Now I wonder about amazon. Do they stink too?

Astralone

[Raisor]

Since two weeks we do not really count on Alexa anymore. We do not blame Alexa for this but we're currently unable to get over 8.000 (unique) site visitors per day. Having arround 8.000 unique visitors gave us a ranking of about 15k -> and we do believe what Offshore stated earlier: "Alexa ranking is great if your website's rank is 10K or better"

I can understand that some webmasters or marketers like Alexa [or Amazon] and others not [it's maybe close to the Microsoft thing -> some love MS and some hate MS] ... but I wouldn't give a wrong impression to newbies!

[Gary Golden]

I agree that these ranking can be messed up. A person needs to check links and this will give you a better idea of volume, additionally check pertinent keywords, I have seen sites with high alexa ranking and you cannot find them using any pertinent keywords, highly ranked sites should be found by using any pertinent keywords.

I feel that a websites true value comes from how many pertinent keywords a site can be found on rather than PR ranking by GOOGLE.

To many times when checking on pertinent keywords of high pr sites just are not there. Example: for a hosting company type in "Web Hosting" or even "your state web hosting". These are just examples but you get the idea!

[AussieWebmaster]

I did the remove toolbar and it hit our site...

Right now we are getting over a million hits a month and have a ranking of 17k-18k... I know a couple of our lesser competitors are using it to get higher...

I actually would like to find the best place to give me the top 250 sites on the web. I find it hard to believe that offeroptimizer is in top ten...

while overture is number 22...

Please give me a break... if you want to be taken seriously stop letting lesser sites use you like a cheap whore for branding purposes etc.

[sonja]

So if Alexa does not give accurate accounts of hits etc, is there another such website that does?

Wouldnt it be great to have a 'proper' independent check on all websites?

I know there are lots of people who would be very happy to have their real hits hidden but as a fairly new website, I would love to know where my position is in reality.

[Robban]

Yes, Alexa can be manipulated and I see that many here like to do just that. So stop. And stop bitching about Alexa at the same time.

Alexa if used correctly is a wonderful tool. Most importantly you can use it to gauge your traffic position with your key competitiors. If they are manipulating their sites - thats not your problem. Eventually (in real traffic) you are just going to kick their ass even more when you reach their rank.

With my site the Alexa rank has been dead on - gone up and down accurately with the real traffic patterns. And no, I don't have a toolbar.
The Daily stat is not very "accurate" and can fluctuate a lot (especially for over 100K sites) But the weekly and 3mo average are definitely accurate.
So stop manipulating your own and others sites and benefit from Alexa for what it is.

[AussieWebmaster]

Originally Posted by Robban

Yes, Alexa can be manipulated and I see that many here like to do just that. So stop. And stop !bleep!ing about Alexa at the same time.

Alexa if used correctly is a wonderful tool. Most importantly you can use it to gauge your traffic position with your key competitiors. If they are manipulating their sites - thats not your problem. Eventually (in real traffic) you are just going to kick their ass even more when you reach their rank.

With my site the Alexa rank has been dead on - gone up and down accurately with the real traffic patterns. And no, I don't have a toolbar.
The Daily stat is not very "accurate" and can fluctuate a lot (especially for over 100K sites) But the weekly and 3mo average are definitely accurate.
So stop manipulating your own and others sites and benefit from Alexa for what it is.

I love the signature - self praise is no flattery my friend... and if you expect people not to question dubious practices then you have a long way to go in the online industry...
Also I like the keyword spam at the bottom of your site... very professional.

[matauri]

I must have missed this post in Internet Industry forum. So I have now moved it over to Search Engine discussion.

Maybe one of the Mods would like to merge it with the other thread on same topic.

[jhansen]

I talked to a fellow with FIFTY sites. He knows their traffic, compares their Alexa rank and says Alexa is totally crazy - leastwise SOMETIMES. (Alexa admits certain inaccuracies.)

His primarily European visited sites tend to rank lower than U.S. oriented sites with only ONE TENTH the hits/visits/pageviews/bandwidth.

I used to use it to look at competitor links, but found alexas lists far more than google, so now I use the google tool bar and look at THOSE inbound links: every single site, often HUNDREDS just for ONE competitor site.

When I find interesting is that soemtimes the vast majority of those inbound sites are NOT content related to the competitors site, but they APPEAR to nonetheless at least help his google site rank.

Comments?

[Mel]

Alexa uses a very small and biased sample of surfers to produce its results and it has been proven time and time again that it is easy to manipulate your Alexa rankings to show more traffic, while your site stats show no change.

The only accurate gauge of your sites traffic is your site stats themselves, and as far as judging the popularity of others sites (I guess there is a reason for wanting to know this, but personally I have my hands full keeping up with my own sites) its results are dubious, but it may be the best tool available for that purpose.

Use it if you like it, but be aware of its defiencies.