What You NEED to Know About Alexa
Alexa is a web information company and the Web’s most popular method of measuring web traffic. Albeit the best measure the Internet currently has it is far from perfect and easily manipulated / biased toward webmaster related niches. When you first find out about Alexa, and especially YOUR alexa rank it is easy become obsessed with it. You look at sites in the 100-500,000 range and think wow… These people are the 100-500,000’s most popular sites on the web. They MUST be getting TONES of traffic. Sadly it’s usually not the case.
The way Alexa works is you download a toolbar which was once only available for Internet Explorer and recently has become available for Mozilla Firefox. Downloading that toolbar only takes a few minutes and once installed it begins tracking the web site you visit. So basically the more people that visit your web site, and the page views shown on your web site to people with an Alexa toolbar dictate your Alexa rank. Sound like a pretty easy-to-use system and quite straightforward doesn’t it?
The problem with Alexa is that up until Firefox it was estimated that roughly 7% of the Internet users were using the toolbar. Of course of those 7% most of them were obviously webmaster’s. With the addition of the Mozilla Firefox toolbar I’m sure more than 7% of the population is using Alexa; but it still isn’t close to an accurate representation of traffic. When looking for link exchanges or advertising venues don’t be fooled by an Alexa ranking. Ask to see legitimate statistics for the last few months. If they can’t supply them move on!
The fastest method for anyone to obtain a better alexa ranking is to install the toolbar. Once installed all the sites you visit begin getting points and obviously you probably visit your blog / website quite often so there will be an obvious increase in the score of your site.
As an example of Alexa’s inaccuracies about 4-5 months ago Bloggeries was at 60,000 in the world and getting a third to double more traffic then it is today. However if you look at our Alexa ranking today we’re at ~31,000 with weekly averages in the 20,000’s. What’s the difference? The blog forum is much busier with webmasters who have the alexa toolbar installed.
Basically as I mentioned in the opening paragraph; Alexa is the best method we have for measuring sites but it’s incredibly biased towards webmaster related fields. A good friend of mine has a Celebrity Gossip site that gets 1500-3000 uniques a day and her alexa ranking is only 400,000. Why? Because most people looking for the latest scoop on Jessica Simpson from work don’t have the toolbar installed.
Now that you now what Alexa is all about I’d recommend you install the toolbar and start having the websites you visit counted. Also don’t be fooled by the illusion; many things on the internet are about vanity. Keep your sanity and worry about actual traffic, conversion rates, ad placement, sales etc… Those are the things that really matter to any business whether online or offline.
34 Responses to “What You NEED to Know About Alexa”
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
- Wordpress Blog » Blog Archive » Does Alexa Still Matter? - [...] Still sweating it out trying to get a high rank at Alexa? Maybe you need to read this article. ...
Great article. Nice to get a better understanding of Alexa and how it really works.
While hi5 maintains its strong hold in Central America, it faces tough competition in Asia from many social networking sites. Hi5.com comes in first ten ranking in http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=www.fortunehotels.in Alexa.com.
Thanks related to discussing this kind of excellent articles on your site. I discovered it on the google. Let me check back again in the event you post extra aricles.
I got what you intend, thanks for posting .Woh I am happy to find this website through google. “The test and use of a man’s education is that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind.” by Carl Barzun.
Hey there, I think your blog might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your blog in Opera, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, very good blog!
Excellently consisting article, only any time all website writers supplied an identical information exactly like you, the internet became a far more desirable desired destination.
I dont just like your template however posts are very really good thus i will look! Also i cant sign up for your rss! Any ideea why?
I’ve been browsing on-line more than three hours nowadays, but I never discovered any interesting article like yours. It’s beautiful worth sufficient for me. In my opinion, if all website owners and bloggers made good content as you probably did, the net shall be a lot more helpful than ever before. “No nation was ever ruined by trade.” by Benjamin Franklin.
Heya i am for the first time here. I found this board and I find It really useful & it helped me out much. I hope to give something back and aid others like you aided me.
Some really great info , Glad I observed this. “Ours is a world where people don’t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.” by Donald Robert Perry Marquis.
Hey there, You have done a fantastic job. I’ll certainly digg it and personally recommend to my friends. I am sure they’ll be benefited from this web site.
A well made logo can make or break a company. We take pride in making your website the perfect logo design. You will not regret chooising our corporate design. We can assure you that!
Thanks for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbor were just preparing to do some research about this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more clear from this post. I am very glad to see such fantastic info being shared freely out there.
I like what you guys are up also. Such smart work and reporting! Keep up the superb works guys I have incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it’ll improve the value of my web site :)
With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright infringement? My blog has a lot of unique content I’ve either created myself or outsourced but it seems a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my agreement. Do you know any solutions to help stop content from being stolen? I’d definitely appreciate it.
Wow! This can be one particular of the most helpful blogs We have ever arrive across on this subject. Basically Magnificent. I am also a specialist in this topic so I can understand your hard work.
Great post! I am the photographer in Eastern Central Illinois – close to here, people flat away won’t pay higher prices for wedding ceremonies
I was wondering if you ever thought of changing the layout of your site? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or 2 images. Maybe you could space it out better?
You are my breathing in, I own few blogs and occasionally run out from to post .
I’ve recently started a blog, the information you provide on this web site has helped me tremendously. Thanks for all of your time & work. “There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.” by Erich Fromm.
Why are there so many odd comments on this page? Weird. Regardless I just had to stop in and compliment you on your superb writing style. Keeps me coming back. Bookmarked for future visits :D
Truly challenging articles. I loved reading that.
Your website seems to be having some compatibilty problems in my chrome browser. The text seems to be running off the page pretty bad. If you want you can contact me at: sarahhenel@live.fr and I’ll shoot you over a screen grab of the problem.
A person essentially help to make seriously articles I would state. This is the very first time I frequented your website page and thus far? I amazed with the research you made to make this particular publish amazing. Wonderful job!
Of course, what a great blog and enlightening posts, I will bookmark your website.All the Best!
I not to mention my friends came reading through the nice tips and hints from your web blog and so unexpectedly I had a terrible suspicion I had not thanked the website owner for those techniques. My men are already totally passionate to study them and now have absolutely been using them. I appreciate you for indeed being well kind as well as for finding these kinds of superior subject areas most people are really eager to understand about. My personal sincere regret for not expressing gratitude to sooner.
Wow. Awesome post! http://www.ofis.getlisted.co.nz/office-partitions-auckland
I discovered your blog internet site on google and examine several of your early posts. Continue to maintain up the superb operate. I merely extra up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. In search of forward to reading a lot more from you later on!…
I truly appreciate this post. I have been looking everywhere for this! Thank goodness I found it on Bing. You’ve made my day! Thanks again!
I found this site/blog very interesting, i wish there were more like this available.
Hi there, You’ve done an excellent job. I’ll certainly digg it and personally suggest to my friends. I am confident they will be benefited from this site.
Dead written content, Really enjoyed reading.
Greetings from Colorado! I’m bored to death at work so I decided to check out your site on my iphone during lunch break. I really like the info you provide here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how quick your blog loaded on my mobile .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, fantastic blog!
Congratulations on having one of the most sophisticated blogs Ive come across in some time! Its just incredible how much you can take away from something simply because of how visually beautiful it is. Youve put together a great blog space –great graphics, videos, layout. This is definitely a must-see blog!