There is growing news on the internet that the Alexa Traffic
Rankings are not accurate and cannot be used to boast traffic rankings for the average site owner. The main flaw that I have found with Alexa, is their main method of collecting user traffic data, which is mainly through an Alexa Toolbar that collects data from users’ browsers that have the toolbars installed.
Personally, I prefer to conduct my own tests on particular scenarios before publishing what I hear, so I decided to do a small experiment to see for myself how Alexa would report traffic data on a couple of sites that I have built for my web design clients. I chose 2 websites to compare over a 2 week period to see how their traffic would be reflected on Alexa based on different traffic generating techniques to the sites.
The Experiment
At the beginning of the experiment, Site A had an Alexa rank of approximately 2,500,000 and Site B had a very similar ranking. Site A’s website belongs to a pharmaceutical company and Site B was a new technology blog.
Site A
At the start of the 2 week period Site A placed a couple of print advertisements in the local newspaper for a few job vacancies within the company and stated that it was accepting applications. Before the advert was placed, this company’s website was receiving an average of 6 visitors per day. The day after the ad was placed, the day’s performance jumped to 62 visitors the first day, then 99 the following day and then 100 visitors on the third day. Throughout the course of the 2 week experiment Site A had an average daily unique visitor count of 43 per day.
Site B
Site B started promoting its blog through guest posting and commenting on other sites, submitting to web directories, writing reviews and basically promoting the blog by word of mouth. Over the 2 week period, Site B had an average daily unique visitor count of 14 per day.
The Final Alexa Ranking
At the end of my experiment I thought the alexa rankings of the two sites would be fairly predictable. To my surprise I was completely wrong. Here are the rankings displayed by Alexa after my experiment:
Site A’s Alexa Rank: 1,767,341
Total Number of Visitors: 688 (Google Analytics)
Site B’s Alexa Rank: 570,834
Total Number of Visitors: 224 (Google Analytics)
The site with less visitors had a better ranking. O_0 How is that possible. Then I remembered how Alexa receives its data. Alexa states that it could not exist without the participation of the Alexa Toolbar community, i.e. web users who have the Alexa toolbar installed. So, hypothetically speaking, if the entire web community is 2 Billion users and only 100 Million users actually have the toolbar installed, how will the other users’ traffic be calculated? It would be impossible to calculate. So this means that if I launch a website that is mainly being viewed by non-alexa toolbar users, regardless of the fact that my website may be getting millions of viewers, alexa will not see that traffic and would report that my website receives no traffic or just does not exist.
So, in the case of my experiment, I assume that most of the viewers for Site A just did not have an alexa toolbar installed, thus alexa’s inability to report on their traffic. I’m not stereotyping here, but based on the types of vacancies that were posted in the print ad for Site A, I would think that most of the readers there are not very tech savvy and would not see the need of having an alexa toolbar installed with their browsers, so their generated traffic would not be reported.
This leads me to ask the question; why are major internet marketers boasting their Alexa traffic rank as though it is a 100% accurate authority in web traffic reporting, when they know that just by visiting your own site hundreds of times per day will greatly reduce your ranking and thus will not give a true impression of site traffic.
My Suggestion
More accurate means of reporting need to be developed to give a more precise view of web traffic statistics than what alexa is using. There are lots of genius’ out there who have Billions of dollars behind them, I’m just calling on them to help stop the madness. Or maybe I’ll come up with something.
In any case, I know that Alexa is here to stay because it gives a VERY rough overview of what’s happening with web traffic. I think Google Analytics is the best bet when it comes to traffic reporting so far, but google’s site reports are not viewable by the general public.
Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Should we be boasting about our Alexa ranks or not.
03/02/2010, 11:44 pm
I’m not a big fan of alexa rankings but was in my early days doing web development.
websites with tech savvy users will always have a better ranking and I agree with you that a ranking system with a more level playing field and better data collection should be developed
03/03/2010, 12:01 am
Indeed. I somehow think that google should be able to come up with something new that will revolutionize traffic reporting, but that’s just a gut feeling.
03/03/2010, 05:21 am
Alexa should only ever be used as a guide. It is nice to see your numbers getting smaller but your blog should be judged on traffic, community (comments) and profit.
03/03/2010, 07:27 am
Thanks for commenting Tom.
I agree with you 100%. I like to use Alexa just for a guide. Regardless of the amount of traffic a blog receives, if there is nothing being offered as value for the community, it really makes no sense.
03/03/2010, 06:33 pm
You guys are such NERDS!!! But so am I LOL.I use to use Alexa when I just started out but I don’t like using it cuz it just does not show the accurate info as you say, so I just dont use it at all. I strongly think your suggestion should be taken into consideration.
03/04/2010, 08:39 am
Thanks for commenting John. I really hope they can come up with a better system.
03/09/2010, 05:53 am
Hey Sam,
Yeah this is spot on. People have actually found out ways to manipulate the Alexa ratings. I used to be a member at Wealthy Affiliate and asked Carson a well known SEO guru, if the Alexa rating means much. He told me that their site is getting more traffic then ever before, but there Alexa traffic has went down a lot.
Don’t worry about the Alexa ranking at all
Some marketers use it to prove that they are an authority but really the only people that feed into it are inexperienced marketers.
Maybe a guide but that is about it
.-= Garen @ Best Web Hosting Service´s last blog ..Best WordPress Blog Plugins – Plug It In, Plug It in =-.
03/09/2010, 06:57 am
Thanks for commenting Garen,
Honestly, I still use alexa, just to see ‘roughly’ how a site is doing.
This is what I dislike about some internet marketing strategists, they prey on the inexperienced and then leave them with bad experiences. I’m now trying Compete.com to see if their tracking and reporting method is more accurate.
03/09/2010, 07:12 am
I honestly, think that these marketers do things very unethically. They basically show people I am very popular and look at my Alexa rank. Not in those words, but really they leverage themselves that way.
I do run http://www.report-online-scams.com and I get a lot of complaints from dirty marketers. I am always skeptical of someone that preys on getting rich quickly. They either know that these people are vulnerable and need money quickly, and in the back of their mind know it doesn’t work.
I guess I got a little off subject, but I always ask around before taking serious consideration on Internet marketing programs.
Do let me know what you find out about Compete.com.
.-= Garen @ Best Web Hosting Service´s last blog ..Best WordPress Blog Plugins – Plug It In, Plug It in =-.
03/09/2010, 12:04 pm
I agree. I like the report online scams site. We need sites like this to help us research other users’ experience and what should be avoided on the web. This website will do well as the community grows. Also check out http://www.ripoffreport.com
I actually added the Compete tracking code to this blog about a week ago, but compete.com doesn’t display traffic reports until a month has passed since installing the code. That’s the only set back. I will let you know the results of that experiment. There is a huge disparity between what alexa reports and compete.com. I saw a website whose alexa rank was about 500,000 and compete was saying 1,400,000, so there is definitely something wrong.
03/18/2010, 02:21 pm
This is a very interesting experiment. Yes, I was aware that it’s the toolbar that helps Alexa track things – and you’re right, Google analytics is probably the most accurate tool to use. However, as a motivator – seeing those numbers change is still useful – on days when things drop, it alerts me that I need to do something differently or switch things up a bit.
The best thing to do for a site is to boost how often you’re posting – if you can post at least once a day or even twice a day for about a week, you’ll see things pick up. Make sure you’re optimizing your content as best as you can are using the catchiest titles you can think of. Then start making rounds to comment on blogs with the Comluv plugin.
I like to check out http://famousbloggers.net , http://robswebtips.com, http://infopreneur.net and http://plantingdollars.com several times a week. Then on Mondays, don’t miss an opportunity to comment at http://blog.2createawebsite.com . And do forget to drop back by weblogbetter.com! Hope this helps!
.-= Kiesha @ WeBlogBetter´s last blog ..How I increased my Alexa rank =-.
03/18/2010, 02:37 pm
Thanks for commenting Kiesha.
I really do use alexa as a motivator, but I can’t use it to compare my site to another because if a particular site has mostly alexa toolbar users it will have a higher rank.
Thanks for the advice as well. I have been reading a few of those blogs and commenting since I find them very interesting. I will definitely visit your blog more often, maybe I will send you a guest post if that’s ok with you
.-= Sam´s last blog ..Is Your Blog User-Friendly? Avoid Deadly Mistakes Many Bloggers Make =-.
03/24/2010, 05:07 pm
I agree, you can’t give the Alexa ranking too much thought. I’ve often thought of the major flaw, every visitor needs to have the Toolbar installed. The majority of web users won’t, with the “tech” crowd being the exception.
.-= Ryan Cowles´s last blog ..Mt. Baldy California – Photography =-.
03/24/2010, 05:20 pm
Thanks for Reading Ryan.
Yup, everybody will need to have it installed for it to be 100% accurate. Alexa has been around since the late ’90s and only a few million have it.
Do you have it installed?
04/01/2010, 01:47 am
Interesting results Sam. I wonder what would happen if you installed the Alexa widget on your site? If the widget was able to collect visitor and other data you would think that the results would be far more accurate than having to rely on the Alexa Toolbar?
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Getting More Than Just Money For Doing The Xomba =-.
04/01/2010, 06:28 am
Thanks for reading Sire.
That’s something I will have to try. It should be more accurate since the widget is actually on the site and would serve as a tracker for all visitors coming to site. I assume that this method would record all traffic and not just visitors with the toolbar installed.
I’ll give it a try, I’m always up for this type of experiment.
.-= Sam´s last blog ..The Art of Community Optimization – Maximize Your Blog’s Potential =-.
04/01/2010, 05:23 pm
I’m not saying that it does record that data. It’s just a theory of mine. I know if it was my widget I would make sure it did record all the relevant data, something like what Google’s Analytic script.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Getting More Than Just Money For Doing The Xomba =-.
04/23/2010, 03:29 am
same thing happens with me also…
My frnd blog getting 10+ visitors than ME…but my Alexa rank is around 50k ….his Ranks is over 180,000…
very confused.
.-= tricks tips´s last blog ..Abuse Them – Abuse anyone Anonymously Here! =-.
04/23/2010, 06:29 am
Hey Sudharsan,
Thanks for visiting
That’s the main problem with alexa. In your friend’s case, the majority of his visitors may not have the alexa toolbar installed so their traffic is not being recorded. So in the meantime, enjoy your 50K ranking
04/23/2010, 10:54 am
10+ means 10+ times more than my blog….????
In my view Alexa is not a good measure of traffic analysis ….
Anyway im very happy with my Alexa ranking ….ha ha
.-= tricks tips ´s last blog ..Abuse Them – Abuse anyone Anonymously Here! =-.
04/23/2010, 09:01 am
This is old news. Very old news. But there’s no substitute to Alexa. There’s no tool at the moment where you can easily check blog or website’s traffic. Alexa is never accurate but its there so you can compare one website to another.
That’s why there are so many tips to increase your Alexa ranking. Because if its all about traffic then there’s no use for Alexa tips at all.
Having said that, I want to boast that my article about Alexa is number 2 in Google SERP’s for “Alexa Ranking Tips” keyword and number 10 in “Alexa Tips” keyword.
.-= ZXT´s last blog ..SEO Tool Review =-.
04/23/2010, 09:49 am
Sam great experiment. I know that Alexa rates traffic from other sites in your cat.. so you may have the same traffic 2 days running and if one day the traffic from sites similar to your is high your rank will drop less.. and the day that the traffic for other sites is lower, your rank will drop more.
So no matter how much traffic your get it still matters what traffic other sites get too.
Alexa had a post on their blog explaining this.
Alexa isn’t perfect, but we all use it, so it is still a level playing field..
What I take from your psot, is don’t focus to hard on stats they ar enever perfect not on Alexa Google Analytics or Google Web Tools
.-= John Paul@Make Money Every Day´s last blog ..My Crazy Simple 7 Step Plan To Promote A New Post =-.
04/25/2010, 10:54 pm
Hey John, thanks for commenting.
Wow, that’s new to me. I think I’ll have to search for that post on alexa’s blog. Thanks for sharing.
We definitely should not focus too much on stats because that’s not the whole aim in blogging. At least, not for us
Although Google analytics does not provide traffic ranking info, it is the best I’ve seen so far when it comes to reporting visitor statistics like behavior and demographics.
04/25/2010, 05:41 am
Yeah, man that’s true..Alexa rank are rubbish and every blogger knows that but since most of the advertisers rely on it as the source of their own statistics before advertising thus it becomes also an important thing for a blogger to optimize his/her alexa rankings any way possible if he is willing to make money blogging selling banner ad-spots…
.-= Typhoon´s last blog ..Are You Taking The “SMART” Approach To Blogging? =-.
04/25/2010, 10:35 pm
Hey Typhoon. Thanks for commenting.
Unfortunately many bloggers boast about their alexa rank. I honestly do use it as an indicator of my progress in relation to other sites, but I won’t brag because I know the truth behind the ranking methods.
It would all be a better playing field if alexa found a way to give at least 95% accuracy in their reports through some other method than the toolbar. They’ve been doing this since the late ’90′s, its about time they brought some new innovation to the marketplace.
04/25/2010, 09:48 am
I would love to hear about one specific example of someone being turned down by an advertiser because of their Alexa rank. I keep hearing about how the advertisers use Alexa but the question is how EXACTLY do they use it. If anyone has the answer to that please let me know. I’ve been asking about this for almost a year. Also, I want to know if Alexa reviews improve your ranking. No one can answer that question (so far) either. I think it’s absolutely outrageous that they are allowed to rank blogs based on who has their toolbar installed. If Google did that people would outraged.
Either way you are doing a great job with this blog and I wouldn’t worry or let your clients worry too much about Alexa rank.
.-= Ileane @ Ms. Ileane Speaks´s last blog ..SEO Site Tools Finds Google Page Rank =-.
04/25/2010, 10:28 pm
Hello Ileane and thanks for taking the time to comment
The truth is: My application to advertising networks has been denied on more than one occasion when I first started blogging and was trying to attract advertisers to my blog. Their reason for the denial was that I did not yet have enough traffic on my site and I should re-apply in a couple of months when traffic improved. Back then, the only way they could see my traffic stats was through alexa since that was the only tracking site with available information since my blog was new. They did not state a specific requirement for traffic though. The whole idea is that they want quality websites with lots of traffic. That’s what their advertisers are paying them for, so they tend to deny low traffic sites. Unfortunately, some of them really do use this information for accepting publishers.
As for reviews: These have no relationship with traffic ranking. I could get 100 reviews and my traffic is still poor. So using reviews would not be a valid way to grade a site’s traffic because the review has nothing to do with traffic. Its just supporting information for sites in the alexa database.
Hope these effectively answer your questions
.-= Sam´s last blog ..10 Things that Unnecessarily Complicates Your Blog =-.
04/26/2010, 12:15 am
Yes, thank you! I appreciate you sharing the info.
.-= Ileane | The Podcast Blog´s last blog ..Take Control of Your YouTube Activity Settings =-.
05/19/2010, 10:14 pm
It’s never a good idea to rely solely on one tool to track all of your data. Just a generice Google search and you’ll be able to find dozens of great tools which will give your ranks, backlinks, SEO and more for free.
Take these numbers with a grain of salt, compare them across the board.
I agree, Google Analytics does a fantastic job with tracking. Every night, on the dot I jump over to take a look (pretty much a habit now haha).
.-= Murlu´s last blog ..Time Management For Successful Bloggers =-.
05/22/2010, 07:53 pm
Good point Murlu
Relying on a single reporting tool, especially Alexa, is not a good idea since there will always be inaccuracies and irregularities because of many different influences in traffic and demographics to name a few.
The only thing missing from Google Analytics is a comparison tool for all websites which I think they may never offer.