Alexa ranking

[plmerlin]

I see my alexa ranking going down my daily reach and pages view going up....

But is that really useful or is that another gismo?

Can someone tell me if Alexa has any other importance than cheering me up?

Thank you

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by plmerlin

I see my alexa ranking going down my daily reach and pages view going up.... But is that really useful or is that another gismo? Can someone tell me if Alexa has any other importance than cheering me up?
Thank you

Alexa ranking is virtually meaningless, so please don't spend even 5 seconds concerning yourself about it. Let me explain - The "rating" is 100% determined by how many clicks your site receives by people who have the Alexa toolbar installed. Take the time to very carefully read their privacy notice. (The Alexa toolbar has "spyware" installed to track your usage and where you visit.)

Since Alexa results are powered by Google, it never gained popularity with the "average" user. The vast majority of users who have the toolbar installed are webmasters and other net related fields. The results were therefore not IMHO, in line with reality. Webmasters would sit and click on their sites on an extremely regular basis to create artificial results. If you read through their "top" results, you'll notice that Alexa has even added a disclaimer explaining that the results may be "biased".

Special note: Yes, the Google toolbar also has programs installed to track your usage, but they openly explain what it is and why, and even tell you how to disable it.

[Crazy_Rob]

Alexa ranking is virtually meaningless, so please don't spend even 5 seconds concerning yourself about it.

Yep, EXACTLY!!

[plmerlin]

Good for me! as I use A9.com search engine I was wondering...

It cheers me up and that's always good

[mopacfan]

As everyone else said: Alexa IS COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY USELESS.

[SportsOutlaw]

removed the alexa toolbar a couple months ago. Since then, the traffic at my site has increase probably 300% (maybe more), however, my ranking at alexa is now about 90,000 below where it was when I last had the toolbar installed.
Is there a bigger joke than alexa? NO.

[wizteen]

Originally Posted by mopacfan

As everyone else said: Alexa IS COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY USELESS.

Its only useless if you site site doesnt get much traffic. If you have a site doing 10k or so unique hits a day its a pretty good comparison to other similiar sites. I have a few sites in top 10k and 1 or 2 that get into top 5k every once and a while.

[Gutsy]

Yes, Alexa ranking is pretty useless as i did come to know about the alexa toolbar being installed on the browsers, which affects the ranking. Used to bother about it before but now feel that Google page rank is a much better way of judging the site's potential. Any comments?

[roadies]

Originally Posted by plmerlin

Good for me! as I use A9.com search engine I was wondering...

It cheers me up and that's always good

Wow, someone else actually uses A9!

Search and visit my site please, I could use the traffic from A9. (ok, just kidding.)

[minstrel]

Originally Posted by wizteen

Its only useless if you site site doesnt get much traffic. If you have a site doing 10k or so unique hits a day its a pretty good comparison to other similiar sites. I have a few sites in top 10k and 1 or 2 that get into top 5k every once and a while.

No it isn't. It has nothing to do with how much traffic you get. Alexa rankings are based on a small, rather unique, non-representative sample of internet surfers. Whatever relative or absolute ranking you get with Alexa are highly skewed at best. As others have said, once you add in the fudge factor (the fact that it is easily influenced by multiple clicks on a site or automated clicks), it has no real meaning and therefore no utility as a measure of anything whatsoever.

In a word, it is a flawed and totally pointless ranking measure. Ignore it.

[roadies]

Originally Posted by minstrel

(the fact that it is easily influenced by multiple clicks on a site or automated clicks)

hmm... with the write bots in place it could be very valuable. Gain enough traffic and you could be highlighted in their winners and losers section. I wouldn't mind a link on their homepage for a while.

Alexa could become very valuable afterall.

[fromkhun]

there are some usefull tool on the alexa toolbar...like relate link

[minstrel]

You can get that "related pages" feature with the Google toolbar also, or with one of the Firefox add-ons for those of you of the FF persuasion...

I think I had the Alexa toolbar installed for about an hour -- I just didn't see anything there that I wanted or needed and couldn't get elsewhere.

[plmerlin]

Originally Posted by roadies

Wow, someone else actually uses A9!

Search and visit my site please, I could use the traffic from A9. (ok, just kidding.)

I love A9. I work in 3 locations, one office, the store and home. I just logon and get all my bookmarks, i use the dairy too for quick notes... just love it (I know, it's not perfect )

[minstrel]

Originally Posted by plmerlin

i use the dairy too for quick notes

I generally just use dairy for coffee, toast, and pizza...

[mopacfan]

Originally Posted by minstrel

I generally just use dairy for coffee, toast, and pizza...

haha, now that's funny.

[plmerlin]

Originally Posted by minstrel

I generally just use dairy for coffee, toast, and pizza...

To your point, me too... what about... tipo? (sorry sir, typo)

[roadies]

Originally Posted by roadies

hmm... with the write bots in place it could be very valuable. Gain enough traffic and you could be highlighted in their winners and losers section. I wouldn't mind a link on their homepage for a while.

Alexa could become very valuable afterall.

heh, looks like I'm not perfect either. I said "write" bots. oops.

[mopacfan]

Oh, comeon now Rodies, I've lost complete confidence in the human race. I thought YOU were perfect... Now what are we going to do?

[roadies]

Originally Posted by mopacfan

Oh, comeon now Rodies, I've lost complete confidence in the human race. I thought YOU were perfect... Now what are we going to do?

I know! I know! How do you think I felt after the discovery.

No need to be rubbing the wound.