Alexa ranking - I don't get it

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by ian_batten, Apr 20, 2009.

  1. #1
    I'm a bit confused as to how Alexa rank works. I see all the time peopel posting their alexa rank, so thought I'd check mine.

    On average, I get around 600-700 unique visitors per day to my main website, and have done for the past 2 years or so. Site has been up for nearly 5 years. I have an Alexa rank of 1,100,000 (in the region of).

    I go to the classified area, and for a web directory that gets 60-70 unique views per day, it has an alexa ranking of 110,000.

    How does this make sense?
     
    ian_batten, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  2. Seqqa

    Seqqa Well-Known Member

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    #2
    I wouldn't worry about it I've still yet to find someone that fully understands alexa.
     
    Seqqa, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  3. praetserge

    praetserge Notable Member

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    #3
    as long as you're outside 100k alexa rating is not very accurate. But I guess there's more to it.
    I used to buy traffic and do lots of ppc from many different networks like EntireWeb, Findit-Quick and so on, I had about 500-700 unique visitors but my alexa rating was over 3,500,000, now I realised it was complete waste of time and money and cancelled it all, now I get about 30-40 unique visitors per day from google and yahoo and guess what? my alexa rating is 2,000,000 now and still going down.
    Check your traffic and where it comes from
     
    praetserge, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  4. ian_batten

    ian_batten Well-Known Member

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    #4
    Traffic is 90% organic google traffic. The rest is direct/referralls.

    I don't pay for a penny of it.
     
    ian_batten, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  5. ~kev~

    ~kev~ Well-Known Member

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    #5
    Alexa is a spyware and tracking tool bar that gets installed on your browser. Basically, it tracks where you go on the internet.

    Because of the way that alexa tracks traffic, its not a reliable source of information. If you have ever heard the old saying "take it with a grain of salt." Well, with alexa - take that with a truck load of salt. Its nothing to worry about.

    Also, as spyware removal tools become more popular, its likely that alexa is getting removed from a lot of computers. As spyware and adware are getting more dangerous, people are having to use more removal tools. Hopefully this piece of spyware is on its way out, along with all of the rest of them.
     
    ~kev~, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  6. jwhitakr

    jwhitakr Active Member

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    #6
    There's more than enough info available on reputable SEO/SEM sites that tells you that Alexa ranking is worthless. Alexa ranking means squat and is nowhere close to reliable.
     
    jwhitakr, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  7. MelogKnaj

    MelogKnaj Active Member

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    #7
    Alexa ranking is determined by the number of people that visit your website with the Alexa toolbar. You could be pulling down 100k uniques/day, but if none of them have the toolbar your Alexa rank would still be in the millions. Alexa rank is more meaningless than pagerank, ignore it.
     
    MelogKnaj, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  8. tdg89

    tdg89 Peon

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    #8
    Don't worry too much about it. I don't get it either. My website is on the second page on Google and it still has a higher Alexa rank than the #1.
     
    tdg89, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  9. danimal62

    danimal62 Well-Known Member

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    #9
    The main problem with Alexa ranking is that it is based on traffic that visits your site that have the Alexa tool bar installed. Now where the makes the service next to useless is the largest demographic that has the Alexa toolbar installed are webmasters/SEO/IM type people. So unless your site gets a lot of visitors in the Demographic, it is not going to be accurate.
     
    danimal62, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  10. kusal

    kusal Peon

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    #10
    You need traffic from browser that have installed Alexa tool bar
    I heard that by showing their rank widget in your site help the site rank also.
     
    kusal, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  11. ian_batten

    ian_batten Well-Known Member

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    #11
    Ah, thanks. I thought this was the case.

    So basically, websites that attract more webmaster type people - who would more likely have the toolbar installed, would generally have higher alexa rank?

    This may explain it, as my website is focussed on a very specific, specialised niche.
     
    ian_batten, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  12. lindamood1

    lindamood1 Active Member

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    #12
    i havent trust in alexa rank and other ready made traffic statistic software, its work on some assumption, its better to integratde website with google analytics, it show perfect traffic.
     
    lindamood1, Apr 20, 2009 IP
  13. Vadym

    Vadym Peon

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    #13
    Alexa is a piece of shit. Don't worry about it. It's very easy to manipulate Alexa rankings :)

    After all, the reason YouTube is always in the top 5 is because of all the video auto-view gainers.
     
    Vadym, Apr 21, 2009 IP
  14. Chancey

    Chancey Well-Known Member

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    #14
    Alexa isn't accurate because they are only including those people whoa re suing their service.
     
    Chancey, Apr 21, 2009 IP