Alexa Ranking

jg_v7n · 10-21-2004, 06:34 PM

[Note to mods: not sure where this post should go...?]

I am becoming increasingly disillusioned with the amount of people that use Alexa ranking as some sort of measure of the "worth/ popularity" of a site.

I have experimented with their "toolbar" for some time and the inconsistencies are so glaringly obvious that I cannot imagine any practical use for the ranking at all.

When I use the toolbar my site jumps up to ~25/30k rank, when I do not use it my site falls to <100k. Where is the value in this?

[I notice this most recently on Text Link Ads Inc. http://www.text-link-ads-inventory.com/1to100.html

Mostly, as far as I can tell, it is used my webmasters solely to increase their "ranking" on Alexa, obviously at the expense of submitting their every day web use to Amazon's spywear. I know this, and probably everyone who is likely to be reading this does also, so in my eye's it's just a con for those that do not follow SEO (I use the term liberally) in any depth. By using Alexa rank, is the SEO "industry" just alienating itself more from the vast majority of "real" internet users?

Who uses the Alexa toolbar? And why? And do you really think that the benefits outweigh the dissadvantages of having your every online move tracked?

Pinyo · 10-21-2004, 06:52 PM

Alexa is inaccurate and easily manipulated for site worse than the ~30,000 mark. It does get more accurate as you get closer to 1.

awall19 · 10-21-2004, 07:12 PM

it is just another (easy to manipulate) measure of popularity...it really does not mean that much.

TGR · 10-21-2004, 07:45 PM

I think it's funny when peope use their Alexa ranking as a selling point. Follow that up with a WPG keyword report and I'll boot you out onto the street!

awall19 · 10-21-2004, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TGR

I think it's funny when peope use their Alexa ranking as a selling point. Follow that up with a WPG keyword report and I'll boot you out onto the street!

if it works it works...if I know others are going to respect alexa and I got a high one it does not hurt me to mention it...along with still mentioning other good stuff and whatnot.

Rivux · 10-21-2004, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jg_v7n

By using Alexa rank, is the SEO "industry" just alienating itself more from the vast majority of "real" internet users?

Who uses the Alexa toolbar? And why? And do you really think that the benefits outweigh the dissadvantages of having your every online move tracked?

The only people who use the Alexa ranking are crooks and the uninformed. The Alexa ranking has absolutely zero legitimacy, it's no different then me making a website and putting up some random rankings. I do not think anyone in the SEO industry who you would consider a professional uses the Alexa ranking, so they are not tarnishing the image or reputation of the industry as a whole.

TGR · 10-22-2004, 09:23 AM

Yeah, but it doesn't work. That's the whole point. When people use that as a selling point I usually tell them to leave.

jg_v7n · 10-22-2004, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TGR

Yeah, but it doesn't work. That's the whole point.

Exactly! Thats my point also, by mentioning it your implying that it has some genuine value. So you're not telling the whole story...

awall19 · 10-23-2004, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TGR

Yeah, but it doesn't work. That's the whole point. When people use that as a selling point I usually tell them to leave.

it doesnt work for you, but it does work for some. I get tons of emails from people who use SiteBuildIt who wrongfully think Alexa is important.

I am not saying that it should be the centerpiece of any sales offer, but its additional info that does not hurt to give, and some people still market it.

LuckyPimp · 08-06-2005, 10:45 AM

I find people who are not up to speed on marketing and buying marketing are the people who find alexa very useful.

raciviusdawn · 10-22-2004, 12:07 PM

me sentiments as well about Alexa...i don't use it as a measure at all..in fact when people come to me bragging about their Alexa rank, i just laugh and ask if they really know why a idiot.com site seems to be more popular than ESPN.com? i mean be real ya know..

anyway, i don't put value in it at all...but like you guys say, some are misinformed.

Papadoc · 10-22-2004, 10:20 PM

Alexa is nothing to make a 'go forward' decision on. Yet it's popularity is only achieved through a frustration by many people who cannot afford the $30,000 Neilsen entrance fee (and frankly that's a bigger load of whoodah). Ever been suckered by someone who said they did a half million visitors per month? In other words, you cannot count on a good Alexa number as being accurate. But you can be pretty sure they aren't faking a bad one. If someone is running an Alexa 2 million and are claiming 100K visitors per month, run!

It's one tool. Learn to use it but don't depend on it.

hitexchangenews · 10-23-2004, 10:09 AM

LOL Alexa....

I had the best week in the hostory of my program. I had hundreds of members joining, I served tens of thousands of page views each day last week, I had the most user activity in the history of my system.

My Alexa rankings actually went down....LOL

I don't put too much weight in a system that has so many 'cheating' software avaliable to increase your page rank.....=(

marcyboy · 08-11-2005, 06:28 AM

Hi Alexa does have one other (or IMO the only) important use. You can see where people who visit your site also visit! That is how I found this site!!!!!!!!

So from a marketing perspective it could (though not an accurate stat) show you your real main competitors.

Xon · 08-11-2005, 07:39 PM

I've been wary of Alexa and it's accuracy since I came across it. I agree about rank fluctuations when you use the toolbar. It's a hideously inncurate way of measuring popularity.

verna · 06-27-2006, 03:04 PM

Well I used alexa toolbar to monitor my site traffic...

GuyFromChicago · 06-27-2006, 03:17 PM

Alexa ranks hold some value when they are under the 10K mark, even more under the 5K mark.

I've yet to meet the person/see the software that can fake an Alexa rating to that level.

JuggoPop · 06-27-2006, 03:32 PM

Yipppeee! more really old threads...

kickstart2 · 06-30-2006, 08:38 AM

Lol.. I don't really understand why people bring out old threads, since most of those who were interested in discussing the topic would probably be inactive..

I do not bother about the Alexa ranking, but I do use it to compare my site in terms of traffic to my competitors, finding related websites and the other features provided by Alexa.

joepan · 06-30-2006, 09:06 AM

Alexa can be easily manipulated as I have seen first hand with a few other sites and is not accurate. This would be a great tool if there where more ways in place to not allow as much manipulation in my opinion.