Ever since I’ve begun blogging, I continuously hear about Alexa Ranking. “My Alexa Ranking is this, my Alexa Ranking is that”. At first, I really didn’t know what Alexa was, so I used my nifty little friend called Google. Alexa is a company that is owned by Amazon, and has become quite popular for the trafficking ranking service over at the Alexa website. If you’re a member of any big name forum, like Digital Point, you probably hear about Alexa Ranking over and over, and how you need a very good ranking in order to make good money online. For those who are blogging or running any other type of website, it is important to know a few things about Alexa and the service they offer.
Alexa reports three things – reach, page views, and overall rank. Reach is basically the ratio of web surfers visiting your site. It is given in a percentage. The Reach is given as “reach per million users” meaning that if you are given a reach of ten, it means that ten out of every million surfers comes to your website. Page views is exactly as the name states – the average number of pages that a web surfer looks at when visiting your website. Obviously, a site with more content and visitors is usually going to have more page views. Put two and two together, and you have probably discovered that the Alexa rank your site is given is based on the reach and page views. The lower the number is (your ranking) the more value is given to your site. So yes, an Alexa Rank of 1 (Google) is better than an Alexa Rank of 1,000,000. These numbers are reported on a daily basis, on a weekly basis, and on for three month averages. So one may ask themselves – how does Alexa acquire all this data?
Every day, Alexa gathers the number of visitors and page views for all webmasters using the Alexa Toolbar. You can download and install the Alexa Toolbar through the Alexa website. Needless to say, only those visitors that have the Alexa Toolbar installed will help improve your Alexa Ranking. Only a small percentage of web surfers have the toolbar installed, thus, you have probably figured out that the ranking giving by Alexa is not all that accurate.
If you are looking to have accurate stats, to see how your website is actually progressing, you should not depend on Alexa. If you have been working on your site extremely hard, but still have a horrible Alexa Ranking, do not stress. Furthermore, for those considering having accurate stats to see how their website is doing, software such a Google analytics should be use. Not to say Alexa Ranking is a number pulled out of the sky, but there are simply too many variables making it not the most accurate number. So yes, if you have a good Alexa rank, it is something you can show off and likely use to pull in a bit of extra money for advertisement purposes. On the other hand, if your rank is outright crummy, do not sit at your computer and stress – it’s not a big deal. Simply said, if you are looking for something to show off, Alexa Ranking is perfect. Otherwise, it is not all that important, and as a webmaster, you should put your time into other aspects of your website.
{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi
I check my Alexa raking almost every other day and have a recotd of every month in my daved data book.
I never knew the things in that much detail. Thanks for the information given.
regards
khalid
I’m glad you posted this, a lot more people need to know how Alexa really works. It took me quite some effort few years back, to explain to my bosses that Alexa rank was not what was important at our website back then, because Alexa could only measure based on those who had the toolbar installed – and our target group for visitors were not the kind of people to have such a thing installed.
For me, I don’t give a certain bodypart about my Alexa rank, I don’t even know what mine is
I care more about Google Analytics and the WordPress Stats pageviews, I check that one at least a day, I do my best to try and keep todays pageviews end higher than yesterday (except for weekends, always less traffic there – I suppose most of my visitors are surfing from their work…)
It’s not so important in my opinion..But you should have some respectable rank..And i believe if you have good traffic and subscribers, it will come automatically…I didn’t even check this alexa once in 4 months…
Anyway, Alexa ranking is not that accurate and it just shows you a rough result. Anyway, as you said, if we want to get to know how many traffic we have, Google Analytics will be the ideal traffic stat. Nevertheless, if you’re in MMO niche, and urge to make money by selling private banner ads from your blog, Alexa ranking will be one of the metric the advertiser consider. Even though Alexa ranking is not that accurate, but be sure you improve it and you may make some money from it.
Regards,
Lee
Is it not a fact that Alexa Rankings have a bearing on google adsense values?
ie the higher the Alexa ranking the more traffic and the higher value ads you will have on your sites.
Is this the case?
by the way, google analytics is by far the more accurate tool and can identify better performing internal pages also
You shouldn’t just rely on Alexa. I like to see how my RSS Feed is doing, how many visitors that I get to my blog. I look at a bunch of different things. Greg Ellison
As far as I know, Alexa Rank and Google are unrelated.
I only love PageRank
But thanks for nice post!
I don’t really care at all as you could change your rank depending on how many posts you write. I did a small test for a month whereby I wrote a post a week for 2 weeks and my rank was around 200,000 to 400,000. Then I wrote about 6-8 posts a week for two weeks and it jumped below 100,000. So you can help your rank if you post more, thats one way.
I don’t check my Alexa rating all that often, I figure it is what it is. I know when I work harder the rating gets better when I slack, well you know.
Nice Googe PR on this article 9/10 niiiiiice!
I agree that Alexa is ridiculously inaccurate. Who has the toolbar installed to create trackable number? Mainly internet marketers. Not ‘real’ people. So not only is the sampling small, it is skewed.
I faced the same problem. I know Alexa is not so accurate. But I tend to look at it too.
No problem Khalid.
It is kind of hypocritical of me to say that Alexa ranking does not matter (in this post), yet I also check it almost everyday. I think it is more of a motivational factor for me — when I see my Alexa Rank is improving, I feel motivated to work even harder.
Klaus,
I’m glad you enjoyed it. That was exactly my point. I think more people need to realize that Alexa Ranking is extremely inaccurate. I mean, average surfers have no idea what Alexa is — furthermore, why would they have it installed? This means that the traffic stats from Alexa are missing millions, and millions of web surfers.
Yeah, I think I’m going to start doing the same as you. I’ve heard Google analytics is quite useful. For now, I simply use my Alexa Ranking as motivation. I jumped from 600,000 to 346,000 in a week and a half! Once again, not a useful number, but it says I’m doing something right
Google Analytics is also what I care about the most. It does its job better than Alexa.
Yeah, seems like most people use Google Analytics. Looks like I should join the fad
Yeah, that’s a good point. There is no need to concentrate on it. As long as you remain dedicated and continue to work on your blog/site, your Alexa Rank will automatically improve.
Lee,
I agree with you completely. Google Analytics IS the way to go, unless you are planning on using your website to sell advertising space. I’m going to be honest, whenever I want to buy advertising space, I do check the sites Alexa Rank. Kind of hypocritical of me
Yeah, I agree. I recently started using Google Analytics and I love it.
Greg,
Likewise. Alexa Rank is an inaccurate number. I also concentrate on the things you have mentioned.
Toan,
No problem. I’m glad you enjoyed it
Yeah, I’m with you George. The last two weeks I have been posting a lot, and my Alexa Rank has jumped from 700,000 to 350,000.
Yeah, most people don’t seem to check their Alexa Ranking often. I, on the other hand, have the plugin for Mozilla that shows the current pages Alexa Ranking — kind of hard to not look at it
Mr. Snuggie,
You’ve got it. No “average” surfer has the Alexa Toolbar installed — let alone, know what Alexa is. Usually online webmasters know, making Alexa Ranking not the most accurate number.
Yeah, just like me!