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Alexa and why it sucks?

by alex93
15 replies
  • SEO
    • |
How many people here think Alexa is an accurate measurement of traffic stats, I keep trying to explain to my investors about how useless the Alexa Ranking is, only for some unknown reason it keeps going straight over their head.

I was hoping to print out the responses here from professional SEO experts, which i consider most of you to be.and show them.

So do you use Alexa as a measurement of traffic stats, do you consider it to be nonsense, Alexa gathers its data from people using the Alexa Toolbar. Who uses the Alexa toolbar?

Thanks

Alex
#alexa #sucks
  • Profile picture of the author Ranksword
    I use google analytics for the measurement of traffic stats. Alexa is just an estimation but not accurate.
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  • Profile picture of the author CoolAmp
    Originally Posted by alex93 View Post

    How many people here think Alexa is an accurate measurement of traffic stats, I keep trying to explain to my investors about how useless the Alexa Ranking is, only for some unknown reason it keeps going straight over their head.

    I was hoping to print out the responses here from professional SEO experts, which i consider most of you to be.and show them.

    So do you use Alexa as a measurement of traffic stats, do you consider it to be nonsense, Alexa gathers its data from people using the Alexa Toolbar. Who uses the Alexa toolbar?

    Thanks

    Alex
    investors huh? hmm, let me fire up my regular computer and see if i can print up documents better than alexa's aka - amazon's supercomputer


    the smart money would invest with alexa!
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    All you have to do is read the Alexa about page to see it's useless data (toolbar, app. installs):

    Our Data

    Alexa's traffic estimates are based on data from our global traffic panel, which is a sample of millions of Internet users using one of over 25,000 different browser extensions. In addition, we gather much of our traffic data from direct sources in the form of sites that have chosen to install the Alexa script on their site and certify their metrics. However, site owners can always choose to keep their certified metrics private.

    Our global traffic rank is a measure of how a website is doing relative to all other sites on the web over the past 3 months. The rank is calculated using a proprietary methodology that combines a site's estimated average of daily unique visitors and its estimated number of pageviews over the past 3 months. We provide a similar country-specific ranking, which is a measurement of how a website ranks in a particular country relative to other sites over the past month.
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    • Profile picture of the author aygabtu
      It can be useful, when looked at historically against either itself or competition, but it can't also be manipulated. For sites that are SEO related, Alexa scores are going to be hyper-inflated because a larger percentage of users will have the Alexa toolbar installed.

      So you can't compare a serp checker site numbers against a healthcare related site because the serp checker site numbers will be over inflated, but if you look at the trend over the last year for either, if the number is trending higher, than as long as there was no manipulation, then the site is growing in traffic.
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      • Profile picture of the author habibkhan01
        Banned
        Alexa is not so accurate traffic. Alexa measured its traffic from those users who have alexa toolbar installed. Otherwise it cant count the visitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author TeKn1qu3z
    No one has correct metrics in their life even Google planners how wrong metrics. It is just a small type of analyzing our domain traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Originally Posted by TeKn1qu3z View Post

      No one has correct metrics in their life even Google planners how wrong metrics. It is just a small type of analyzing our domain traffic.
      ROTFLMAO! You have got to be a bot. My pet cat could have randomly typed a better
      response.

      Not that I believe you really have "investors," as that would mean someone is
      willing to toss money at a person who must go on the internet (WF) and find
      things...

      But, if you just tell them that amazon.com owns and runs alexa, as a semi-way
      of funneling traffic and be part of their online empire....they may learn the
      realization that alexa is for entertainment purposes only.

      Alexa themselves puts little faith in their own stats after a certain level and tells
      people this right up front.

      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
    I think it's useless because in some niches everybody has the Alexa toolbar installed, and in other niches nobody has it installed.

    That being said, it can be interesting to check websites related to your niche because that might give you a glimpse of the traffic they receive, but ofcourse nothing concrete.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by JensSteyaert View Post

      I think it's useless because in some niches everybody has the Alexa toolbar installed, and in other niches nobody has it installed.
      That's exactly right.

      A kindle niche will all be running Amazon apps., while a video editing niche could care less about Amazon/Alexa.




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  • Profile picture of the author rahulmishra
    Alexa also a good way to know number of visitor on your website, but its paid, Use Google analytics, best....
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      Originally Posted by rahulmishra View Post

      Alexa also a good way to know number of visitor on your website, but its paid, Use Google analytics, best....
      You people are so full of nonsense today, man, what planet do you people actually live on?
      That makes no sense and answers less.

      Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author rahulmishra
      what you mean to say?
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  • Profile picture of the author zeyfah
    alexa is one of the oldest metrics out there. backed by amazon, it does have influence for most people. so it became a standard.

    but to webmasters and webowners, the metrics obviously aren't that good at translating reality.

    if you want to convince investors, you can use google analytics that have a lot of other detailed variables to prove them that alexa's metrics is just... not that good.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rooks N Kings
    Like everyone else has stated, Alexa is totally inaccurate. You can inflate your own ranking by visiting your site repeatedly with your toolbar active.

    I do keep an alexa toolbar however and find my self taking a quick glance at it on most all of the websites I visit. It is great for that. A quick glance at the sites popularity. While it's inaccurate it can still give you sense of the sites popularity and traffic. Very ballpark. A site with an alexa rank of 'N/A' most likely gets little to no traffic. As an example: I probably won't enter my credit card details into a site with a rank that has not even registered with alexa.
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  • Profile picture of the author erikathomson
    Originally Posted by alex93 View Post

    How many people here think Alexa is an accurate measurement of traffic stats, I keep trying to explain to my investors about how useless the Alexa Ranking is, only for some unknown reason it keeps going straight over their head.

    I was hoping to print out the responses here from professional SEO experts, which i consider most of you to be.and show them.

    So do you use Alexa as a measurement of traffic stats, do you consider it to be nonsense, Alexa gathers its data from people using the Alexa Toolbar. Who uses the Alexa toolbar?

    Thanks

    Alex
    Make read to your investors this article for all alexa questions:

    Alexa Ranking: Is That A Reliable Traffic Measurement Tool?

    I hope that can help you.
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