Technology, business and change
Alexa ranking is so inaccurate
I want to make a brief post about how Alexa ranking is inaccurate and might not be that good at getting a decent traffic estimate. I’m pretty sure everyone here is familiar with Alexa, but if you are new to SEO/Internet Marketing, you might wonder what I’m talking about so here’s a short description from Alexa’s website:
Alexa computes traffic rankings by analyzing the Web usage of millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other, diverse traffic data sources. The information is sorted, sifted, anonymized, counted, and computed, until, finally, we get the traffic rankings shown in the Alexa service. The process is relatively complex, but if you have a need to know, please read on.
The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other, diverse traffic data sources, and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). As a first step, Alexa computes the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on a daily basis.
So you see, Alexa analyze the web usage of millions of Alexa Toolbar users and that’s their main source for traffic analysis.
Why isn’t accurate?
I run a couple of websites and I obviously like to compare how they are doing against each other. They aren’t in the same niche, but i still like to have a look at the ranking in Alexa vs the traffic I get. The past few weeks confirmed what I thought: Alexa is not accurate. For example, let’s take one of my older website which actually receive 50x more visitors than SEO Horror. Yes, you read correctly, 50 times more visitors daily than SEO Horror, so it’s interesting to have look at the rankings!
here’s how seohorror.com looks in Alexa:
Wow that’s not bad for a website about a month old. We have to look at the 1 week average because the 3 months average isn’t really any good for me now as seohorror.com has only been live for a month or so. I’ve had a couple of days in the top 100 and now it looks like I’m mostly between 100,000 and 150,000 on a constant basis. I’m OK with that.
Now, let’s see how my other website with 50 times more traffic than SEO Horror compare:
What’s that? I’m ranked 556,812 this week! I mean, 50 times more traffic and I’m poorly ranked. You see how inaccurate it is!
Why does it look so inaccurate?
The reason it looks so inaccurate between my two websites is because they aren’t in the same niche. The visitors at SEO Horror are SEO/Web marketers and there are good chances you guys use the Alexa toolbar. If 50% of my readers use the Alexa Toolbar, it will certainly boost my rankings because a normal percentage could be something like 0.5% of the readers. Now, on my other blog, which is definitely not aimed at techies, nobody uses the Alexa toolbar and nobody has a single clue what this toolbar is all about. So even if I receive 50 times more traffic, because nobody use the toolbar, I get a poor ranking.
Is it any good then?
It’s good to compare with websites within your niche. For example, if I compare my blog with another SEO blog, then it makes a little more sense when I look at the numbers. If I take a look at a cooking recipe website, then it doesn’t make any sense to compare. Alexa is mainly used as a traffic estimate and to put a price on how much you’ll sell advertisement on your website. If your Alexa ranking is good, you can usually sell advertisement a little more, especially if you’re in the top 100. So, the bottom line is that it’s so much easier to get a good ranking in Alexa with a tech/SEO/internet marketing blog!
So, you can continue to use Alexa to check your website progression, but it’s definitely not everything as you just saw. 50 times more traffic does not mean 50 times better ranking….In fact it can be the complete opposite as you just saw!
RSS
twitter
Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
Good stuff…this is something that most forget. Alexa measure their stats by visitors that use their toolbar…and I myself didn’t have it installed for quite a while, as I am sure others were the same.
So this is a great post showing how different niches may have conflicting results based on the demographic of the users/readers.
JK Swopess last blog post..Site updates and beefsteaks
Great post Ben ..Alexa toolbar plays an important role in the traffic
zks last blog post..Killer Contest at BlogSmartly.com
I haven’t even seen that toolbar (on any PC ever). I really find it slightly weird that people place so much value into Alexa while it uses such strange method of data gathering.
Only stats you can trust in are those of site you own.
Rarsts last blog post..HTML validators and case of broken link
i have to agree alexa uses an almost pathetic method of rating its almost luck based, the more people you have visit your blog or site the more chance there is tha tone person has that toolbar and helps your rank :S.
p.s took your no follow post’s advice in the end
i use top comments
@Chris: Thanks buddy, looking forward to reading more comments from you!
@JK:I still don’t have the toolbar installed actually. I had it for a while but decided it wasn’t really worth it. I might install it again to improve the stat actually!
@Rarst: Yeah, not many people have it which also means the stats aren’t that accurate.
@Tyrone: Hey that’s great news for the no follow!
Also, I agree with you, there’s sometimes luck with Alexa!
i’m very new about blogging, and thanks for this post i now no wonder why i have reached alexa’a ranking about “9″ at my first week. well thats very odd for a site which is that new. but then my alexa changed to 18m and now climbing to 6.7m.
i’m not very good about the interpretation of their figures but surely alexa is very questionable
jigss last blog post..Bata sa Dalan
I have a hot search list of Alexa embedded, i think its the only reliable thing from Alexa. Any more good one?
Thanks for post seohorror Admin
Alexa not accurate? Holy crap, pigs are going to fly, the pope isn’t Catholic, etc…….LOL
Interesting observations, I personally have paid little attention to Alexa ranking in my IM analysis, but this makes a lot of sense.
Thanks Ben,
JR
hey,but recently the alexa team said that it uses the overall traffic now rather than earlier based on alexa toolbar.
Hi
Thanks for clearing that up – I have always heard people saying Alexa ranking means nothing and now I understand why.
Nice blog by the way. I will be subscribing!
I used to wonder what’s the fuss about Alexa ranking but your article sort of clearing some of my doubts. Thanks for the insights.
Yan
I have found Alexa to be useful only to give an ovralll indication of the progress over the past 3 months or so. The actual figures can be misleading and it is simply raw data which I assume is also not very up to date. Although I do check my ranking on Alexa form time to time It is purely out of interest rather than as a performance measure of any sort. A bit like using pagerank I guess.
Web design Companys last blog post..How can a Web Design Company help a business maximise the internets potential
I think I also read that Alexa is not just using the Toolbar numbers like before, they have change how they gather website traffic.
Alexa is extremely useful in order to know trends .Movers and Shakers is really useful to know about upcoming websites
What is the best tool to compare site traffic vs your competitors in your nice?
Alexa is not like that. It make some inaccurate result sometime but not always, even it provide more info about your websites like how your website is going on.
[...] is a wildly inaccurate statement- Alexa / Why You Should Completely Ignore Alexa Stats / Alexa ranking is so inaccurate For more accurate traffic data, you should look to Compete, Quantacast, and Google [...]