Why I Feel Like Breaking Up With Alexa
Add to : Del.Icio.Us / Reddit / Digg / Stumble Upon
When you join services like Pay Per Post, ReviewMe or Sponsored Review, or even Text Link Ads, those companies will set a price for a review, which you can or cannot adjust manually depending on the service. Most “paid-to-blog” services will take into account 3 or 4 things when calculating the “suggested” price:
I’m really fine with 3 of those, the only one I have a problem with is Alexa. And it’s for one simple reason: Not every visitor has the alexa toolbar installed.
Take a look at those 2 images, first one is my Alexa stats and the second one is my wordpress stats plugin:
Alexa clearly shows a drop in traffic for SmartWealthyRich, but thing is, the last 3-4 days have been awesome as far as traffic goes.
And my server stats also agree with the wordpress stats plugin.
Why Use Alexa Then?
Simple question. So many people rely on Alexa to “value” a website or a blog, and to actually set the price for your reviews. But it does not seem to be accurate. And so many people are gaming/cheating Alexa, like it’s not even funny. Why use it then?
Say you want to review another website through ReviewMe or a similar service, well the price for that review will depend on your Alexa rank and other rankings. But still your Alexa rank will be taken into account when they set the price. Or for example, you want to sell a website, people will want to know what the Alexa rank is, just “because“, but it’s not accurate, and as far as I’m concerned it shouldn’t be taken into consideration.
Anthony wrote a really interesting post detailing his experiences with different stats services. I can understand why they all give different numbers, but when your traffic goes up and Alexa goes down, something’s wrong.
Your Turn To Talk
If you were to buy a website would you consider the Alexa ranking before you send the money? Same for paid reviews or Text Link Ads. When I buy advertisement on a website the last thing I check is the Alexa ranking, what about you?
Take care :)
Add to : Del.Icio.Us / Reddit / Digg / Stumble Upon
I tend to take it into consideration, but doesn’t weigh in much on the final decision unless the site has no/high Alexa ranking.
The Alexa thing is massively skewed towards tech sites because of the nature of the people who use the toolbar.
It hurts people like me who aren’t going after Techies at all. Not a fan!
Hi Natron, I definitely agree with that. If the site or blog has a really good Alexa rank it sure makes people go “wow”, but I’m more interested in checking the server stats :)
Jonk, good point there, it really depends on the niche and where the traffic comes from. I get a lot of traffic from StumbleUpon, and it seems stumblers don’t have the alexa toolbar installed hehe
What wordpress stats plugin are you using?!
Gregg, I’m using the wordpress stats plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/
and also the performancing metrics plugin for wordpress (pro account), there’s a badge at the top of my sidebar
:)
Alexa stats are complete B.S. I’ve had weeks when I’ve had thousands of pageviews and hits and Alexa hasn’t budged. Not until I started gaming the system with the toolbar (another reason why Alexa rankings are BS) did my Alexa rankings go anywhere, and this is after I’ve had my site online for six years!
Hey Angela! :)
Yep that’s the problem with Alexa, so many people are gaming the system that cannot be considered a reference anymore.
Alexa is largely (tho not entirely) like those late-night infomercials that hawk “Collectible Nascar Plates (with hand-painted, 24-carat gold-plated rims, of course).” That is, what makes those cheesy Nascar plates collectible is that someone declared them to be so.
I consider Alexa to be kinduva self-propagating, viral beast whose questionable opinion has merit only because so many web devvers and bloggers believe in it. And the more people get sucked into believing it, the more credible it seems… And so on… And so on…
Rob, keep those metaphors coming, they’re awesome! :)
You’re right on I think, it reminds me of a movie, I think it was Merlin or Excalibur or something, there was this bad witch everyone hated, and the only way to get rid of her was to ignore her. I’ll try that with Alexa hehe
I am really manipulate the Alexa traffic ranking. My site was up from 5.5M to 290K in about 40 days. So I will tweak my site before I sell it.
Would you buy my site? I guess not.
It’s too easy to manipulate the Alexa Traffic Ranking. Especially, if you know a lot of Chinese….
Terence,
well I wouldn’t buy your site cause the domain name is terencechang.com and I’m not you so :)
what’s this thing with Chinese?
Alexa is more than useless. Over half of the visitors to my main site use Firefox or browsers other than IE. Since the Alexa toolbar only works in IE, and only then if it’s installed, the stats I get for my site are way underrated.
To use those stats for something important like advertising charges or a sale price is to shoot yourself in the foot.
John, I totally agree with you! It amazes me when I hear an advertiser say something like “humm.. well I cannot afford to pay you $35 a month for that text link Jon, your Alexa rank is in the 70k”… it usually makes me laugh! oh well, it’s their money :)
I didn’t even know there was a direct link between Alexa stats and Alexa rankings. You always learn something new everyday :)
I for one don’t care about Alexa stats or any other ranking out there for that matter with the exception of Google. Eventhough my sites generate more than decent money on Review Me, it’s really still not where the money is. There are multiple ways to generate very good income with a blog even without high Alexa stats.
My blog traffic and alexa rank have gone about hand in hand. so I can not complain much
Sharon, I think you’re absolutely right, my blog does generate a nice income, and it’s not cause of my Alexa rank :)
CFernandes, hehe seems it works for some, I wouldn’t mind if Alexa decided to reflect my server stats, that would be awesome
I hate Alexa as I believe it is totally inacurate. My blog ranking went down despite the surge of traffic. I dunno how it works except that it can be manipulated and that really sucks!
Hi there! :)
I feel the same way. Exact same thing with Technorati and other ranking services. There’S no use trying to game the system, usually it’s people that game the system that don’t last long.
Over 50% of my traffic uses Firefox. I too am not an Alexa fan. My friend Sephy wrote an article re Alexa the other day - Thoughts About Alexa I was completely blown away to find they did not have a toolbar for firefox users. How pathetic is that? Seriously? It’s not impossible to create it, people have released versions (there’s a link to one in Sephy’s article), but Alexa haven’t done it themselves? Just plain poor.
Snoskred
Hi Snoskred, it’s almost the same here, around 70% of my visitors use Firefox, or a different browser than IE. I will definitely have a look at that toolbar, thanx for sharing the article Snoskred :)
For the most part, the Alexa toolbar is used by webmasters.
So, if your theme is closely related to a webmaster’s interest (like web traffic), or if you’re selling a site targeted to webmasters, then to some degree Alexa may be of some value.
For the rest, it’s useless.
Just my 2 cts.
I had exactly the same thing happen, i watched my Alexa rankings dwindle as my stats (3 different stat counters) showed a general increase in unique traffic and page views!
Alexa is not a good metric for stats, I even emailed Alexa twice to ask about their redirect protocol and after a month no reply apart form an automated one!
Well thats my rant over!
Andy
Hi Case Stevens, good point, thanx for the infos!
Thing is my Alexa rankings and traffic stats were all fine untill recently when I got a big increase in traffic, then Alexa started going down.
Hey Andy, hehe I guess they won’t reply to your e-mail. I wonder why so many people rely on Alexa if it’s not at all accurate…
I think this is another case of the big getting bigger, and people going along with the flow because the big boy said it. I agree, Wordpress stats is far more accurate. i compare it with the stats I get from Firestats and Counterize, and they are all similar.
cooliojones, “because the big boy said it” - exactly what I’m thinking! When I compared my performancing metrics stats, wordpress dashboard plugin stats they match, not exactly but they’re close, and it looks like Alexa is just displaying some random graphic. hehe
I know for a fact that the redirect doesn’t work, even though a lot of people think it does. I found a lot of blogs that had a redirect link for my blog (and I never participated, go figure) and my stats did not budge because of it.
The secret to getting a good Alexa ranking is to hook as many Asian readers as possible. It seems that a vast larger percentage of Asians (Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Thai, Filipino, Vietnamese, etc.) use IE and have the tool bar installed. When I post articles that pertain to places in Asia, or even add videos that include Asian females, my Alexa ranking gets better. Lately, it has gotten worse because I haven’t been posting stuff like that. Maybe I need to start again? :-)
RT, hey you just posted a Pinay video, will have to watch it! (”have to” hehe) :)
My blog was also included in these lists you’re talking about, the “alexa redirect train” or something like that, although I didn’t participate
The important metric to consider when buying a site is the actual traffic statistics.
Most people know that Alexa is flawed and think that it’s useless but I think it is helpful in some way when you want to do a rough comparison of the size/growth of sites within the same niche.
The point here is to not compare apples with oranges (i.e tech v.s celeb sites). :)
Maki, absolutely, the real stats is what really matters. Although most “paid to blog” services will take the Alexa rankings intoo account when they set the price of reviews, which I find isn’t a really good idea. But you’re right, it’s a good tool for rough comparisons of sites in the same niche.
John:
I could not find the source I read a while ago. In China, there are thousands and thousands Internet Cafe with thousands and thousands computers. Those computers have Alexa Toolbar installed.
So if your site is on some of the Chinese social network site. You can potential get tons traffic from China and boost your Alexa traffic ranking at no time.
Terence, it’s funny that you mentioned the Chinese social networking sites…. There are some companies that sell “visitors” for real cheap to boost your Alexa ranking and they do work. When you look at your stats, they are all from China.
:)
Hi Terence, thanx a lot for the info! It’s always nice to know. I probably wouldn’t rely on that to increase my Alexa ranking, but it’s good info :)
Sharon, hehe yeah I saw that before, “buy asian traffic” $5 for 1000 visitors or something like that.
I guess if you try to manipulate anything, outside of true measurement, you end up getting burned.
My mentor, Jim Rohn, says “Have something good to say.” If you do that people will listen and come back for more.
Good Post.
John Clark
http://www.askjohnclark.com
I don’t take into account my Alexa rating because my website doesn’t even register. However, I’ve rarely trusted any pay per click type of advertising because it’s so easy to game, most of my money goes into auction style advertising with sites like projectwonderful.com and so far the traffic has been really nice. I can get 1 cent clicks if I find the right sites.
Everything is always worth a try at least once to see if they work…. :)
Hi John, true, best way to loose the game is to try to cheat the system.
I’m starting to really like Jim Rohn :)
Jeremy, thanx for letting us know about projectwonderful.com, I wasn’t aware of them, and they have a “publishers” option, so you can sell the ad space on your blog, which sounds pretty cool, will have a better look at it this week :)
Sharon, hehe I guess you’re right :)
Hey Jon,
Loved your post. I still do look at Alexa even with it’s incomplete picture. Cos it gives me a feel of how the internet traffic is doing and how my site’s traffic is doing in general. For exact figures, I look else where. :)
Hey James, hehe you know what? since I wrote that post I think I spent more time analyzing my stats than I ever did :)
You’re right I think, to get a general idea of how traffic is doing it’s good to take a look at Alexa, but like you said, to have a clear idea, gotta look elsewhere, and analyze other graphs :)
My site’s stats are also going in the opposite direction. Despite awstats saying I started off with 30 visits a day and I’m now getting about 160. Alexa seems to think I’m getting considerably less traffic.
Hi April :)
same thing here, that’s just weird. I don’t get it, why people would rely on such an unreliable tool. oh well, real stats are what matters :)
Your title is caught my eye.. don’t break up.. let’s make up! :)
Alexa makes me nervous. As you pointed out, so many advertising venues rely on their stats, but ALexa is only based on the traffic from people using a flippin toolbar. I don’t download toolbars that track my footsteps and I assume a lot of other people do not, either. Plus, if you read a lot about Alexa, you will come across a lot of commentary about how easy it it to play Alexa.
Susie, hehe, sounds good! ;)
Angie, same here, I don’t download toolbars, unless they’re useful, like web developer toolbars for firefox and stuff like that, but Alexa toolbar, no thanx! :)
It is indeed, really easy to game Alexa, so it makes it rather useless.
[…] I spoke in April about why I believe advertising networks should stop using Alexa to determine rates for publishers. Jonathan from SmartWealthyRich got me thinking about the subject again with his post ‘Why I Feel Like Breaking Up With Alexa‘. […]
I’m not a fan of Alexa either, but what can you do? Like you said, we’re stuck with it if we want to work with programs like TextLinkAds.
One way to help get around the problem of not everyone having Alexa toolbar installed is to use redirects. For example, instead of posting a hyperlink to your website, use http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?yoursite.com
Cheers,
Chronicles of a (Wannabe) Pro Blogger
Hey Zen, yep I guess we’re stuck with it, till someone finds another way of “pricing” blogs.
One thing though, using the alexa redirect from my experience doesn’t really work, maybe it does, but honeslty that doesn’t help making alexa a reliable tool. my 2 cents :)
So you’ll be glad to know Alexa finally released a toolbar for Firefox. Within two hours of installing the toolbar, Firefox brought out a new update - and guess what? The Alexa toolbar is not compatible with it. *sigh*
I had Alexa on here for a couple of hours, though!
Snoskred
Snoskred, thanx a bunch, I read that on RT’s blog. Of course I downloaded it, but did not upgrade Firefox yet, I think I’ll wait :)
I absolutely detest Alexa. It is so irrelevant it actually makes me angry when people associate your Alexa ‘ranking’ with your site’s popularity. Having a UK site makes their statistics even more irrelevant for me.
Death to Alexa!!
- Martin Reed
hehe, I agree bro! hey they finally got around to put out the Firefox Alexa toolbar! :) woohoo! lol
I see a little increase in my Alexa rankings, cause 80%+ of my visitors and readers are using firefox. But still the Alexa ranking is meaningless
@John, Alexa has just released the Alexa Toolbar for Firefox which works just fine on the Linux platform.
Hi Macewan, yep I saw that a couple days ago, te extension works fine, this should help my ranking, as 80% of my visitors use firefox. We’ll see. :)
I was really happy for the FF release, since like you about 70% of my visitors use firefox. My rank has gone up dramatically, since the release.
I suspect for younger blogs alexa can easily be game, and I have seen some young blogs abuse that. Not quite a level playing field. At least the Neilsen ratings for TV say they are random, we know Alexa isn’t
Alexa is not a reliable source of statistics. Why ? Simple because it can’t count your site. You don’t put any code on it so the stats Alexa is showing are completely false.
If your visitors use Internet Explorer and Windows without any firewall and antispyware then you will have very nice statistics.
You see alexa is putting on your pc a little programm a spyware which is counting what you visit and it reports it to the alexa server.
If you have the alexa toolbar this is exactly the same.
So alexa for me is the willingness of your visitors to install the toolbar or their ignorance of spyware.
Be aware that alexa is not a “saint” tool it’s more evil that you think.