What do Alexa Rankings Really Mean?

mike    tech     alexa, compete, quantcast, rank, ranking, rankings, traffic, website

Alexa is commonly used to quantify the value of websites by comparing their rankings. However, how do sites like Alexa, Compete, or Quantcast gather their traffic data?. Most people overlook the fact that you can’t directly or legally monitor someone else’s website activity. As a result, these websites take samples from the population. Alexa only gathers information from those with the Alexa Toolbar installed. You know, the thing on Alexa.com they REALLY wants you to download:

This may be old news for online advertisers and such, but the statistics on Alexa, Compete, and Quantcast can be extremely misleading for the general public. After all, the information is presented in such a way that it appears as fact. But alas, that data is collected from the surfing patterns of a tiny sample of the population.

Moreover, Alexa rankings heavily favor websites with a focus on web, social media, online marketing, or the like. This is because a tech-savvy fan base drastically increases the likelihood of the Alexa toolbar being installed.

In conclusion, Alexa is tremendously flawed as a method of measuring a website’s traffic. However, since Alexa purports that their information is accurate, and since we live in an imperfect world, Alexa rankings will still be commonly used by advertisers to measure your site’s worth and by CEO’s to back up their late afternoon emails.

My advice: Use a real method to track your own web traffic so you have some accurate numbers and charts to show potential clients or bosses. If you still care about your Alexa rankings, download the toolbar (if you don’t mind having your internet activities tracked) and visit your own website at least 5 times a day (who doesn’t already?). Even if you are the only person visiting your site, your ranking will dramatically improve. Also, install a widget on your site so your visitors are more likely to install the toolbar as well.