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  1. #1

    Alexa Rating, many are boosting it artificially?

    This may be a little off topic here, but I think many of you will be intrested. I am running a large forum and at its height the alexa rating was within 5000. Despite that the number of visitors are increasing over the past one year, the alexa rating keep dropping from 5000 to 13000. (see the attached file)

    So I have 2 assumptions.
    1. Other internet site are growing at a tremendous rate and the growth rate of my site is below average.
    2. More and more people are artificially boosting their alexa rating.

    I think point 2 is very probable. Check the alexa rating for this site. Its alexa rating was 1000 in Jan but suddenly rise to 15. It is because the site is forcing its user to download and install the alexa toolbar before they can access a particular area of the site. This result in artificial boosting of the sites alexa rating.

    Now this is not the end. Check the alexa rating of Hong Kong's Largest ISP. They have the same pattern!!! Because the former sites is a popular site in Hong Kong, this result in many Hong Kong people installing the alexa toolbar. As a result all sites that are commonly visited by Hong Kong people have a similar change on alexa rating. I have checked out some other Hong Kong's site like most popular local newspaper, Hong Kong Government Official Page and Hong Kong's most popular TV station all have the same pattern.

    So one site artificially boosting the alexa rating, resulting in a lot of sites rating artificially inflated. With the exponential effect, this could easily explained why my forum alexa rating keeps dropping despite increase in traffic.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails graph.gif  
    Last edited by lgwong; 04-19-2004 at 01:49 PM.

  2. #2
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    I think the major search engine is google. I never came to understand how alexa ratings can affect a site's ranking in google search terms. I think we all plan the sites for google and alexa just might help but its not the ultimate factor. Goooooogle is way too complex. Correct me if i am wrong...

  3. #3
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    Why let it worry you.... I dont see that much relevance in falsing boosting your alexa ranking.
    Matt Wallis
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  4. #4
    Not everyone in this world is running Windows. There is no Alexa bar for Mac. I'm not sure how Alexa compensates for those hits, but a popular Mac site would probably have a very high Alexa rating.
    Hockey is Life

  5. #5
    Alexa rating don't affect googles PR. But many people are valuing a particular site by its alexa rating. So with a artificially boost alexa rating, potential buyer may pay more to buy your sites. Advertisers are willing to pay more for advertisement.

  6. #6
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    While I find the info Alexa gives you on a report, I have to wonder what's it matter to your individual business plan? Are you meeting your goals for new subscribers/readers? Is your forum growing at a rate you like? If it is, what's to worry about a site in HK?

    This is why I don't really like programs like this, I think they make a rather poor statistical arguement.

    I do think it's rather lame a site forces people to get the alexa toolbar, that right there will spike the results and just goes to show why this isn't all that useful in my minds eye.

  7. #7
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    True, at the end of the day the bottom line counts a lot more than an Alexa rating.

    That being said, sites that rely upon advertising revenue COULD be impacted by other sites "spoofing" their ratings (so to speak) at the cost of more legit sites seeing "diminished" popularity on Alexa.
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  8. #8
    I don't understand the whole fixation with alexa ratings.

    The simple fact is, only a small proportion of the internet community have heard of alexa, let alone downloaded the toolbar.

    Those that have downloaded it tend to be more net savvy people and conversely the stats are distorted to reflect this.

    Sorry about the off topic ranting.

  9. #9
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    It's a valid point that you make. Alexa definitely showcases a specific cross-section of the Internet "population" and isn't necessarily a representation of "the masses."
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  10. #10
    It would be interesting to know the actual facts and figures in regards to alexa toolbar penetration.

    I would say that maybe 1-5% of the internet population have downloaded the toolbar(yes I am pulling that figure out of nowhere).

    The only thing in its favour is that those who have downloaded the toolbar are probably the ones that visit a much higher number of sites than the average user.....although this does not change the distortion pattern I mentioned before.

  11. #11
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    I'd venture a number lower than 1-5%. Much lower, outside of these forums I never hear about Alexa, of the 100+ internet users I know the only toolbar they use is Googles.

  12. #12
    DoMeric I think so too, but I thought it would be better to give a larger number than to be flamed by an alexa advocate because I "got it wrong".

    btw, I have nothing against alexa. As a matter of fact I have found myself venturing over there from time to time.

  13. #13
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    Alexa rating don't affect googles PR. But many people are valuing a particular site by its alexa rating. So with a artificially boost alexa rating, potential buyer may pay more to buy your sites. Advertisers are willing to pay more for advertisement.
    That's their mistake. Alexa rankings can be (easily) faked so they're not reliable for business purposes.

  14. #14
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    Originally posted by ldcdc
    That's their mistake. Alexa rankings can be (easily) faked so they're not reliable for business purposes.
    Yeah, I don't think too many knowledgeable advertising buyers are much swayed by alexa rankings. Most of those who are could probably be turned by a "bad" ranking as easily as a good one: "Look, my hosting site has an Alexa ranking of over a million! Even WebhostingTalk.com only has a 648! We're much higher!"
    Specializing in SEO and PPC management.

  15. #15
    Originally posted by JayC
    Yeah, I don't think too many knowledgeable advertising buyers are much swayed by alexa rankings. Most of those who are could probably be turned by a "bad" ranking as easily as a good one: "Look, my hosting site has an Alexa ranking of over a million! Even WebhostingTalk.com only has a 648! We're much higher!"
    JayC, I think you have it backwards here.

    The lower the alexa rating the better.

    648 is a very, very good Alexa rating.

    over a million... well that is just awful.

    Check it out.

  16. #16
    ah shasta, maybe you were making a personal joke with JayC, but I'm pretty sure JayC was making a joke of it himself.

  17. #17
    jokes only lead to confusion.

    Alexa ranking is commonly misunderstood.

    Bottom line: The lower the alexa rating the better.

    No fooling!

  18. #18
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    If you were planning on buying a site would you really be fooled by an inflated Alexa rating? before buying you should be aware of the actual traffic the site is receiving, unique users, pageviews, etc. and all that is more important than an Alexa rank. I honestly see no advantage to an inflated Alexa ranking except inflating someone's ego.
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  19. #19
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    Originally posted by shasta
    jokes only lead to confusion.

    Alexa ranking is commonly misunderstood.
    That was exactly my point. It wasn't really a joke, just pointing out that people are confused and many don't know that a lower number is better. Once again, what I said was:

    Most of those who are could probably be turned by a "bad" ranking as easily as a good one: "Look, my hosting site has an Alexa ranking of over a million! Even WebhostingTalk.com only has a 648! We're much higher!"
    I thought that made it pretty clear that I was saying that someone a "bad" ranking like one of over a million could probably still tell some people that it was "good," and be believed.
    Specializing in SEO and PPC management.

  20. #20
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    I always found it funny that a online store owned a traffic ranking
    system
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  21. #21
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    Originally posted by midphase-Dan
    I always found it funny that a online store owned a traffic ranking system
    Well I haven't always found it funny because Alexa was around for years before Amazon bought them in 1999.

    Actually Amazon owns a lot of stuff... calling them an "online store" isn't really accurate these days. Better might be "a company that among other things operates an online store."
    Specializing in SEO and PPC management.

  22. #22
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    I think many users on wht check for alexa ranking before doing any business and specialy if they are looking to advertise on sites...I have few sites which are ranked below 30K and I have few sites which are not even within 100K but have much much more traffic to these sites...

    I remember selling advertising space for one of my sites a while ago here on wht and everyone kept asking me abt the alexa rank....I think because of the ranking i might have even lost few advertisers...so i guess it matters a bit...

    also alexa ranking works on user sessions as well...if you have lots of repeat traffic...you'll get a higher rank...

  23. #23
    They want to track where you are going to...

    Let's see, there seems to be a lot of visitors going to XX appliance site. Time to ACQUIRE!

    Originally posted by midphase-Dan
    I always found it funny that a online store owned a traffic ranking
    system

  24. #24
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    From a conversation I had with an alexa rep. They only track people who USE internet explorer and have the ALEXA plugin installed.

    If you get a lot of users that use Firefox, Opera, IE with out the Alexa Plugin your alexa rating will drop.

  25. #25
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    I had a independent music artist music site that I started from the beginning.

    There was no alexa on it...LOL
    After about 2000 members signed up, and the unique visits were 6000 to 10,000 a day, the links in google were over 20,000, the alexa came up on its own.
    The traffic that alexa listed for the site was close enough to the server stats, that I dont think they just used internet explorer for their stats.

    Also, google does use alexa to "help" give a higher PR.
    That is how google mesures your traffic.

    The things that give a higher PR are "traffic, links, and content.
    Content being last ;-)

    So, to boost your alexa rank, will in turn boost your google PR, as to do this boost you need to get alot of traffic to your site in unique IP form.
    Hit Bots are how this is done.

    you can usualy tell who is using a hit bot on alexa by looking at the graph.
    Traffic is never the same, it is always different on a given day so, if you see the graph spike up a great deal, the traffic is purchased or is coming from a hit bot.
    You can also look at the page veiws.
    Most bots only hit one page on the site and if the site gets 1 veiw per visit, then it is probably a bot.

    I have a site that is around 400,000 in alexa but gets from 5 to 6 page veiws per visit... this is real traffic!


    You can also Spam google now, and you couldnt do it before
    (2 years ago).
    There are sites that spam their title, and description and dont get banned like before.
    google has changed their spider script ;-)

    Anyway, I have tested this theroy to some extent and it does work!!

    So, if you think that alexa means nothing?
    It may not be a real rating but does matter as far as how high you get listed in search engines.
    This is sad

    I am getting ready to bot my site that is 400,000 in alexa, and in the next 3 months it will be on the first or second page of google for search words like mp3, music...
    Some of the hardest words to get good rankings for on the internet.

    hope this helps some people understand the "racket",
    because that is what it is!!!


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