| There is growing news on the internet that the | | | | Site B's Alexa Rank: 570,834 |
| Alexa Traffic Rankings are not accurate and cannot | | | | Total Number of Visitors: 224 (Google Analytics) |
| be used to boast traffic rankings for the average | | | | The site with less visitors had a better ranking. O_0 |
| site owner. The main flaw that I have found with | | | | How is that possible. Then I remembered how Alexa |
| Alexa, is their main method of collecting user traffic | | | | receives its data. Alexa states that it could not exist |
| data, which is mainly through an Alexa Toolbar that | | | | without the participation of the Alexa Toolbar |
| collects data from users' browsers that have the | | | | community, i.e. web users who have the Alexa |
| toolbars installed. | | | | toolbar installed. So, hypothetically speaking, if the |
| Personally, I prefer to conduct my own tests on | | | | entire web community is 2 Billion users and only 100 |
| particular scenarios before publishing what I hear, so I | | | | Million users actually have the toolbar installed, how |
| decided to do a small experiment to see for myself | | | | will the other users' traffic be calculated? It would be |
| how Alexa would report traffic data on a couple of | | | | impossible to calculate. So this means that if I launch |
| sites that I have built for my web design clients. I | | | | a website that is mainly being viewed by non-Alexa |
| chose 2 websites to compare over a 2 week period | | | | toolbar users, regardless of the fact that my website |
| to see how their traffic would be reflected on Alexa | | | | may be getting millions of viewers, Alexa will not see |
| based on different traffic generating techniques to | | | | that traffic and would report that my website |
| the sites. | | | | receives no traffic or just does not exist. |
| The Experiment | | | | So, in the case of my experiment, I assume that |
| At the beginning of the experiment, Site A had an | | | | most of the viewers for Site A just did not have an |
| Alexa rank of approximately 2,500,000 and Site B | | | | Alexa toolbar installed, thus Alexa's inability to report |
| had a very similar ranking. Site A's website belongs to | | | | on their traffic. I'm not stereotyping here, but based |
| a pharmaceutical company and Site B was a new | | | | on the types of vacancies that were posted in the |
| technology blog. | | | | print ad for Site A, I would think that most of the |
| Site A | | | | readers there are not very tech savvy and would |
| At the start of the 2 week period Site A placed a | | | | not see the need of having an Alexa toolbar installed |
| couple of print advertisements in the local newspaper | | | | with their browsers, so their generated traffic would |
| for a few job vacancies within the company and | | | | not be reported. |
| stated that it was accepting applications. Before the | | | | This leads me to ask the question; why are major |
| advert was placed, this company's website was | | | | internet marketers boasting their Alexa traffic rank |
| receiving an average of 6 visitors per day. The day | | | | as though it is a 100% accurate authority in web |
| after the ad was placed, the day's performance | | | | traffic reporting, when they know that just by |
| jumped to 62 visitors the first day, then 99 the | | | | visiting your own site hundreds of times per day will |
| following day and then 100 visitors on the third day. | | | | greatly reduce your ranking and thus will not give a |
| Throughout the course of the 2 week experiment | | | | true impression of site traffic. |
| Site A had an average daily unique visitor count of 43 | | | | My Suggestion |
| per day. | | | | More accurate means of reporting need to be |
| Site B | | | | developed to give a more precise view of web |
| Site B started promoting its blog through guest | | | | traffic statistics than what Alexa is using. There are |
| posting and commenting on other sites, submitting to | | | | lots of genius' out there who have billions of dollars |
| web directories, writing reviews and basically | | | | behind them, I'm just calling on them to help stop the |
| promoting the blog by word of mouth. Over the 2 | | | | madness. Or maybe I'll come up with something. |
| week period, Site B had an average daily unique | | | | In any case, I know that Alexa is here to stay |
| visitor count of 14 per day. | | | | because it gives a VERY rough overview of what's |
| The Final Alexa Ranking | | | | happening with web traffic. I think Google Analytics is |
| At the end of my experiment I thought the alexa | | | | the best bet when it comes to traffic reporting so |
| rankings of the two sites would be fairly predictable. | | | | far, but Google's site reports are not viewable by the |
| To my surprise I was completely wrong. Here are | | | | general public. |
| the rankings displayed by Alexa after my experiment: | | | | Please leave a comment and let me know what you |
| Site A's Alexa Rank: 1,767,341 | | | | think. Should we be boasting about our Alexa ranks |
| Total Number of Visitors: 688 (Google Analytics) | | | | or not. |