Posted on Friday 2nd of March 2007 at 06:11 in The Internet

Do you wish Alexa was replaced by Google?

ReviewMe have taken some of the dependence off the Alexa traffic rank by allowing users to set the price of their own site, but the rank is still associated with your site and you're awarded a star rating accordingly. Many sites use this flawed metric as a means of evaluating your site and I can't help but think that there is a better way around this.

How stats are collected
Alexa ranks your site traffic by monitoring the behaviour of users who have opted to install the Alexa toolbar - something that only works with Internet Explorer for a start. It's reported as being spyware, it has no real use other than reporting your movements and displaying a rank of the page you're visiting.

The problem is that such a small percentage of Internet users actually have the toolbar installed that the statistics it generates have no worthwhile application.

It can be gamed
It can be gamed (in theory) due to it's small user base. All you need are a set of friends willing to browse your site for 5 minutes a day with the toolbar installed and I'm willing to believe your rank would increase dramatically. Therein lies the problem, you can have massive traffic levels but if your users are unlikely to have the toolbar installed (or even know of it for that matter) then your Alexa rank is going to be poor.

Google could come to the rescue
The Google toolbar is installed in a lot more browsers than the Alexa one (and works in others too!) and therefore could generate some meaningful traffic ranks. I'd be willing to say the ratio of Alexa toolbars installed to Google ones is at least 1:1000. Higher numbers = more accurate stats and that would be much better if places like TextLinkAds and ReviewMe wish to value you using your traffic rank.

I am guilty of using the Alexa rank of attempting to determine how much traffic a site gets because I have no other metric to use and I think that Google have the ability to replace Alexa entirely - something I think a lot of people would welcome.

 

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