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Timothy Warnock
Joined:
08 Aug 2003
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205
Location:
Assisi, Italy
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 6:51 pm
Post subject: Alexa contradictions
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Hello,
I was just looking at some site stats and I also visited Alexa to see how a couple of sites that I participate on were doing.
Now I think the Alexa rankings can be very skewed - for example, one site has 200 - 300 visitors a day, but it is constantly hovering around an Alexa ranking of 500,000 - 600,000, then another site has a max of 20 - 30 visitors a day but it generally stays lower than 200,000, often lower than 100,000!
So one site is getting 10 times more traffic, but has fairly poor rankings according to Alexa, then the other one has a terrible traffic flow (we have yet to really promote it), but according to Alexa, it is doing quite well!
One day I made a post in I-Sales, and I gathered about 10 visitors to this one site that is getting 200 - 300 visitors a day (the one that normally has an Alexa score of 500,000) well, that day my Alexa ranking shot up to 47,000!
So I honestly think that one has to be careful how Alexa is viewed, I am quite certain that certain sectors, such as the online marketing crowd - can really skew results and make them soar. And other sectors (non-marketing) can be undervalued - so much depends on what type of person uses the Alexa toolbar.
Any thoughts on the matter?
All the best,
Tim
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Timothy Warnock
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AllanGardyne
Site Admin
Joined:
02 Jul 2003
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6326
Location:
by the beach, Australia
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2003 10:25 pm
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Marketers are much more likely to know about Alexa and use it than non-marketers, so marketing sites must inevitably get a big boost in the Alexa rankings, because Alexa rankings are based only on the activities of people who actually use Alexa.
For the same reason, it may not be very accurate when comparing sites with low traffic.
However, I think Alexa is still very useful.
Alexa is good for comparing sites that are in the same field. For example, two marketing sites, or two sites about video games.
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Allan Gardyne
AssociatePrograms.com - You're here. Explore it! |
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Charlie
Joined:
22 Aug 2003
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3305
Location:
UK
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 10:31 am
Post subject:
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| AllanGardyne wrote: | | Alexa rankings are based only on the activities of people who actually use Alexa. |
Sorry if I have got the wrong end of the stick here, but isn't there a similar problem with Wordtracker?
They always talk about "their database". Does this mean the results are based in some way on how many times someone used Wordtracker? There certainly are some major discrepancies when compared with Overture's tool - especially for less commercial niches.
Can anyone shed any light?
Thanks,
Charlie.
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onlineleben
Joined:
01 Aug 2003
Posts:
208
Location:
Germany and the World
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 1:19 pm
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Their (wordtracker) database is based on 3rd party search data. In a recent interview given on Searchengineguide com, The founder of Wordtracker stated:
<quote>
This database is the *complete* log of all requests made at the Metacrawler/Dogpile Metacrawlers</quote>
Using Alexa actually means using the alexa toolbar. Using this tool records your travels around the net and used this data to calculate popularity.
Anyway, this has its flaws: Rank can be manipulated and the usage of the toolbar differs very much geographically. E.g. european sites don't ome up with very good rankings compared to some asien sites.
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Charlie
Joined:
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3305
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UK
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 3:10 pm
Post subject:
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| onlineleben wrote: | Their (wordtracker) database is based on 3rd party search data. In a recent interview given on Searchengineguide com, The founder of Wordtracker stated:
<quote>
This database is the *complete* log of all requests made at the Metacrawler/Dogpile Metacrawlers</quote> |
Thanks for the information. Looks like I might have been barking up the wrong tree there.
Regarding the discrepancies, I guess it just highlights the importance of cross-checking any software driven results, whatever the tool.
All the best,
Charlie.
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keltin
Guest
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Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 9:38 am
Post subject: alexa booster
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hey
Have you guys seen alexabooster.com?
It seems pretty cool. |
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Debs
Joined:
16 Aug 2003
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4296
Location:
NY
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Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 10:32 am
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As Charlie has stated on this forum many times, and to which I wholeheartedly agree, rankings without traffic are useless except to brag.
Hope I paraphrased that right, Charlie 
Tools like alexabooster only prey on the naive and greedy.
Debs
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Charlie
Joined:
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3305
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Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 2:44 pm
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| Debs wrote: | As Charlie has stated on this forum many times, and to which I wholeheartedly agree, rankings without traffic are useless except to brag.
Hope I paraphrased that right, Charlie
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Yes, rankings without traffic (low click throughs due to poor descriptions, say)... but also traffic without an often-achieved MRW I reckon. The second part can be a trap for content sites, if you're not careful.
Glad to see you're still reading my posts, by the way Debs. 
Cheers,
Charlie.
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