Alexa Acts Up, Amends Algorithm

Posted on April 18, 2008
Filed Under Business Development, Search Engine Optimization |

www.matthewkeegan.com Last September I was helping a client put the finishing touches on an upcoming marketing campaign when his thoughts turned to advertising on a particular site. Google Adwords was in place, his blog was up and running, and traffic was beginning to flow in. Still, there was this one site where he wanted to place a banner advertisement, but I sensed his hesitation.

“I would like to advertise on ABC site, but I’m concerned about their traffic numbers,” he said. I replied, “ABC is a leader in your market, this site has some of the highest SERPs for the keywords or phrases that you use. I highly recommend that you go ahead and advertise with them.”

My response was met with silence and then he offered the following answer: “Their Alexa score is over 170,000. I was hoping that they would have a better score for the price that I am paying for this campaign.”

Ah, that was it! My client had erroneously put too much weight on the site’s Alexa score to decide whether to advertise there or not. But, he isn’t the only one who has made this mistake — tens of thousands of businesses rely on a site’s Alexa score as a critical measurement of a site’s traffic numbers.

Alexa Updates Their Algorithm

Up until last week, I would have dismissed (or played down) Alexa, but I probably won’t anymore. Here is why:

Alexa made an important change in the way that they calculate their ranking system. Specifically, they are now drawing from “…more sources of data to give a better indicator of website popularity.” In addition they have improved their methodology to “…provide consistent and accurate rankings for all countries.”

Up until the recent change, which has dramatically adjusted the traffic scores for millions of websites, Alexa put heavy emphasis on those sites which had the Alexa toolbar installed. No more. Now, additional (but undetermined) weight is given to other unidentified measurements. Hence, the algorithm change.

As a result of the change in calculating sites Alexa offers the following, “The new rankings should better reflect the interests and surfing habits of the broader population of Web users.” That’s it — Alexa has taken what had been a narrow, inaccurate tool and redefined it to capture additional internet users. This is exactly what Alexa enthusiasts have wanted to see for some time.

Alexa Then And Now

My customer heeded my advice and advertised on the site despite the Alexa number. I explained to him the problems associated with the tool, particularly relating to the site in question. It turns out my advice hit the mark as a steady flow of customers arrive to his site via the other site.

Though I dismissed the importance of Alexa previously, I am paying close watch to these changes by measuring the impact on quite a few websites. My initial reaction is that I am pleased with the changes, but I won’t rely on Alexa alone. The site in question has seen its Alexa change to about 230,000 but it remains an excellent place for my customer to place his ads.

Comments

19 Responses to “Alexa Acts Up, Amends Algorithm”

Meg (1 comments.) on April 18th, 2008 8:38 am

Hey Matt,

Wise advice to your client. Let’s hope this brings some credibility to Alexa.

“Thunder, down under” Has an ominous ring to it ;)Though the change has certainly rocked our rankings.

Cheers for the link!
Matthew C. Keegan (4 comments.) on April 18th, 2008 8:41 am

You are welcome, Meg. I needed make the link inviting, hence the “thunder” reference.

Looks like a lot of people are surprised by the changes, but this is something many folks have wanted to see take place.

Thank you for stopping by.
murad @ onlineearns.com (1 comments.) on April 18th, 2008 1:20 pm

Ah thank you for this great post about alexa rank . Now i know how it works
murad @ onlineearns.coms last blog post..Easy Traffic From Blogcatalog
Matthew C. Keegan (4 comments.) on April 18th, 2008 4:16 pm

Glad to help out, Murad. The system has changed extensively with this update and Alexa isn’t sharing all of the details because it is proprietary information.
Wayne Smallman (1 comments.) on April 18th, 2008 5:51 pm

I saw the changes last night, seeing my ranking tumble 30k-odd places, which I wrote about on Pownce.

I’m happy with the changes, if they mean more accuracy, which seems to be the case.

Almost any metric is pointless in isolation. But add several together and you have something much more meaningful.

Now, the mean relevance just jumped up a few points, which benefits everyone…

Wayne Smallmans last blog post..uwnews.org | Future of social networking explored in UW’s computer science building | University of Washington News and Information [del.icio.us]
Matthew C. Keegan (1 comments.) on April 19th, 2008 12:08 pm

Wayne, that is great. Yes, mashing together a bunch of different measuring devices is the best way to gauge a site’s success: PageRank, Technorati, and Alexa together can reveal much about a site.
Asia'h Epperson (2 comments.) on April 24th, 2008 12:04 am

Nice work, Matt.

I am surprise that Alexa takes such a long time to realize that people don’t take them seriously. Their way of ranking through toolbar is totally odd.

It still remains to be seen if their new algorithm really reflect the true ranking of a site.

Asia’h Eppersons last blog post..Oppss… Your Comment Hurt
Chris (1 comments.) on June 19th, 2008 3:15 pm

My website went up minimally, however, now it is on a steady downward change, even though the number of alexa users has gone up, and the number of overall users has gone up. WTF? Any ideas?

http://www.vapropertiesinc.com
Matthew C. Keegan on June 20th, 2008 8:08 am

Chris, that is nearly impossible to determine. I’ve seen Alexa on one of my sites creep up slowly despite my surging traffic numbers. At best, Alexa is an imperfect measuring tool, one that seems to have improved, but is still wanting.