PageRank & Alexa & Backlinks — Oh My!

Just for giggles, I enjoy hanging out at various webmaster forums including Digital Point where I can get a sense for what so many people are thinking. That place is frequently rife with rumors as members try to get into the colossal mind of Google, Alexa, and other internet measuring devices to see how they can improve their own sites by exchanging links, working the system, and more.

Well, wouldn’t you know that last night’s visit actually did reveal something of value — Google has updated their PageRank, completing the export of the new numbers to the Google toolbar.

Yes, this blog is now PR5 as is The Auto Writer and many internal pages on this site are showing at least PR3, though the home page of the URL is curiously still locked in at PR4. For those of you who insist that PageRank doesn’t matter, I say to you: bull. You know that you just stopped reading this post long enough to check on your site!

Last October when Google zapped a number of people’s PageRank over the issue of paid links, some of the loudest cries came from so-called SEO experts who had been telling us that PageRank really doesn’t matter. A handful of these same people have long poked fun at Alexa, too, but when Alexa overhauled their algorithm two weeks ago and exported their new numbers, guess what they were blogging about? The all-new Alexa.

Honestly, Page Rank, Alexa, and the number of back links pointing to your site won’t necessarily bring in the customers. I’ve visited sites where the Alexa was clearly gamed and the number of back links scraped together in the tens of thousands, but came away from the site not too impressed. I do not recall a customer saying that they found me because my site was ranked at a certain level. Instead, they typically like the way that I write and/or the subjects I write about — these are people who know nothing of Page Rank, Alexa, or even SEO.

Still, when you dress up to go to the dance it sure is nice when that pretty gal, Alexa, flashes that welcoming smile your way.

Related Articles

• The Science of Ranking Correlations: How Does PageRank Perform? (seomoz.org)
• Beyond Alphabet Soup: 7 Post-Panda Tips for Online Merchants (vendio.com)
• Google (PageRank) based ranking of CS schools (pages.cs.wisc.edu)
• How do we evaluate link opportunities? (skyrocketseo.co.uk)

Alexa Acts Up, Amends Algorithm

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.

Further Reading

Alexa Rankings Change Dramatically — HubSpot weighs in.

Alexa’s Slightly More Credible Webstats — Jemima Kiss opines.

Special Alexa Update For The Top 100 Aussie Bloggers — Thunder, down under.

The Alexa Ranking System Has Been Changed — Alexa on Blogspot.

The New Alexa Rankings — Alexa’s explanation of the changes.

Photo Credit Clix.