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.

Is There A PageRank Penalty In Your Future?

PageRank Update Is Here For Some

Word is trickling in that some websites are now having their Google PageRank updated. While this move had been long awaited, it isn’t the change that most webmasters were expecting. Indeed, the update seems to be targeting mostly one kind of site — those which openly and actively engage in the selling of paid links (and/or website reviews). Are you a paid link peddler? If so, you could be in for a nasty surprise — a -1 (even -2!) drop in your PageRank.

Several Websites Take A Hit

I won’t go into detail covering what others are discussing so well, but a drop in PageRank has been reported by Andy Beard and aired by Rob Watts and elsewhere. Andy first mentioned on Sunday the hit his site took and then followed up on Monday with information he learned from Danny Sullivan about the penalty.

The news is ugly: some sites which were previously ranked (at PR6, for example) have been dropped by as many as two rankings with this “special” update. Impacted sites include those with paid reviews (PayPerPost, ReviewMe, et al) and/or paid text links (Text Link Ads, Link Adage, et al). It isn’t clear just how widespread this penalty is being applied, but I have seen it on two other sites besides Andy’s.

The Second Round of Bloodletting

Google’s PageRank update had been expected to be exported to the Google Toolbar in late July or early August of this year. When the update failed to show, it became apparent that Google was holding back in order to apply a long threatened PageRank penalty to certain sites.

In April 2007 Google’s SEO Czar, Matt Cutts, put out the call for people to report paid in a bid to help Google expedite the process. By September 2007, reports that paid link directories were the recipient of the first round of bloodletting came in when Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) dropped for the Aviva Directory, Alive Directory, and others. Rand Fishkin (Randfish) followed up this news when he shared his reasons why Google penalized what he considered to be the bad directories.

Internet-Wide PageRank Export Pending?

With the paid link directories getting whacked by the SERPs and other sites hammered by a drop in PageRank, will an internet-wide export of PageRank to the Google toolbar be far behind? My guess is that we’ll see the long awaited update kick in before the month is out.

Once the dust settles the net result should be interesting, especially if certain smaller and less visible sites outperform some of the larger and well known websites. We may not like what Google is doing, but PageRank is their tool and they are, by far, the largest search engine provider in the world.

Has your site been penalized? What is your opinion about this topic?