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rossendryv Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 192
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Posted: 06/23/2003 10:09 am
How accurate is the traffic figures? |
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mikeboko Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 45
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Posted: 06/23/2003 01:20 pm
rossendryy, from what I understand those numbers are from the people that use the Alexa toolbar. So I do not think they are that accurate. But I could be wrong but I thought I read that before. |
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e10 Joined: Dec 10, 2002
# Posts: 409
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Posted: 06/23/2003 10:14 pm
Alexa claim 10 million toolbar users and the traffic figures they supply are only a representation of what the Alexa toolbar users are doing on the web. Their figures must be skewed according to where their user base is strong. For example, I remember reading somewhere that they were particularly strong in Korea... Nevertheless ALexa is a great sales tool. Have you found the comparison graphs, where you can compare your site to any of your competitors? It also reacts very quickly to change, so you can seo someone up from lower then 3 million to 300,000 in a matter of weeks. While it doesn´t really mean that much, it is very helpful when you have a client champing at the bit to appear in Google. At least while you chew your fingernails to the quick waiting for google you can show progress on ALexa. I have found on other forums that Alexa gets snickered at a bit. But it is a tool and used with GPR, I find it useful. |
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gab Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 4
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Posted: 06/24/2003 07:00 am
One thing must be said (excuse me if say it in my poor english). As far as I know, Traffic studies about the Netīs best sites (top 10, top 100, top 1.000.000) are all made the same way (also the same way that studies previous an election or the launch of a new product): Statistic Analysis and sample results extrapolation. There are a few statistic rules that allow experts to make a good sample to get a good picture of what is going on. So itīs done and thatīs what Alexa does. It takes a picture of what 10 millons users are doing and assumes that the rest of the users do more or less the same... In fact almost every report is done that way (I mean more general traffic reports, itīs another thing to do a report for just one site. That's easy), so their credibility and accurracy depends in how the sample is taken, and thatīs the reason why not every traffic report has the same results (the same reason why some political studies give a result of X man president and other study can give Y man) It depends on the sample, that gives you some error margins and confidence in the results... but the confidence says that the sample could be also a bad sample... Thatīs statistics... you are not always shure of the results your handling (but when 4 different studies give the same results you can bet theyīre in the right direcction). Itīs also easier to see the right ranking of the "biggest" sites than the "smallest" sites, thatīs because the error margin. Samples are a tool that maybe can let us measure miles, meters and inches, but cannot measure the right way milimeters, picometers or nanometers :D Theyīre are good, not perfect 
Going to alexa. Alexa has a 10 millon users samples. Itīs a random sample? (which is ussually very important): No. Itīs an Alexa Users sample. But thatīs not necessary bad (although you must keep it in mind). Toolbar users are more likely to be more advanced users, and this kind of users could be seen as "opinion leaders", "tendency leaders"... But also cannot show you exactly what the average user does 
Itīs interesting and can be argued any way :D Itīs Alexa very used in the far eastern countries? Yes. Itīs that bad. No. Itīs what it is. Eastern traffic is very very very big... there are hundreds of millions users out there... So theyīre represented in an important way. So in conclussion... thereīs no conclussion
Alexa is one of many tools. Use it. But use it wisely (with other tools to double check itīs results if you can) Regards! |
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pbhulipo Joined: May 13, 2002
# Posts: 145
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Posted: 06/24/2003 07:45 am
Alexa toolbar give you skewed result. For instance, we can assume that your Alexa statistics is unbias (normally). However, the moment you install Alexa toolbar and start to monitor your site through it, the number starts to get skewed. This side effect occurs because your clicks to your own site starts to count. If you can monitor your Alexa information without the toolbar then great. But don't assume that your toolbar information about your site is valid if you have one installed. Although, this is a great way to scam people..."Sure, I can get your Alexa ranking to go from X to Y. You know what, just install this bar and make sure you monitor it everyday so that you can see how I am improving your site." |
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gab Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 4
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Posted: 06/24/2003 08:14 am
Indeed, pbhulipo!! Thatīs because you are distorting the sample! ))
Thatīs critical in the statistics when your site is starting ... your own visits can change the rankings because alexa doesnīt recognize unique visitors (for sites with high rankings and lotīs of visits itīs the same you check it via toolbar or not, because 1 person doesnīt distort anything... but for small sites pbhulipo is TOTALLY right). You shouldnīt check the site with alexa installed, but you can do it through this link: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=http://WWW.HEREGOESYOURSITENAME.COM
It has more detailed info that the toolbar itself :D Hope you find it usefull |
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pixel_juice Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 4
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Posted: 06/24/2003 08:23 am
As a point of reference, I tried an experiment with a low traffic site. I was able to increase the site's Alexa ranking by well over 1,000,000 in less than 3 months, simply by visiting 5 pages from the site (with the toolbar on) each weekday. All the way into the top 100,000! So if Alexa traffic is useful, I think it might only be as a comparison of the very high traffic sites. Anything lower than about 50,000 is just too easy to manipulate. |
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stravaig Joined: Apr 25, 2001
# Posts: 73
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Posted: 06/29/2003 03:01 pm
I have a few websites and know the real traffic figures for each. I also have a few friends who run websites who know their traffic figures. We did a straw poll and the Alexa results were nonsensical. Sometimes I feel tempted to get an Alexa toolbar just to improve my site's rating but I really can't be bothered to give Alexa any credibility. As people here have been saying, it's just too easy to manipulate the figures. Again, as people have been saying, sometimes you need a good Alexa rating to convince the uneducated that a site is doing well. I wish there was something better. Mind you, while people are still daft enough to talk in terms of "hits" rather than UVs, PVs, etc, it's a waste of time trying to give honest information to potential advertisers. I just use affiliate progs now as I'm tired of wasting my time on it. BTW, last time I tried to do a smilie on these forums it resulted in a horrible green grimacing thing. Any advice? Thanks (meaning to be friendly but scared to try a smilie again) |
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ak Joined: Dec 17, 1999
# Posts: 180
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Posted: 07/05/2003 10:14 pm
It's one tool of many. I use it frequently to compare some top sites that in an industry to make a determination if a site is worthwhile to try to get a link from. |
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BBC Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 6
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Posted: 07/17/2003 11:44 am
I have recently installed the Alexa tool bar. My question is how does alexa determine the 'related links' ? My site shows 6 related links from (small) competing sites. While the content of those 6 sites is somewhat related to mine, I know there are many other sites that deserve to be there instead, as they are bigger and more related to my content. Were these competing sites able to somehow get their sites listed on my related links themselves? or does alexa determine which sites are related or not and add the links themselves? Thanks in advance! |
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e10 Joined: Dec 10, 2002
# Posts: 409
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Posted: 07/17/2003 02:41 pm
Hmm, That is odd. I was going to say, yes you can nominate a site to appear as a related link, because I am sure that that is what used to happen, but when I went to check and give you the co-ordinates I see that there has been a bit of a change. You can no longer nominate related links at least as far as I could see. I also note that Google is now supplying search results for Alexa and there are now sponsored links in association with the big G. How about that: guess Google must see some potential in Alexa and maybe we will see some improved ranking results? I must admit my own site dropped from under 80,000 to about 96,000 in Alexa recently. Do you think Google has had anything to do with that? |
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sidney Joined: Jul 17, 2003
# Posts: 75
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Posted: 07/26/2003 10:34 pm
How do you get a graphic of your site rather then the "coming soon'? |
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Forever Joined: Jun 05, 2002
# Posts: 143
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Posted: 08/13/2003 03:54 pm
My opinion about the alexa stats, are its a joke. Just for a test I installed it, adware went nuts for one, but I then decided to browse my site once a day with the toolbar running and browse on average 20 different pages per day. I saw my ranking go from on average of 100K to around 65K in a matter of a week. As soon as I stopped doing so it has since risen back twards my norm of 100K |
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