General Discussions

**fastreplies** · 01-24-2008, 06:51 PM

Do you know that there is not even one thread named “Alexa Sucks”?

I thought it would be fun to hear your rants about why she sucks.

I go first.

Is anyone noticed that Alexa’s “Traffic Details” says Yesterday but data at least
2 and in some cases 3 days old?
I noticed that about 1 year ago and since then I never saw Yesterday Data,
which give me good reason to declare “Alexa Sucks” badly.

fastreplies

**vangogh** · 01-24-2008, 07:05 PM

Sorry, I don't have any rants about Alexa. It is what it is. The numbers aren't accurate, but I think it's decent at showing trends for a given site or comparing two sites from the same industry.

Decent, but far from perfect. It's also one of the few available tools we can look at to see how a site might be doing. Compete is another that seems to be a little more accurate, but still suffers from many of the same problems.

But you want rants so how about one for all the people who actually believe that Alexa is a real source for measuring traffic accurately. How about a rant for all the people who live and die by their Alexa rating without having the first clue why the numbers don't mean anything.

**Learning Newbie** · 01-24-2008, 07:28 PM

My rant is the same as Steve's. Alexa sucks because people believe it. It doesn't suck on its own - if everybody took it as a wild ballpark it would be fine.

Better yet, Alexa sucks because it's a browser toolbar plug in. Isn't the whole point of the web that its platform neutral? Doesn't requiring specific desktop software sort of ruin that?

**ADAM Web Design** · 01-24-2008, 08:52 PM

Alexa sucks because the only people aware of it are tech-savvy, thus creating an unnatural skew which in no way even serves as a rough guess of actual traffic.

Alexa sucks because people use it to sell sites with.

And finally, Alexa sucks because it reminds me of Alexa McDonough, the only Canadian New Democratic Party federal leader with a clue...and now she's not around anymore.

**fastreplies** · 01-24-2008, 09:39 PM

There is nothing useful left compare to what it use to be.

These days only 1 in 1,000 still uses TB and if you look at trends all sites are going down in charts and in my opinion Alexa is making big disservice to people who still are using crippled data

After Alexa stop providing thumbnails the only useful thing that left is Wayback Machine but even this data sporadic and if you look at the big picture, at who is running the company now, then it became clear that it present owner Amazon doesn’t give a **** how it’s run and/or about Alexa’s reputation

fastreplies

**ECSuite_Russell** · 01-25-2008, 01:47 PM

What do you guys think of www.quantcast.com versus alexa? I've used both, qauntcast numbers vary hugely from Alexa some times and always wondered which was more accurate.

**ADAM Web Design** · 01-25-2008, 01:50 PM

I haven't used Quantcast's setup personally (primarily because I don't like third-party tracking-specific code on my pages). The problem with setups like Quantcast is that anti-whatever software will often block it for no good reason (e.g. Norton Insecurity.)

**ECSuite_Russell** · 01-25-2008, 02:11 PM

Well, I use stuff like swstats and google analytics for my own stuff. I use alexa and quantcast for looking at other peoples stats.

**fastreplies** · 01-25-2008, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russell_Nyland

I use alexa and quantcast for looking at other peoples stats.

You probably meant to say “useless” stats.

How anyone can rely on stats provided by site that going down for a few hours if not everyday then at least every second day. Site whose data 2 or 3 days old in these days of technological advances even though their own site advertises “Yesterday” data.

I am not even talking about how they measure your site activities. Do you know that if you have principal site and 10 sub-domains with half of the hits generated by your sub-domains, Alexa wouldn’t count them? In other words 50 of 100 visitors to your site ignored by Alexa’s system and removed from total traffic to your site with exception of traffic generated by your blog and/or forum.

fastreplies

**fastreplies** · 01-25-2008, 04:12 PM

See for yourselves

It says January 22, and today Jan. 25, 2008

fastreplies

**Thinkey** · 01-25-2008, 06:03 PM

I keep track of PR Alexa, Compete and I'm gonna add quantcast to it as well since I DO use it to compare myself to my 1 and only competitor i have for a site I own.

I figure 4 of these sites showing higher ranking (and i just heard of quantcast, and my ranking is 347664 vs my competitor at 1051621).

Out of 4 results, can one assume that they are at least getting more vistors and traffic (tho that number is uncertain?)

Let me know - i know its a waste of time and I concentrate on my real stats more - but for a ball park idea - is it at least worth a look?

**vangogh** · 01-25-2008, 10:11 PM

Quote:

It says January 22, and today Jan. 25, 2008

I think you're harping too much on the date thing. It's not that big a deal. I doesn't change the value or lack of value of the data itself.

The problem with Alexa's data is pretty much what Adam said. It's webmasters and marketers who predominantly use it so the results are skewed. Alexa is collecting a small sample of data and then extrapolating the results. If the sample was truly random that would work fine. But the sample is not even close to random. It's highly skewed.

As you approach the most popular sites like Google it probably becomes a lot more accurate, though I wouldn't trust the exact numbers.

You can still get information from Alexa. You just have to understand the limitations of it. For all but the top sites it doesn't take many Alexa users before the numbers change a lot. A few dozen people one way or the other can make your site look empty or extremely popular.

Alexa works better if you compare sites on the same topic. Webmaster-Talk and DigitalPoint both deal with essentially the same topics. It's probably safe to assume the communities of each site have the Alexa toolbar installed in a similar proportion. So you can compare the two sites and get a feel for which gets more traffic as long as you realize that the data isn't going to be completely accurate.

Alexa will work better if you look at the numbers over a greater period of time. It's silly to look at the numbers over the course of a week and try to learn anything meaningful. However if you look at a site's graph over the course of a year or three years you can see if it's gaining or losing traffic. It's probably a safe bet that over time any given site has the same percentage of visitors with Alexa installed.

You simply can't trust the numbers as absolutes and you have to realize that if you try to compare a high tech site with a low tech site the comparison is going to be heavily skewed in favor of the high tech site.

**fastreplies** · 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vangogh

Alexa will work better if you look at the numbers over a greater period of time. It's silly to look at the numbers over the course of a week and try to learn anything meaningful. However if you look at a site's graph over the course of a year or three years you can see if it's gaining or losing traffic. It's probably a safe bet that over time any given site has the same percentage of visitors with Alexa installed.

Absolutely Steven, we have to look at the big picture.

So, looking at 5 years trend, I can tell with 100% certainty that our directory 3 years ago has 10 time less visitors but our rating at that time was better than 20,000 and now it drop to 60,000 and the only explanation I have would be; people finally wake up to reality and understood that using Toolbar is total waste of screen space and that Alexa’s information is nothing more than pile of garbage.

fastreplies

**Mikhail Simkin** · 01-27-2008, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fastreplies

So, looking at 5 years trend, I can tell with 100% certainty that our directory 3 years ago has 10 time less visitors but our rating at that time was better than 20,000 and now it drop to 60,000 and the only explanation I have would be; people finally wake up to reality and understood that using Toolbar is total waste of screen space and that Alexa’s information is nothing more than pile of garbage.

But all Alexa statistics are relative statistics. So reduction in the number of toolbar users cannot explain the drop in your traffic rank.

**fastreplies** · 01-27-2008, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikhail Simkin

But all Alexa statistics are relative statistics. So reduction in the number of toolbar users cannot explain the drop in your traffic rank.

Of course it can.

If 3 years ago 10 people visit our site and 5 of them with installed TB and this days only 1 in 100 has TB then it would explain the rank descend. After comparing our site with the same type, it became obvious that the drop is not unique to our directory but it has effect on everybody else as well.

Alexa sucks period.

fastreplies

**kevthegr8** · 01-28-2008, 06:35 PM

Mark, If in dougt ASk or Google it LOL

**fastreplies** · 01-28-2008, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevthegr8

Mark, If in dougt ASk or Google it LOL

He is trying to break the record of most useless posts in 24 hours period.
As of now he is averaging 73 posts per day

fastreplies

**kevthegr8** · 01-28-2008, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fastreplies

He is trying to break the record of most useless posts in 24 hours period.
As of now he is averaging 73 posts per day

fastreplies

Hey,
Yeah i kno! He has been a real busy bee with all his posting! Altho must be some kind of a record, avr 73 posts a day. To much time in his hands, and trying to be up with the big boys! LOL

Kev

**fastreplies** · 01-28-2008, 07:35 PM

Actually my son established the record when he posted over 300 posts in about 2 and half hours

fastreplies

**kevthegr8** · 01-28-2008, 07:39 PM

Hey,
WOW now thats alot of posts!!! LOL

Kev