When Alexa Attacks! Skewed Rankings Get The Best of Bloggers
Posted on September 16th, 2008 by Jim under Blog Services, Blogging Tricks
Website owners, and bloggers in particular, often have their success gauged by third party ranking metrics. The leaders in this technology are Google (Pagerank), Technorati (Technorati Rank) and Alexa (Alexa Rank)… but some are clearly better than others in accurately measuring a site’s popularity.
Despite the constant complaining, I remain convinced that Google Pagerank is in fact the most accurate of the three, and is actually a very accurate grader of popularity (on average). Technorati is really only used to judge websites that exist in the tech and information areas of the market. The third option would be Alexa, which is without a doubt the most unstable of the three. While theNetFool.com held an Alexa ranking of around 88,000 over the past month, we have slipped into the mid-100,000s while traffic has continued to climb. This raises the question, if your Alexa ranking sucks… are you doing something wrong?
How The Ranking Is Determined… And Why It’s Unreliable
I had to have a look toward the official Alexa.com FAQ section to determine exactly how the algorithm works. Despite the fact that they have recently upgraded their ranking metric, things still rely on the same old factors: toolbar views, unique page views and website reach. Here is the official excerpt:
“A site’s ranking is based on a combined measure of reach and pageviews. Reach is determined by the number of unique Alexa users who visit a site on a given day. Pageviews are the total number of Alexa user URL requests for a site. However, multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single pageview. The site with the highest combination of users and pageviews is ranked #1.”
We can see here that views are counted more if they are unique. This sounds good, but it’s naturally going to weigh social media hits too heavily. I truly believe that my Alexa ranking has self-imploded since I stopped actively marketing with social media. While I felt that getting hits from websites like StumbleUpon and Digg by the thousands was a cheap way to increase my real traffic, (and deceptive to advertisers to put it lightly) it was actually holding up my Alexa ranking the entire time.
You Are Getting The Short End of the Stick
The bottom line here is that the way Alexa scores ranking is putting you at a loss if you do not do everything under your control to boost your rating. Don’t care? Maybe you should. As unfair as it is, advertisers and other marketing companies look to Alexa ranking among other things to set their rates. If your blog is 
signed up under ReviewMe.com or SponsoredReviews.com, you are literally being compared by your Alexa ranking to determine pricing.
If you are not using the Alexa.com toolbar yourself, you are missing out on some good rank-inflation. If your readers and visitors don’t have it installed, you are getting hit even harder. Failure to use social media websites to drive unique visitors to your blog will negatively effect your Alexa rank as other websites gain ground on yours. And if you aren’t using any Alexa.com widget, you miss out on lots of potential.
The Net Fool’s Alexa Antidote
Since my Alexa.com ranking has slipped off the charts (despite record growth), I have developed a five-step plan that I think all of you should take in order to conquer Alexa and increase your site’s worth. Let’s break it down!
1. Install a chart or widget on your actual website
Notice a change in the footer of theNetFool.com? I installed the chart widget because each impression on the chart registers better with Alexa, which can help if your traffic doesn’t already have the official toolbar installed in their web browser. You can get the chart widget right on your site’s Alexa homepage, and can alternatively use a simple ranking-display widget if you don’t have as much space.
2. Install the Firefox “Sparky” Alexa toolbar plugin
By installing the official Alexa toolbar on your blog/website, you will be getting your website ranking boosted a bit more every time you visit, and will help out all of your favorite blogs as well. It’s really a win-win and the new Sparky plugin is easy to install, convenient and you won’t even notice it’s there!
3. Encourage your visitors to install the Alexa plugin themselves
The logical next step is to ask your readers to install the plugin themselves. I’ll do that now… “please install the Alexa.com plugin!” 
In all seriousness, having everyone use the Firefox plugin will increase your ranking big time. For my blog, most of my users are on FireFox, meaning that I have a potential 60%+ increase if everyone were viewing with the toolbar. It’s a chain reaction that really pays off.
4. Create content targeted toward tech/geek internet surfers
Despite the updates to the ranking metric, one thing remains the same: Alexa.com rankings are amplified by the tech/geek crew. Why? Internet surfers that look at tech-related material are much more likely to have the Alexa toolbar installed. Therefore, making a post about Alexa.com rankings (what I am doing now) or making a nice list of webmaster resources can really attract a lot of important views that will drive your Alexa ranking HIGHER!
5. Target social media traffic for increase unique visitors
Just like we want to create effective content that is well-received by the internet community, we want to reach out to social media bookmarking websites like Digg.com, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Technorati and Mixx in order to really throttle our results. Unique visitors make a HUGE difference, so by using social media 
networks, even if users stay for a half second, you are going to be artificially inflating your Alexa numbers which is a win-win any day of the week. 
This five-step plan should be a great starting block in getting your Alexa.com ranking up with the pros. A lot of really high-quality websites get slapped with poor Alexa rankings, while some brand new blogs are getting sub-100k ranks! UberAffiliate.com has an Alexa ranking of 325,000; JohnCow.com has an Alexa ranking of 235,000; but TheNetFool.com somehow trounces both with a ranking of 112,000.
Is this accurate? No. Is this reasonable? No. Is this even fair? No. But until Alexa makes a shift to a more precise ranking metric, we have to claw our way to higher rankings by gaming the system. 
-The Net Fool
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This all seems a little bit much just to try and rank high in Alexa. I mean at the end of the day does it really matter what Alexa ranks you? Does it make a big difference if you have a decent pagerank and good traffic?
Will it earn you any more money?
On my entrepreneur/MMO blog I don’t bother worrying about alexa ranking. I am just trying to build my readership and to give my readers what they want. This is how you make money online.
Alexa sounds like a waste of time
Yes. It will earn you more money.
A lot of beginning bloggers don’t understand how important the ranking really is. You may not think it’s accurate, but it doesn’t matter because its one of the top ways you are being judged by advertisers.
It’s really not a lot of work at all, how long does it take to download a toolbar?
Do advertisers seriously check alexa before advertising with you?
Why is it so important? Can’t they just check your traffic?
Jim is right Ryan, Alexa ranking its important for advertisers.
I dont rely at all on Alexa but it doesnt matter, people look at it and some newbies when they found out about Alexa they´ll begin to trust that ranking even that we know it is not accurate at all.
But what the heck, downloading the tool bar its free and fast, and you will be able to see all the inconsistencies within sites. For instance you may see a high traffic and popular blog with a worst Alexa ranking than a very new and not so popular site but with a lot better Alexa ranking. Its hilarious sometimes, why not laugh a little.
I personally wouldn’t go to such lengths just to increase a rank known for lack of consistency
Are you sure that having the Alexa Chart installed on your blog helps increase traffic rankings? Doesn’t actually seem plausible….hmmm… but I do know the toolbar trick works
Regards from Drett.
I feel like I was just talking about something similar to this with a buddy on IM
Ha ha, great post as always Jim.. Keep up the great work..
Moneybitess last blog post..PublisherSpot Updates
This is good analysis and sound advise. Alexa is likely to have a good look at your blog and come up with something clever. In the meanwhile, I am perfectly happy with Pagerank.
Nicole Prices last blog post..Top TV Shows of All Time
Hey I too belive that alexa does not give an accurate metric.good post JIM
Harishs last blog post..The Contest At Net Strife-800$ worth prizes
Great advice. I’ll definitely install the widget.
Thanks for the good post.
Ganeshs last blog post..John Cow has been COWnapped!
Hey this was a pretty good post that contained a lot of great information on how to affect your Alexa rankings. But to be honest, I am not really a fan of Alexa now because of the inaccurate stats they give. I heard that Alexa has been having problems for the past few months, and can not be relied on.
I use Quantcast now to determine my traffic ranking and I am loving it! The results are more accurate as well.
To be MORE honest, it doesn’t matter if you aren’t a fan of Alexa. People don’t use Quantcast at all, so you need to account for the system that the big dogs look toward.
This is all very niche-dependant. For those above that asked whether it matters…yes it does, depending on your market. I have an automotive website, and many companies judge my popularity by my Alexa rank and give me cars and products to review and fly me to events based on how popular I am. Less popular sites don’t get this treatment, because it won’t be worth their investment. This is just one small example, but this is all over the place.
Net Fool: You’re right that it’s a ridiculous and innaccuate system, but it’s there anyway, and it does matter for some. However, I don’t agree that Google Pagerank is accurate either. I’ve seen plenty of PR0 sites ranked higher than PR4 sites for the same term. Google screwed up the PR system with the penalties. Page Rank does not matter either, and gives no true indication of popularity.
So how can you judge true popularity? You can’t, unfortunately. You just have to use a combo of Alexa, PageRank, and Compete to estimate. Incidentally, the Search Status plugin for Firefox gives you a quick view of all 3 of these, among other nice features.
If a person or company can come up with an accurate ranking system, you could be a rich fool.
Egonitrons last blog post..Design Coding Rap
I agree, and I think Alexa is way overrated!
Thats a great article..
Shocked to know that my alexa is better than most of the popular blogs
Problogineers last blog post..How to Convert Audio Video
Y’know how those late night infommercials hawk those cheesy Nascar plates with the 14k gold-plated edges as “collectible?” What makes ‘em collectible? That they said so. Not a thing more. But gullible consumers buy into the notion and then it becomes true.
Likewise, Alexa is only a metric that matters because they’ve insisted that to be true and bloggers, desperate for impressive statistics, have bought into that sham.
I don’t mean to be harsh, but it seems in poor taste – and smacking distinctly of desperation – to ask your blog’s readers to install a plugin that’s of almost no value to them just for the sake of padding up your numbers. I think doing so betrays your loyal readers’ trust and could deter visitors from becoming subscribers.
Rob O.s last blog post..Bottlenose Birth
Good post Jim, it’s like you said…advertisers use it to judge your sites, so even if you don’t think it matters it does. I don’t do much social media promotion at all…I imagine that could be hurting me a lil bit. I also don’t have the widget, I do have sparky installed though
Normal Joes last blog post..IMwithJoe.com Weekly Update And Plans
I’ve given up all hope in Alexa. My ranking continues to go down, and I’m surpassing sites that I know get more visits than I do.
Brad Blogging.coms last blog post..Have You Got Your Free Backlinks From Yahoo Yet?
Alexa needs to revamp its algo , but its become a universal metric online over a period of time.
ZK@WebTrafficROIs last blog post..Inspirational Lessons from Terry Fox
I agree alexa alone is nothing and relying on it for what most do is foolish, but not in the net fool way.
I use alexa to gauge the quality of traffic. If you see good ranks its because many with toolbars have visited from links that have more power than say a user without that bounces off.
This being said ultimately alexa is just a 1/10th of the story. I look at it to determine along with other metrics and variables and keyword ranks to see what really is going on.
As usual superb article by the net fool.
Big Ben Pattons last blog post..Iron Key The Worlds Most Secure Flash Drive
I just hope they don’t attack me.
Everything seems fine on my end, but I see what you mean.
If I have a lower Alexa than A-list bloggers than something must be wrong.
Anyway, all it can mean is that all the new visitors you’re receiving don’t have the toolbar; that could explain it.
Otherwise, Alexa is all messed up. You’re definitely not the first one I’ve heard complain about it.
Thanks for sharing!
Luis Grosss last blog post..StumbleUpon Do’s and Dont’s
I have seen some nice increase in my Alexa-rank in the last few weeks without doing any of these.
Tomorrow I’m going to post about the Sparky toolbar. I hope that some of my readers will install it and help me and themselves. =P
I’ve installed it after reading your post.
Andrei Buius last blog post..The Power of Offline Marketing
Thanks for sharing some great tips! I’m going to follow the steps above and see what kind of results I get.
Seans last blog post..Pepper Cherry Hybrid Project
It is so hard getting traffic. Anyone have any tips.
Thanks bro, I am gonna install it now!!
SEO Trickss last blog post..10 ways to build backlinks for your website
I always read your blog in high spirits. Thanks
i tried it i feel it is working and will update it one again …
when i see the results
Zk