Alexa Myths - A Self Case Study

An interesting analysis done by James on Debunking Alexa Myths Is sure an interesting read. Recently Alexa did change something in the algorithm which I had been watching since the release of Alexa tool bar. Before giving an inside look, as James said the two most commonly used way which is supposed to increase the Alexa are : -

Installing the Alexa script.
Adding the Alexa re-direct to the sites url.

I started this too and had been watching if it really works. Here is a small analysis which was triggered by James post for sure.

My Analysis of last 5 months with Alexa.

I did install the Alexa script but not the redirect. Now my conclusion was if a user does not have the tool bar can this script help sending an input to Alexa that person has visited the site.My Alexa improved by 3 times since 4 months, (wow!) but wait….here is some info you can take a look at , I did some analysis on My Traffic .

March : UV 15062 PV : 19992
April : UV 18112 PV : 30691 ( Installed Alexa Script ) ( Alexa Increase) (Happy)
May : UV 52612 PV : 94892 ( Alexa Increase) (Very Happy)
June : UV 71706 PV : 131391 ( Alexa Increase) (Very Very Happy)
July : UV 78503 PV: 142113 ( Alexa Drops by 2500 ranks) (What was that !!!!!!)

Right from March to June, my traffic kept on increasing and was Maximum in July. So according to the concept of installing Alexa Script, the traffic should have increased but it was just reverse, there was a drop of 2500 ranks from June Ranking and was 49992.
Lately my articles was stumbled in starting of August which pushed my Alexa by 2000 Ranks which is now 47902.

Most possible reason why My Alexa dropped in July

I was on a month vacation and My blog was on guest mode.

The number of posts dropped as compared to my previous month.
My natural search engine traffic was more than referral or direct.

No stumbles , No Digg. Most of the part was natural search engine. Now if the script theory would have really worked my Alexa should have increased rather than dropping as my traffic was maximum in last 4 months.

Fact Supporting Alexa Redirect is useless

Here is one of statement from James post which gives a clear shot . This statement came as a comment on a bloggers post who did an experiment with alexa.

“Matt, don’t delude yourself or your readers. The redirect doesn’t do anything to your rank. The rank is based on one thing only: logs from toolbar usage. I should know, I am the product manager at Alexa.

Why did your rank improve? Your article prompted a lot of people with toolbars to visit your site. It is that simple. Don’t use our redirect. It causes load on our machines for no purpose whatsoever” - Geoffrey Mack

A quick look at Geoffrey’s blogger profile confirms his identity. He is also an author for awis.blogspot.com - Alexa’s official product blog.

Facts about Alexa Tool bar Users

Alexa Toolbar is mostly used by either

Geeks, power users, webmasters and people who are aware of search engines.
Diggers and Stumblers

I am very sure most of the people who come from natural search engines don’t have Alexa tool bar and neither are aware of it and hence there was a drop in July ranking.

Conclusion:

Agreed with James that if you want to improve alexa ranking there is only one way, Write Good articles. But here are three more things you can do it also.

Get Stumbled.
Get on Digg Front Page.
Ask all your friends to install the Alexa tool bar. You can install Alexa tool bar with this link.

These will work because I had already said these people are the one who has Alexa tool bar installed for sure.

So what do you think ? Have you installed Alexa tool bar ? Have you told your readers to install Alexa tool bar? How had been your Alexa doing ? Do you agree with my views….discuss in comments and I would welcome both positive and negative responses.!!!

About The Author of this article:
Ashish is one of the co-author of this blog and writes on various interesting softwares, PC tips and more. You can read more of his articles here.

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17 Comments and Link-Backs to “Alexa Myths - A Self Case Study”

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14 Comments from Friends and Readers

Shankar Ganesh, August 11, 2007:

A very informative post there. Really helpful in understanding Alexa better.

I noticed that Alexa rank goes up with traffic from StumbleUpon just like you said in the post.
Ken Xu, August 11, 2007:

Stumble+DiggFP=High ALEXA
Well, Alexa is only a tool for measuring our popularity. THe true value still remain in our content. You content is great for us. Even if your alexa is drop, that will not effect us alot.
Friedbeef, August 11, 2007:

Thanks man - this is an awesome followup to my post
Ashish Mohta, August 11, 2007:

@Friedbeef: You just gave me a trigger. I had been watching Alexa after the tool bar was released. Share it with your readers if u like
kanak, August 12, 2007:

Oops, I didnt know alexa redirect was useless. Well !! There is not need to believe alexa unless your ranking there is less than 50K as far as i believe. I also wrote my reasons for hating alexa . Well !! counting a rank based on alexa users, till where its justifiable ??
Ashish Mohta, August 12, 2007:

@Kenxu: Thanks a lot.

@kanak: Its not complete , I would rather say that and there is no other choice. There script is too heavy to be added to each server. So best is ask your readers to install the Alexa tool bar. Nice review there
Ashok, August 12, 2007:

I am seeing more and more bloggers are using alexa script to improve their alexa. Since high alexa means you can get more juice from advertisers.

I think after reading this many will understand that it is of no use.
Ashish Mohta, August 12, 2007:

@Ashok: Thanks for commenting. Even i got to know the fact after I check my stats. Its really silly to use it. Most of the bloggers are trying to encash by making post out of it.
Nirmal, August 13, 2007:

Great post by all means Ashish, I am also watching Alexa closely. Agreed on all points, but if a blogger wants to make some money by sponsorship or reviews, then whatever crap Alexa may be its necessary to have a good rank and the best way to have it is to install the script.
Ashish Mohta, August 13, 2007:

@Nirmal: Thanks, but if you see the statements given n blockqoute by the manager of Alexa, you will get to know it clear that only Alexa tool bar is responsible for collecting data. There is no mentioning of script passing that data neither in the Alexa Blog nor any of their official release.

And If the script would have given all the data like our Google analytics , then there would have been no use of creating and releasing a tool bar. They would have just asked everybody to install the script itself from the starting. but they didn’t.
Kaloyan, August 20, 2007:

A better option is to make the Alexa redirecting JavaScript-powered: in this way
the HTML will not be modified, and the redirects will still work. I’ve applied
this technique to a new plugin called Better “Alexa Redirect” WordPress
plugin.
Ashish Mohta, August 20, 2007:

@Kaloyan: If you have read the statement given by the Product Manager of Alexa, Its clear the redirect does nothing other than loading Alexa server. They have said clearly that data is only collected using toolbar. No script and no re direct works.
Fortune, October 30, 2007:

My website isn’t having good position in Alexa. I have downloaded alexa toolbar & placed alexa widgets on the website but no improvement there. Even I read on many sites that alexa widget, redirections are myth. Is that true? I need your feedbacks. Visit here to see .in alexa traffic ranking of fortunehotels.in
Fortunehotels ranking in Alexa, April 3, 2008:

If you depend on link or site selling as a form of monetization you’ll definitely want to increase your http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=www.fortunehotels.in Alexa rank, because it’ll increase your bargaining power when it comes to ad pricing.