Importance of Alexa ranking?

Is it valid?

IMHO – NO

How important is in in comparison to PR.

IMHO – no comparison

I have never kept up with Alexa but it was always my understanding that the rankings could be easily manipulated. Maybe that has changed – I dont know. What I do know is if that is the case – the rankings provide no “valid” indicator to base media buys on.

They check for more things now than they used to and I don’t know how easy it is to manipulate, unless you want to hit your own site all day long somehow.

I too have been surprised with the peaks and valleys – my site stats don’t have them at all.

I think that is accurate, Randy.
And who uses the Alexa Toolbar the most? Webmasters!

One piece of proof that Alexa ratings are inaccurate is the fact that my new sites are showing up fairly well – on some days they even get a higher rating than casinogeek, which has so much more traffic than they do (so far), it isn’t funny.

Originally posted by Randy
Alexa, if I understand it correctly, only tracks traffic from Alexa toolbar users, and extrapolates trends and overall traffic and reach based on what it sees its users doing. As such, it would be inherently inaccurate.

If I’m mistaken about this, feel free to correct me.

You are right Randy.

Alexa only tracks users who have the Alexa toolbar installed, so the results are not very accurate at all.

However, they are better than nothing. I use them when an affiliate asks for a bump in their commission rate. I will look at the Alexa rankings just to get a rough idea of how much traffic the site is getting. Again, let me emphasize this is a ROUGH estimate. Basically, I want to see if they rank in the top 100,000 sites vs. ranking 500,000.

Don’t get too concerned with the actual stats they publish because as Fergie said, they are highly inaccurate due to their small sample size.

But if you want to get a very rough idea of whether a site is getting a lot of traffic or very little, that’s about all it’s good for.

Originally posted by Dominique
Well, it should be pretty accurate about CAP then…

lol

Hey, that’s a nice Alexa rating showing for CAP.

Originally posted by arkyt
IRRELAVENT !!!

I have several sites that Alexa ranks better than 600,000 – but its in the top 5/10 or in some cases ranks #1 for numerous top keywords on Google and other top engines.

Base my traffic on Alexas stats and you are not even in the same city let alone same ballpark !!!!

I agree with you … I was just giving an example of how Alexa stats can be somewhat useful. If a site has good SEO it’s the quality of the traffic that matters more than quantity, everybody knows that.

But if somebody has a site that is NOT in the top SE pages, it gives some idea as to whether that site is getting any traffic or not. That’s all I meant.

I certainly would NOT base my commission deal on an Alexa ranking!!!

I hope I did not give you that impression.

I just use it as a FIRST step when checking out a site I’ve never heard of. If somebody emails me and asks us to sponsor a casino contest on their site, I might check Alexa to see if the site is getting any traffic. But that is just the first step in my due dilligence, not the last.

I am much more interested in a site that can produce real players. I don’t care how high or low it ranks on Alexa.

There are a lot of different types of sites and they all have different characteristics but can work equally well.

Some sites you will not see anyplace in the engines and they have high traffic – bought traffic, or even bought traffic that sticks and keeps coming back. These can rank in Alexa but not engines.

Gamesandcasino was like that for a long time. It is in the engines now but not under terms you would look for. Older sites get traffic all kinds of ways – word of mouth, typing into the browser, bookmarks, I have a download desktop icon that keeps bringing people back. I still regularly buy PPC and banner traffic. That site just keeps growing.

I have had other sites that were strictly PPC. I have some that are strictly SEO. These usually reach a certain size and stay put. I don’t know how big they will be three years from now but I doubt they will be as big as gamesandcasino because they just don’t have the stickiness. They are not unique enough. They don’t really offer much to go back for.

Sites with well run message boards are very sticky and will climb Alexa fast.

Alexa merely states that there is traffic, and the page count seems to agree with my site stats, so however they count that seems to be reasonably accurate.

It is easy to find out the age of a site there, which tends to have something to do with traffic. Also you find cached pages and can see how much effort is put into maintaining a page. Alexa is not useless, it has a bunch of info. The Alexa results can be manipulated, but so can the engine placements. Spam will occur everywhere.

Alexa has brought programs to my door, and copies of site stats have cinched deals Alexa initiated. I’m not complaining.