Alexa - Accurate Representation?
 

Was here with my buds today and we were talking about site popularity which led one of the guys to suggest checking it on Alexa. NOw as I understand it, Alexa just keeps track of site visits for people using the Alexa toolbar right? So all it can do is extrapolate from sampling of people using said toolbar which is in the vast minority.

Am I correct or is there more to it?

From what I understand that is a correct assumption.
I don't think alexa is accurate enough.

That's pretty much it. I use alexa sometimes to evaluate what sites to give high priority trades and things like that, but for anything more involved I wouldn't trust it.

Alexa doesn't become accurate until you are comparing sites in the under 10,000 range.

anything above that is usually highly questionable.

It's not that accurate. I was on another forum and a guy was talking about how you can game the Alexa toolbar to get a higher ranking for your site.

Correct, don't trust that info..

there aren't a lot of ppl that value Alexa's ratings... it is mostly used in the "money-making opps" biz.

Vast numbers of Asian surfers have the alexa toolbar installed for some reason, which skews the results and is why you see some wacko Asian sites in disproportionately high positions.

I don't even waste my time checking my rankings there. Not even close to accurate.

as with a battery of psychological testing, one can not or should not rely solely on one test or measurement, but rather consider it to be part of a group of tests/measurements...







it can be manipulated as many other tests can be if you know a thing or two about them...ie; alexabooster.com

I'm not sure that it is even reliable for that.

One of my domains has an Alexa rating around 130k and if you go to that domain you will find a TGP but it's not that TGP that gives the domain such a good listing.

Inside that domain I have a number of sub-directories for free sites and TGP galleries and that's what gives the domain such a good rating - not the TGP at the front of the domain.

... it only takes 2000 probants to get some good stats out of it. so it does not matter if the one thing they have in common is the alexa toolbar, or a red pinto in their garage ... it's the number that matters ...

Alexa is definitely not accurate.

It's proven that if you install Alexa on your machine, and go to your website each day, your Alexa rating will rise incredibly.

Also, there are such programs as www.alexabooster.com

I definitly would not value Alex's ratings as high as some people do. It's a neat little tool, but like you've stated, it doesn't keep track of surfers who are not using the toolbar. I personally don't think I've talked to anybody with this toolbar installed, so if that speaks for the general population, It's highly doubtful that too many surfers are using this.

Alexa is trash. It rates sites the same way Neilson rates TV and Arbitron rates Radio by using sampling. For average mainstream websites that don't have the luxury of Sextracker or Porngraph it's really the only way they can set prices for advertising.

I agree Alexa is not accurate.

I'm trying this one
http://tools.marketleap.com/publinkpop/
but I think the concept is the same

I wonder if Alexa uses stats from people with the google bar installed as well. Anybody know?

130k is NOT good at all - that's actually very bad. The lower your rank, the more visitors (with alexa toolbar) you have on your site.
Check yahoo, it's #1 at Alexa for years now.

It seems you managed to miss the point of what I was saying.

alexa is total bullshit


i prefer ranking.com ...

I use it just for reference :)

Ranking.com? Please.

Alexa is getting whack, it is very outdated in my opinion, they need to do something to enhance their system.