Written on April 17th, 2008 at 04:04 pm by Darren Rowse
Alexa Announces ‘New’ Rankings
Alexa have announced it has overhauled its ranking system. You can see their announcement here via TechCrunch.
They have ditched their toolbar as the sole source of their rankings and are now pulling in data from other sources too. This means that the skew towards tech sites (as their readers are more likely to use the toolbar) has been addressed (or at least they’ve tried to address it).
Those who check their rankings regularly will now see new rankings. For some there will be little change where as others will see increases or decreases.
For example my other blog Digital Photography School now shows up on Alexa with a very similar ranking to ProBlogger. Previously it was much much lower despite having higher daily traffic numbers. It’s still not perfect (DPS ranks at 16561 (i’m not sure it used to be but it was in the 20,000s) and ProBlogger 12917 (previously in the 3000’s despite DPS having more actual traffic) but it’s at least closer.
PS: Amit has tracked how the changes have impacted the rankings of some blogs.
61 Responses to “Alexa Announces ‘New’ Rankings” - Add Yours
Abhijeet from Jeet Blog
April 17th, 2008 4:38 pm
I believe Alexa has finally understood that its ranking system, although which was a sort of industry standard, was not quite authentic because it was dependent on its toolbar users.
Hence this change is certainly a change in the positive direction and will make the Alexa rankings more reliable.
layman
April 17th, 2008 4:41 pm
Now I see why my site ranking did not change 4 days agao. I hope this new ranking algorithm cannot be manipulated.
PHP Learn
April 17th, 2008 4:45 pm
This is something they should have been doing in the first place. Half of the systems that webmasters have to deal with are the attempts of monopolies companies like alexa and google create. If you use adsense be careful what other ads you use-if people don’t deal with the alexa toolbar , your rank is not reflected well-and so on.
I guess if I had the monopoly to dictate actions and rewards for the internet community I would do the same so we just shrug our shoulders and try to program and set up our sites for good whatevers. Bring on the new stuff alexa and lets try to adapt and code our sites in accord to whats best.
Stephanie
April 17th, 2008 4:57 pm
Hmm, should be interesting to see if they have finally improved their relevancy. I haven’t worried about Alexa rankings in a long time… then again, I’ve not had good enough numbers to worry about.
Terence Chang
April 17th, 2008 4:58 pm
I just post my opinions about that too. Many bloggers I know, including myself, were using StumbleUpOn to generate traffic to boost the Alexa Traffic Ranking for any reasons.
Now the changes could meant that StumbleUpOn is no longer a good source to manipulate Alexa Traffic ranking.
Here is my opinions. Will new Alexa Traffic Ranking System kill StumbleUpOn?
Neerav
April 17th, 2008 5:08 pm
This should shakeup the Top 100 Australian Blogs Index somewhat
My main blog has had its rank improve considerably to easily get inside the 100,000 rank and my travel sites rank has moved out to 200,000
Still not perfect but getting better
Make Money Online
April 17th, 2008 5:39 pm
Hey that’s good for Alexa, lets see what this new algorithm will bring. a lot of people think it will affect their rankings which it most like will and is already, simply because before they were dependant on their toolbar. I wonder what other sources they’re using now…
Frugal Dad
April 17th, 2008 5:43 pm
Interesting…bummer, it still indicated I’m a small fry! Do I get points for not feeling like a small fry these day? I guess not. I’ve never fully understood the Alexa rankings and how they translate to new business. I understand advertisers use it as a tool to gauge a blog’s popularity, but beyond the top 100k I’m not sure how useful those figures are. I guess this might be an opportunity for me to dive in and learn more.
Life on Mars
April 17th, 2008 6:00 pm
Yes, it changed, but nothing serious for me coz my blog is brand new at the moment, but seems alexa rankings of many famous blogs drunk a lot! But I will still love problogger!
Thinkjayant
April 17th, 2008 6:26 pm
Frankly i never clearly understand how alexa used to rank there sites. Google page rank understanding is much better. Hope the algorithm reflects the ranking much better this time around.
Many sites uses alexa ranking as a tool to display their popularity. Some of them might now see a shift in the rankings. Also as rightly said by darren, tech sites are most ikely to be affected.
By the way, congrats darren for the jump in the rankings of DP School site.
Ashish Mohta
April 17th, 2008 7:22 pm
My Blog got a boost of 10k straight compared to what was last night.( i got 32xxx now) I know from my traffic sources that kind of people land up on my site are not geeky. They are very regular people who look around tips on computer usage or anything similar to that. Good news for me anyway
Daisy
April 17th, 2008 7:40 pm
Good move from Alexa as many people started to realise that the Alexa ranking was something that could too easily be manipulated. I like how they sugarcoated that in the article…
Too bad Alexa is not revealing from what other sources they’re pulling their data from.
Seduction
April 17th, 2008 8:01 pm
I saw my site take a good drop down 100k from yesterday. Barely left behind my main competitor and miles away from others. About time proper rankings came!!
Etienne Teo
April 17th, 2008 8:23 pm
When i first saw the changes, i was not sure what happen with alexa and made a post on the drastic changes made to all..
http://www.etienneteo.com/2008/04/alexa-just-threw-bomb-on-every-site.html
I guess the announcement was out after a while i made the post. I will be using compete for now.
David Bradley
April 17th, 2008 8:36 pm
It’s good news for me. Sciencbease.com finally got back into the top 100,000 after a hiatus troling around the 130k mark for the last few months. It’s also good to know that the system is now a more accurate public indication of traffic and presumably just got harder to game.
db
Infogle
April 17th, 2008 8:56 pm
I do believe that alexa is finally giving the ranking data fairly enough as was before the data was inspired by the alexa toolbar as declared by alexa
ChiQ Montes
April 17th, 2008 9:02 pm
it’s a pain though for me being a new kid in the block.. my site has been online for 3 days.. and the alexa rank is really high.. for those who didn’t know that alexa rankings has changed already.. that could create a bad impression on me.. LOL.
jhay
April 17th, 2008 9:23 pm
It’s all good for me. I’m really curious though as to what their other sources of data are.
Anyone who has a clue?
Reginald
April 17th, 2008 9:39 pm
Your post certainly offers encouragement to new bloggers who all too often are given the perception that it is next to impossible to acquire a ranking from any of the name brand search engines like Alexa and Google.
Thanks for the update.
noemi
April 17th, 2008 10:07 pm
I never understood what alexa meant anyway. I checked mine and found out it even increased in rank.
Robb
April 17th, 2008 10:08 pm
Wow…
My BlackBerry blog RIMarkable jumped up over 30,000 places moving from around 87,000 or so up to 53,685.
I knew that I had much more traffic than what they Alexa gave credit for so I am glad that they are using more than just one data point to gauge traffic.
Bob Younce at the Writing Journey
April 17th, 2008 10:22 pm
This is HUGE. And, a long time coming, too.
suresh
April 17th, 2008 11:37 pm
I am really happy to see that my blog
http://abapprogramming.blogspot.com alexa rank improved my all most 200000 all of a sudden and it is at 300K right now.
Jamey Lucas
April 17th, 2008 11:53 pm
My Alexa rating has improved dramtically. It was about 6,000,000 now it’s hovering at 4,000,000. I always thought the tool bar was a bad idea, and I’m glad to see they are making improvements.
Louis
April 18th, 2008 12:05 am
Yea, I am so happy to see Alexa evolving! My ranking dropped from 192k to 132k. This is going to change the whole advertising worth of many sites.
Kathy Hendershot-Hurd
April 18th, 2008 1:06 am
Unfortunately, the ones who CARE about their Alexa rank are probably the ones who will feel this hit the hardest.
Anyone know what the REAL reason behind the switch in collecting data? Is this a reaction to pressure from Compete.com?
Shreemani
April 18th, 2008 2:11 am
Hope Alexa has simplified itself than before. I’d found it quite complex and tried to join but simply couldn’t because of not so friendly interface and hard to understand too.
mr.eims
April 18th, 2008 2:51 am
I dont realy mind since my site is still new anyway. got no ranking at alexa yet. its like now the game of hiking alexa ranking just start all over again
Leszek Pawlowicz
April 18th, 2008 3:45 am
But tech sites have a higher proportion of Firefox users, which don’t normally have Alexa installed, so they’ll be undercounted in theory. In practice, I don’t know. My Alexa ranking jumped by a third, even though my stats say that 40% of my visitors use Firefox.
Alexa is pretty worthless as a tracker of site ranking. My visitor count has doubled over the past six months, as measured by three different methods, while Alexa shows me flat or slightly down.
JoLynn Braley
April 18th, 2008 5:05 am
I kinda forgot about Alexa because I don’t blog about tech topics, I’ll have to check out the changes now, thanks!
Mr. Javo
April 18th, 2008 5:37 am
My ranking dropped considerably, from 80k to 230k…. =(
Lowongan Kerja
April 18th, 2008 5:50 am
My blogs have increased Alexa Rank, maybe it is impact of changes on their ranking system
Tay - Super Blogging
April 18th, 2008 7:40 am
So I suppose that would explain why I went from about 70,000 to over 200,000. Insanity! But I guess my site did have an advantage because of its niche, and it’s a lot more fair now. Even though it didn’t help ME out too much, kudos to Alexa. This made all bloggers in all niches having a fighting chance.
Brad Hart
April 18th, 2008 7:56 am
I was wondering what sparked the change in my ratings. I had one stay the same, one go up and the other go from 6M to less than 3M without much change in traffic. This explains a lot thanks for posting it.
Garth Koyle
April 18th, 2008 9:13 am
This should help even out the distribution between sites in my Utah Innovative Company Index. I tracked over 50 sites last month and now 100 more. This index will change a lot next month, hu?
Michael
April 18th, 2008 9:15 am
Although I think Alexa is still pretty inaccurate compared to hard stats, like page views and unique views, but the new system seems to be a little bit more accurate.
John Hewitt
April 18th, 2008 10:42 am
I’m back in the top 100,000! Thats a +40,000 jump for me.
Stephane - YulMedia
April 18th, 2008 12:12 pm
All our blogs have gained from the recent changes. Coool!
Even though everybody knew that Alexa’s rankings were innacurate, webmasters and bloggers were still relying on the system to compare their site with competitors.
The new improved system will certainly make Alexa a lot more popular than it is already.
sikantis
April 18th, 2008 12:43 pm
Although rankings and stats are important I didn’t find one which is really perfect. I check alexa now too for my rankings!
Dave Hughes
April 18th, 2008 12:45 pm
My MMORPG blog LagORama got a nice boost of about 120k in my Alexa ranking as a result of the change…from 340k to 219k at the moment. That’s a bit more in line with my expectations, to be honest.
And when you consider that “MMORPG” is about as “techie” as you can get niche-wise, it’s interesting that it improved with the ranking algorithm change.
Paolo U
April 18th, 2008 1:22 pm
difeerent sites ahs a different effect on their alexa rankings.
check out my review.
http://wahb.biz/2008/04/18/alexa-new-ranking-system-got-a-different-effect-on-websites/
Court
April 18th, 2008 5:23 pm
The funniest part of their long overdue admission of guilt in having a flawed ranking system was this part of the Q&A:
My site’s ranking has changed. Was it wrong before?
Your ranking wasn’t wrong before, but it was different.
Oh, I get it. DIFFERENT. Reminds me of Forrest Gump:
“Remember what I told you, Alexa. You’re no different than anybody else is. Did you hear what I said, Alexa? You’re the same as everybody else. You are no different.”
And Philip Morris, which I detail in analogy form here: Alexa Finally Admits They Sucked
venky
April 18th, 2008 6:09 pm
I’m new to blogging. My rank has moved up by 300K in this week slightly slower with my previous weeks movements of 1000K.
Any idea what other sources they are looking to apart from this toolbar?
David Cheong
April 19th, 2008 3:49 am
After the new changes, i now begining to check my alexa posted here http://www.davcheong.com/earning-guide/keep-track-of-my-alexa-now.htm which also mean, i am not sure whether i should track it.
Gary
April 19th, 2008 5:46 am
My blog is less than a year old and was around 500k range and has climbed to around 320k pretty big climb.
Daryl W.T. Lau
April 19th, 2008 5:24 pm
Its about blinking time I’d say. With this new change, it will surely make Alexa more relevant once again.
Roshan Bhattarai
April 19th, 2008 11:02 pm
Well this update has been great for me…I went from 120K to 81K , I used the see the blogs with less traffic used to have higher alexa ranking by using entrecards.com
now faking is all over…thanks to alexa for this ranking system..
Gopal Tripathi
April 20th, 2008 1:03 am
Its good for all of us that Alexa Ranking system is improved, more reliable and consistant now.
Tom Hanna
April 20th, 2008 6:18 pm
And here I thought I had just done something really right the last three or four days. Oh well, as long as I rank higher, who cares why!
sdenterprise
April 21st, 2008 6:15 am
My eco blog and web site rank was 1.23 million and dropped to 1.83 million… Oh well, just three months ago it was at 14 million on alexa… so I am pleased with the progress so far…!
Alexa is Gay
April 22nd, 2008 3:43 pm
My site drop from 1,284 to 14,874
Reginald
April 26th, 2008 3:11 am
Actually, I agree with PHP Learn’s post. Whenever an issue or topic is being researched more than one resource should be utilized to ensure a more accurate depiction of its statistical value.
Reginald
April 26th, 2008 3:29 am
Gary,
You have some pretty impressive statistics. Do you care to elaborate on the process you used to attain such eye catching figures?
Reginald
April 26th, 2008 3:35 am
‘Alexa is Gay’, why do you consider your numbers a drop instead of a rise?
venky
April 28th, 2008 3:51 pm
Rank has not updated in this week for me. Although I see my weekly rank moving up by 10K, the three months rank is same as last week’s. Looks like the frequency has changed to more than a week now.
Reginald
May 1st, 2008 12:40 am
Venky,
One should appreciate small blessings…the majority of upcoming bloggers may consider giving their right arm for your rate of ranking increase.
Stay persistent and consistent.
Gireesh Sharma
May 1st, 2008 9:25 pm
Even my website’s ranking dropped, though by couple of thousands only.
http://www.empxtrack.com
Strangely, we are seeing a consistent increase in the number of unique visitors through Statcounter.com, the changes in Alexa ranking are slightly dis-aligned.
Wondering, how to make our visitors install Alexa Tool bar!!!
Gireesh
Reginald
May 7th, 2008 5:27 am
Gireesh Sharma,
How have you found your sites data that is being provided by statcounters?
alexa toolbar & widgets ranking
May 7th, 2008 5:17 pm
I heared the announcement that alexa has changed its ranking algorithm. I am little happy with this change because my website got little improvment. see new alexa ranking for http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=www.fortunehotels.in Fortune Park Hotels Ltd.
web and rank
May 22nd, 2008 12:36 am
Alexa traffic rankings are not based on AWIS usage. Alexa determines Traffic Rank by aggregating usage information of the Alexa Toolbar and data obtained from other, diverse sources.
GuddaGudiya
October 4th, 2008 3:54 pm
After spending two years building my own website, I was very disappointed that my Alexa ranking was still higher than one million. in order to improve my Alexa rating, I spent about three weeks combing the web to find tips, secrets, and proven strategies for increasing my Alexa ranking. Unfortunately, many of the sites offering advice didn’t even have a high ranking themselves. Please advice!
http://GuddaGudiya.com
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