If you have been trying to learn how to create successful website with high traffic you certainly come across search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the tool through which you can optimize your website and as a result it should appears on the top positions in search engines. The quality of website SEO is often measured by Google PageRank (or PR) and Alexa Rank. Before we move on, let’s clarify a bit these two ranking methods.
Google PR evaluates the importance of your website in comparison with other websites which are indexed by Google. The PR is measured on a scale from 0 to 10 (10 means the best PR).
On the other hand Alexa Rank focuses on the amount of traffic your website gets in comparison with other websites on the Internet. More visitors you have the lower is your Alexa Rank. The most visited websites have Alexa Rank 0-1 (like Google or Yahoo).
But many people argue that Alexa Rank is inaccurate when determining the real website traffic. Why? It is because there are lots of controversies about the way how Alexa measure the traffic to your website. It is the fact that Alexa Rank can be manipulated easily and also it is the fact that ranking system is based solely on the Internet users who have installed Alexa toolbar on the browser. These are the main drawbacks of Alexa Rank. John Chow pointed on the easy way how to manipulate Alexa rating. He said that if you would have few friends with installed Alexa’s toolbar on their browsers and they will brows your site daily, you can easily break into top 100 000.
Another problem is that huge number of Alexa Rank toolbar users are related to online business sector and SEO search engine optimization sector what result into higher ranking of websites from these areas.
So why do people still care about Alexa Rank?
It is because many Internet users either don’t know or dot care about Alexa’s inaccuracy while they are assessing the credibility of the website. They simply trust to the websites with high Alexa rating and Google PR. So be careful before you start to trust somebody, there might be lot of online business speculators who want to increase their business credibility through high (manipulated) Alexa Rank and average PR.
And second reason why many people still care about Alexa Rank is that there are still many ads publishers who want to advertise only on the websites with high Google PR and Alexa Rank.
Useful article:
http://www.google-success.com/how-important-is-alexa-ranking-for-webmasters.htm
6 comments
I've never understood why Alexa was so important to some webmasters. It's not important to me at all. I think it can provide a very general idea of traffic of websites but it's not very accurate, just like you said.
Hello marci, thanks for comment.
I think Alexa was and still is important for many webmasters because it is still important for many other internet users (potential customers). As long as internet users will not care about Alexa, webmasters will stop care as well.
i appreciate the info. Alexa rankings is somehow important just to see your place among other sites..
People use Alexa to compare which is fine but I have sites that have a silly high Alexa ranking but generate more income than others. I think Alexa can be falsified by "buying" irrelevant traffic so some sites do "fiddle" it. Just my view.
I've got a 100,000 Alexa ranking, should I start monetizing the heck out of my site now? :)
Financial Samurai
Alexa.com's ranking is full of BS!
Alexa.com should put a disclaimer on its website warning people that their data is “For Amusement / Entertainment Use Only” as Alexa rankings CAN be easily manipulated.
Post a Comment