The New Alexa Rankings
We've been working hard behind the scenes for several months and are excited to announce that our new Alexa Rankings system is available.
When Alexa began displaying rankings in 1998 it was with the goal of showing Alexa Toolbar users how popular any given site was within the Alexa community. We generated the rankings through an analysis of Internet usage by people who use the Alexa Toolbar. Since that time we've been delighted to see that the Alexa Rankings have become a yardstick by which website popularity is measured. We are grateful to the thousands of people who come to Alexa.com each day to check the Alexa Rankings.
In recent months we've heard from our Alexa users that understanding Internet usage beyond Alexa Toolbar users was increasingly of interest. Ask and you shall receive!
We listened to your suggestions, and we believe that our new rankings system is much closer to what you asked for. We now aggregate data from multiple sources to give you a better indication of website popularity among the entire population of Internet users.
You gave us many other suggestions as well, and we are working hard to implement them. We won't tell any secrets just yet, but you can expect to see new features rolled out over the coming weeks and months.
Below are a few common questions we anticipate from the Alexa community, along with our answers.
My site's ranking has changed. Was it wrong before?
Your ranking wasn't wrong before, but it was different. Alexa toolbar users' interests and surfing habits could differ from those of the general population in a number of ways, and we described some of those possible differences on our website. While the vast majority of sites' rankings were unaffected by such differences, we've worked hard on our new ranking system to adjust for situations in which they could matter.
The new rankings should better reflect the interests and surfing habits of the broader population of Web users.
Why are the long range graphs gone? I can only get 9 months of historical data.
We are recalculating historic traffic data and will continue to add it over the coming weeks. We apologize for the inconvenience, but should have several years of data back on line shortly.
Will you change the rankings again?
We are constantly working to ensure that we provide the most useful data that we can. We will continue to fine tune our algorithms but don't foresee any additional big changes. If you think something is amiss please let us know.
I liked the old rankings better. Are they still available somewhere?
We liked the old rankings as well. However, we developed the new system in response to the huge number of requests we got from users like you, and now that it's done we like it even better. We hope you will too.
We think that having more than one ranking system at a time would be confusing, so we have removed the old rankings.
Do you want to know what I think about this?
Definitely. We've been collecting suggestions and ideas for months now, and would love to hear more. If you have thoughts on what we've done so far, or ideas on what we should do next, please share them with us.
91 comments:
Can you clarify what 'more sources of data' means?
Does this just mean you've got more Alexa toolbar users?
I love the new rankings! Keep it up
I'm sorry to tell you that your new stats is a disapointment. I was in 55.000 rank and went to 102.000 while others had less change and the stats my server gives me are 800.000 hits per day.
Cannot understand why you can't do the most simple thing that google did. To give us a script to put it on our website.
My Alexa ranking for
http://absolutelyBangkok.com
was below 300,000 before the change, after the change it jumped over 1 million.
How come?!
A friend's site jumped from below 200,000 to over 25 million!?
How does Alexa explain such drastic negative drops?
I dont like it, old ranking system are better, for all our recion east Eurpe.
At first, I was so surprised, but I guess it's all good and obviously the ranking means a lot more now.
My site is http://www.noobvn.com
http://www.anchoiviet.net
I for one would like to know the different sources of data outside the toolbar now? I'm just curious how your process has improved from a high level perspective to make your rankings more accurate.
Cheers,
L
Congratulations! Nice changes.
As far this article was very interesting to me and also this would be for the whole community, so, I've translated and published it for spanish spoken users.
http://www.inforo.com.ar/noticias/cambios_en_el_sistema_de_rankings_de_alexa_como_y_porque_cambi_abril_2008
regards
Gustavo
The "range" time frame, will be fixed until 6 months?
Then you can´t compare website in bigger time frames.
Good to find this blog, nice work guys!
I love alexa great work guys!
can you add my evb image from blogengage?
http://www.blogengage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=104
I hope you add it :)
thanks
Brian b
Ranking of the websites, I know have increased significantly. I suppose you guys are not planning to dump it down later ;-)
Many Sites is going down me too I have about 10 websites and all of them getting down
in my min site Egyptsons.com
I was 7000 no I am 9800
but I think next weeks all site will be in the right positions
Thanks Alexa team work but please give us some more data about the new ranking method.
Better than old rankigs,Thanks you always.
http://bonzi.com
I hate it very much. All my blogs have dropped drastically. However one of my American friends blog got an increase. He tells me his traffic has been going down lately since he didn't post. On the other hand my traffic has been steadily increasing.
It's just distressing to know that you guys are playing around with the algorithm and saying it's much better now.
I for one DO NOT share your sentiment.
I'm hoping for a better metric system to come out and replace Alexa.
I would like a better explanation of what you are taking into account now ....
Our site http://www.samplestation.net/
just made a huge drop from position 162 000 or something to 264 028 ....
It is not that I find it bad to have a ranking that reflects more the reality , it is surely a good thing .
But can you guys expand more on what have change because the little information you gave here help us in no way .
A comparison chart between the old and the new system is more than welcome ...
Also do you take into account in the traffic of websites the numerous Google and yahoo bots that increase websites traffic ?
Thanks for your time !
Thanks to your responsiveness to global web yearnings. This would definately change the conservative and skewed parameters of the past by Alexa.
We are in a global web age, that is what you just responded to. Many in the past ranked 2,000 on Alexa just because they were visited only by a couple of geeks and internet marketers, who use the toolbar.
Now, those who never heard of Alexa but visit sites are now being reckoned in the new Alexa metric. That is why, a website formerly in 42,000 with heavy visitor traffic can jump to 5,000 because many of her visitors never use Alexa toolbar.
Aderemi Ojikutu
www.web-konsult.com
Here is my review of the new ranking.
http://wahb.biz/2008/04/18/alexa-new-ranking-system-got-a-different-effect-on-websites/
I think the new ranking is more reliable than previous one. Before this, the publisher can manipulate the ranking by just install the Alexa toolbar and visit the site many times to increase the ranking, but that system no longer work.
Probably with the new one = more visit, higher rank (lower number)
Your system has been rigged for AdBrite. Stop abusing the internet.
We have before alexa update a rank from 418, after update we are falling up to 1345 :o(
The old Alexa stats was great.
www.netload.in - earn money for uploads up to $100
everybody are welcome
what about ajax?
Since my three blogs have benefited from the change with improved rankings, I have to express some satisfaction with your new formula.
One blog jumped from 13 million to 3.5 million. Another jumped from 6.6 million to 2.8 million. The third improved from 3.5 million to 1.9 million.
However, some of the higher-ranked websites I normally visit experienced only a nominal change.
Appreciate your efforts.
Wow ... what happened here ???
My site dropped from about 115.000 to 444,743 at this moment.
www.CoolPanama.com
If it continues I'll delete my sites linking to Alexa, there is no point then anymore.
I have also noticed other sites dropping down drastically. The same figures as mine. And they all are related to Panama.
Hmm ... something must be wrong here, don't you think?
You say you got a huge response for the high demand in a change. What about the rest of the people who were happy the way it worked? You obviously didn't get a huge response from them Because they were Happy with it.
We and relied heavily on the already existing database ranking and it's value. Businesses depended on it.
Change it back. Seriously
http://www.A123.com - 5500+ Free Flash Games Site
Clap, clap, clap. Sure, it was the time for the rankings to take into account the interactions apart from the Alexa toolbar.
My site dropped in numbers without no resons. The licenced Web Trends certificaton figures shows increase only. The latest changes in Alexa is not correct and I feel its not counting non English languages correctly.
Yeah the new rankings are good!
www.shredurl.com/8Z
My sites improved dramatically under the new system. Of course I'm happy about that, but I agree with others that more disclosure about the ranking method and sources would be better.
For me, the easiest way to communicate the strength of my sites is creating pdfs from Google Analytics. It would be interesting if Alexa were to offer some kind of detailed reports, even for a fee, or perhaps on a subscription basis.
I'm also excited to know more about it !
I also wish to know what 'more sources of data' means ?
Nancy
http://www.heygb.com/
congratulations, by removing the 1 to 5 yr comparisons, you've rendered your site useless to me
crap, the new system sucks a lot! the old system is better. how do you really calculate this stuff? the new algo sucks!
From my point of view the alexa rank is still meaningless.
My main site, http://www.yummyfood.net, get 3000 pageview and 400 visitors a day and it has a rank 277,974
My blog has 3 visitors and 10 pageview a day and still it ranks 280,203.
Sorry but it was not making sense before, and nothing changed.
Moreover: what do you use to check the speed of a site? A dialup connection? for both sites you say they are slow (95% of sites are faster)... feedback from my users worldwide says they are not.
It's a long way home, Alexa!
To all you whiny commenters:
I think it's hilarious that you would rather be misled about the true popularity of your site than have a large number for an Alexa ranking.
Of course, I was wondering about my own site's ranking change (more than doubled, fyi), but now that I have an explanation it makes perfect sense. Thank you for advocating accuracy in statistical data.
So many people have questioned Alexa data for so long that I'm afraid the company is going to have to be more clear on its methodology to convince the Web community that the data are now accurate. We really need more openness on what "more sources of data" means. Your corporate site says the company isn't going to "tell any secrets just yet", but if anyone is going to use the data in any serious way it has to be understood and believed.
Ok my site was at ranking 8,000 Aprox. Now it is at ranking 70,000+, almost ten time less!!!!
So if the ranking were SO INACURATE before we can say that they were useless, this error margin made them completly useless.
If the previous infomation was so inacurate (useless) how can we trust that this new information is correct when:
1-There isn´t an external auditing company, so basically they can make up the results or make whatever errors they want.
2-They don't publish their process for the site ranking or the new changes made.
My blog at http://www.techpavan.com/ had a rank of 473,733 before and now 527, 450... anyway, not a huge change, but really a huge change... of 55k... my friends have got theirs better... let me see further....
I'm just starting to understand Alexa and all of it's features. I like the ranking system it's been helpful in managing our website and reach.
http://www.militarymagnets.com
Hi
I don't know what happened, but my website has 8500 visitors a day, 20000 pageviews a day and is out of top100000 ? why... before our ranking is 80, 90 thousands, and now is 140 thousands...
Regards
Actually its a big and positive change for most sites, others not, :) just kidding, nearly no change for me, puzzled ... My blog: http://www.colorfulmars.com, dialy IP 2,000, PV 5,000 Alexa Rank around 100,000, hmmm, sounds reasonable.
My website is http://timnhanh.com which have rank 1544. When the alexa ranking system changed it's rank 5127. I don't know why?
i like it..........................
hello i need old VERSON
new version is VERY STUPED
Well
it seems like every one's rank drop... Mine drops from 45k to over 115k
Don't know exactly why....
I like new ranking.
For french Web sites (or no US / English Web site ;) ), new ranking is more realistic...
The question of the " new used data bases " stays. (Very important question you know ?)
i think i like the perspective of the new ranking ,
even though i'm still not ranked !
and i have over 250 user per day .
but some pro told me in few months it'll show up
Please be advised that if your site was ranked 100,000 before the change and 1,000,000 after the change?
There are no differences in those spots. An extra 100 people would move you 50,000 spots or more. There is no marginal difference between a million and a hundred thousand.
Ranking only matters when you get into the top 10,000. Once your in that playground moving up 700 or 800 spots might mean an extra $10,000 in revenue.
www.vietchristian.com ranking is now 75K's. It was 95K's before the new ranking release. I don't use Alexa Toolbar. Good job, Alexa!
hi there, my internet t-shirts shop on www.vizioshop.com have, as all the others lower result, but comparing to competitors, I think it is more reliable and precise. My only recommendation is about graph. My volume of visitor is not changed butI had possibility to see and compare my site with others before this big change. Now it shows that I'm not in top 100.000 anymore ... STRANGE ! ... Think about it .. is it a big problem to give to everyone possibility to see and compare graph with others .. and I must tell you that graph is only visible and "comparable" for "big fishes". It is not possible to zoom graph so you can more accurate see wht is going on on the market .. Thanks for opportunity to express myself.
I love my new ranking - can anyone tell me how they think it compares? www.mixtape-masters.com
www.rovoo.commy sites rank is up and down but it gets better compared from the previous. thank you Alexa.
My Alexa Ranking was 49,xxx and now it's 26,855.
I am quite happy with their new algorithm although I see many people feedbacks who aren't happy with the new algorithm changes.
You must clarify the resources you are considering for your ranking system. Because by announcing this you may help to improve ranking of lots of websites.
It is very negative update for my website its previous ranking was around 3500 and now it wandering around 13000 what a big difference? And more importantly my traffic is increasing every day
With the old ranking system my web site
PiediXTerra.com
was growing by 100.000 positions each week.
Now it has been stuck to 691.644 rank for two weeks!
Well, i'm gonna wait to see something on the new graphics to see what's happen
I'm very curious to see how your process has improved. Sorry Alexa, It looks like a step back from the place I am standing. The graphic design company I work for in Scotland - G3 Creative has had a massive drop in stats even although we are still getting lots of inquiries and design business.
Hi, just trying to get my head around this, there are so many blogs,directories and links to fill in on the internet though. Graham from www.logo-n-stitch.co.uk
My site went from 1.8 million to just under 996,000....not too shabby!
I've got a tip for you Bloggers trying to improve your traffic: MAKE YOUR COMMENTS SECTION "do follow"--- take the "NO FOLLOW" out of your Robots.txt metas!
The increased traffic, from your comments section, will more than make up for the lower Alexa rank you are experiencing!
Well I like the new system because ALL of my sites ended up with better ranks.
However, what I do find disappointing is that the rank stats still don't update very often. It's currently 20 days since the last change. When that happens, how is anyone supposed to find the rank useful?
i agree with Phil, whats the new ranking if it doesn't update weekly. the old system used to update twice a week. once on Sundays and once on Wednesdays. now it has changed at all since the new arthrogram was implemented making the new Alexa not worthy of its standards...either update your information frequently or get out of the ranking business.
-Nick
how do i REALLY improve my alexa rank for my website www.teaminmotion.com ? i have been researching this for several days, i have downloaded the toolbar and have the team working on this project as well. thank you for continuing to blog about the alexa ranking system - looking forward to learning more about this. cheers!
Did the ranking system change twice or do we just think so? When the initial change took place we drop substantially but a week or so ago we were brought back to where we were. Our last-week average is good as well and seems to correlate with our internal traffic stats. Whatever you did Alexa Team, it seems to be working well :)
www.zklik.net
I totally agree this is not working right. I know for a fact my 2 sites traffic one has very little going by my own server records yet it show on here its higher traffic. fix it this is bogus.
I am pretty web savvy and have got to say that I cannot understand the logic of the ranking. Our site has great traffic and yet the Alexa score is not good.
I don't like your new ranking system. We were on 178,585, but now on 685,241. How come? Our business depend on it... We increase our traffic 2x ... Old ranking was better.
I just heard from an editor at Alexa, there's a bug in their system which they are now fixing
http://awis.blogspot.com/2008/05/please-stand-by.html
db
I believe the site traffic matters more that the ranking...the ranking is not fool proof and u still need to ensure that it is indicative of the volume of traffice a site receives
http://christonline.wordpress.com
Hi
We were stuck at the same position for a while, now on the move up again, thanks Alexa
www.Speakeasy-Thai.com
Cannot understand why you can't do the most simple thing that google did ? To give us a script to put it on our website.
- Jackspar.
Suffering from an addiction. This website has a lot of great resources and treatment centers.
http://www.treatmentcenters.org
My rankings for the http://www.v3tech.co.in has fallen hugely after the new changes, but I still believe your new method would be more reliable and accurate. Thanks.
I think it's hilarious that you would rather be misled about the true popularity of your site than have a large number for an Alexa ranking.
================================
johnson789
Addiction Recovery Florida
Addiction Recovery Florida
Alexa figures were always considered fairly unreliable in webmaster circles. The skew caused as a result of webmasters being more likely to use the toolbar resulted in most people taking Alexa rankings for sites with a large number of webmaster visitors as highly inaccurate.
Alexa rankings therefore did not play a part in the pricing of sites. With the new algo that seems to be changing as valuation tools and websites are beginning to include Alexa rankings in their algorithms.
I like the new Alexa toolbar. It is inconspicuous and easy to use. I am encouraging all of our staff to use it and learn from the information it tells us about the Internet market.
http://www.mynah.com
MYNAH MiMiC Simulation
I like the new changes I only wish my rankings would improve as well.
http://www.canadiancasinoservice.com
Online casino gambling guide
I like this ranking module!!!
Good job!
http://hostermonster.com
There is no change to my ranking with the new ranking system. I have seen that the ranking gets updated on wednesday and saturday, but this saturday it didn't got updated. May be due to the new ranking system.
Hope that the new ranking rocks as much the old ranking did.
Thanks,
Kishalaya
http://blog.kishalaya.com
I don't know whether Alexa is wrong or right. But, I do know this.
Alexa is interested in making money just like you or me. If they take advantage of the marketing, they will win.
Example: Would you rather buy a TV from a store ranked 10,000,000 or a store ranked 10,000 all things being the same.
Answer: no contest. 10,000 wins a large percentage of the time.
Whether they are right or wrong really doesn't matter. What matters is that they take advantage of the opportunity and market this system to the users/visitors/buyers.
Rob
Young Millionaire Group
I like the new changes I only wish my rankings would improve as well.
http://educationlearningindia.blogspot.com/
Horribly inaccurate now!
My website stats show steady growth every month, and at the same time, my alexa rank is falling off of a cliff.
There is no longer any correlation.
Your new system is full of bugs and making my websites look bad when they are actually growing!
so, it's been 5 months!!!
I own a couple of sites that I am just starting to get going, but my friends have owned sites for many years. In one particular site, he had a ranking of 48,XXX, and now after the "new and improved" ranking has come out, it has more than doubled. What is the reasoning behind this? It couldnt be that Alexa has found 50,000 new TOP 50K websites that it didnt know about before, right? So why the huge jump?
Also, I havent heard one person yet say that their ranking has actually increased due to the new system, am I wrong?
-Glen
www.AnyPCInfo.com
www.MSPCInfo.com
www.PainORG.com
The new ranking system is much easier to follow than the old one. Well done.
I have been noticing how far from truthful the spin is becoming in general these days. Clearly those who are complaining now about their web rankings did benefit from the former, more narrow results. By defining a wider group you are recognizing that portal-specific users are a sub-group. Flatten the field is what you are doing and I appreciate that.
Alexa rankings are most important to determine your traffic. Most of the Online advertisers look for alexa ranks before giving out a deal.
Check out www.blogcytes.com and get free link exchange to build your traffic.
I have just written an article about my experience with Alexa
Redspot.mobi
I think it makes sense that they changed the data they use since people with the Alexa toolbar are not reflective of the general internet public. What I still wonder though is what other information do they include. My two websites www.certifiedrandom.com and www.menuwall.com kept pretty similar rankings.
Since the g3 creative website has actually benefited from the change with much improved rankings, I have to express deep satisfaction with your new formula - Well done alexa.com
http://www.wildjack.co.uk/
When you’re bored at home and not really sure how to pass the time, there
is always
an answer with the online casino site. An online casino offers hundreds
of games
from which to choose – and suddenly, you won’t find yourself bored! Enjoy
it all
more with an online casino.
Jo Coks
cockybrown@gmail.com
The reliability and credibility of the Alexa Rankings have often been subject to differences. There are opinions that the Alexa ranking is far more credible and true for the sites below 10,0000 than that for the ones above it. Another factor that proves to be a major drawback of the Alexa rankings is that the rankings are governed by the Alexa toolbar and the Alexa toolbar users community. All the browser types are not taken into account as far as the rankings are concerned. As for example the Alexa rankings does not work in Windows Vista even though the latter has a huge user base and is highly popular.
Guys, it's been a year. Any news on historical data?
cheers and thanks
ig.
The next time that you want to know what’s going on in the political
world, you can
go to an online casino. The political games at each online casino are
hysterical.
Nice posting.
For monetizing your blog alexa ranking is very important. Alexa rank a website according to the number of visitors visit that site with alexa toolbar installed. If you want to increase earning from your blog then you have to increase alexa ranking. Advertising network like Text link ads, pay per post, sponsored review etc judge blog quality according to the alexa rank. There are some techniques by using which you can increase alexa rank. Download and installing alexa toolbar is basic for increasing alexa ranking.
Post a Comment