Thread: How is Alexa calculated?

I have always been of the belief that you needed a ton of traffic to get a "decent" Alexa ranking :shuh:

I was just using one of those pagerank checker sites to see what's happening with a bunch of sites. Among other things it also includes Alexa rank. Of all the ones I checked, only one was under 1,000,000 in Alexa - well until I keyed in another. I figured it would be 2 millionish. But I got a surprise to find it was 32,000ish :sshocked:

I checked my stats for the last six months and it never got over 2,000 uniques a month, so how the hell is Alexa calculated? :sundecided:

Isn't it via those who have the alexa plugin/toolbar?

I have heard mention of the tool bar, but I haven't bothered with it myself as I am not an Alexa watcher. Who here has it installed?

alexa is not that important

Originally Posted by nbs

alexa is not that important

No it is not, the question however was how it is calculated. Not 'is it important'

Originally Posted by nbs

alexa is not that important

Depends who you're asking... many webmasters set their price upon alexa rankings.

Personally, I still consider Alexa quite relevant.

How do they get their data?

1. Alexa Toolbar for IE or Alexa Extension(s) for Firefox
2. There were rumors that Alexa tracking system is implemented inside Winamp

Originally Posted by Autumn

I have always been of the belief that you needed a ton of traffic to get a "decent" Alexa ranking :shuh:

I was just using one of those pagerank checker sites to see what's happening with a bunch of sites. Among other things it also includes Alexa rank. Of all the ones I checked, only one was under 1,000,000 in Alexa - well until I keyed in another. I figured it would be 2 millionish. But I got a surprise to find it was 32,000ish :sshocked:

I checked my stats for the last six months and it never got over 2,000 uniques a month, so how the hell is Alexa calculated? :sundecided:

Alexa use bits of string and sticky tape along with an abacus to calculate their rankings... nah seriously though it's calculated usually only by users that have the alexa toolbar installed on their browser. Or if they have the alexa plugin on their site.

I believe the string theory Of course given the niche of the site, I suppose it is feasible that a lot have it installed.

My conclusion is that Alexa not even close to real traffic of the sites

I have no idea, but my sites are all ranked highly and thats whats important to me

I always thought it was through their toolbar

Alexa toolbar is not accurate. I don't see it as a basis of my traffic. It is such a waste of time if you rely yourself on that. There are other things or traffic stats that could give you better results than that toolbar. Server Logs and Google Analytics can be your best choice.

Yeah I never willingly go to Alexa, but this was included in a checker and I got quite a surprise as the site only gets an average of 2.5k uniques a month.

As others here have noted, Alexa's main source of traffic data is through use of its Alexa toolbar (as well as other third-party extensions that rely on or call the Alexa API, including searchstatus and About This Site). However, as of April of last year, they started using other data sources as well, although they have been coy about exactly what data sources they are. Many people who were gaming the Alexa system were downgradedthen (as well as people who weren't gaming the system and just got hit by the algorithm change). Alexa isn't very forthcoming about their specific algorithm but you figure that people using the Alexa toolbar is a major, but not overwhelming, figure in a major portion of your Alexa ranking.

It's based mostly about how much pageviews you get (not traffic), it's usually a good number if it's a high page/visitor rate, and especially if the traffic is consistant.

They used to gather all their data from the people who had their toolbar installed, but now they gather data other ways as well (although not as much as from those who have the toolbar, still a considerable amount).

although 32,000 for a site that gets 2,500 visitors a month is a bit weird...

Originally Posted by tsdesigns

It's based mostly about how much pageviews you get (not traffic), it's usually a good number if it's a high page/visitor rate, and especially if the traffic is consistant.

They used to gather all their data from the people who had their toolbar installed, but now they gather data other ways as well (although not as much as from those who have the toolbar, still a considerable amount).

although 32,000 for a site that gets 2,500 visitors a month is a bit weird...

Darn it, confused traffic with pageviews... tsdesigns is right. Next time I'll make sure I drink my coffee before posting. Does anybody know where these other data sources are from? As far as I know, Alexa is keeping them secret.

Originally Posted by tsdesigns

although 32,000 for a site that gets 2,500 visitors a month is a bit weird...

Yeah that's what I thought, which is why I started the thread.

I thought I would go to the actual alexa site and I think I see how it showed that. It is showing a different site :unsure::surprised:

Anyone else get empathica.com instead of techforums?

empathica.com - Traffic Details from Alexa

I know a sure shot way to boost your alexa ranking, Well haven't tried it lately but it worked about 1 and half years ago.

Basically Alexa uses toolbar/extension to track user movements, that includes co-branded tool bars as well.

My super secret group "Alexa sucks" has reports that they use Amazon services and few other softwares to embed tracking codes as well.

Nobody will ever know, but what we know for sure - IT DOESN"T MATTER

oh i have never came across this word before in my life.So i also wanna know how alexa is calculated.