Alexa Ranking used to be 780,000, now its 1,600,000

But my traffic has increased.

[chopin2256]

When I first bought my domain name, my alexa ranking was 0, duh. After about a month of link exchanging, my ranking was at around 5,000,000. After about 4 months of marketing my site, my ranking went to 780,000 and I was receiving about 40-60 visitors a day. I am really confused now, because now I receive 500 visitors a day, and my alexa ranking is 1,600,000. This makes no sense to me, can anyone figure it out?

[trillianjedi]

This makes no sense to me, can anyone figure it out?

The answer is the obvious one. It's also in your question:-

This makes no sense to me

Don't try and make sense of it, just accept it for what it is.

TJ

[peewhy]

Alexa ranking shouldn't really effect the number of visitors to your site. Alexa is owned by Amazon and doesn't relate to Google.

Alexa rankings are not really relevant. Rankings derive from users who install the Alexa toolbar, so the selection of users is biased toward those who download the toolbar, generally webmasters and people like us.

Alexa rankings are relatively easy to improve and manipulate. Just install the toolbar and visit his site daily. Rankings will improve, depending on how much you do this.It doesn't mean your visitors will increase.

[incrediBILL]

OK, on Alexa it's a 3 MONTH average so what your traffic is today won't impact your ranking for many weeks to come.

Forget the current ranking, click on "See Traffic Details" on your Alexa page, then scroll down to "Traffic Rank" and see what it says for "Today", and "1 wk. Avg." which will reflect more on your current traffic.

Also, if a significant portion of your traffic isn't using the Alexa toolbar, or something else that reports back to Alexa then they can't track you.

[incrediBILL]

Alexa rankings are not really relevant.

They are what we call a S.W.A.G. (Scientific Wild Ass Guess).

I find them somewhat useful to keep an eye on a couple of competitors and use it as a 3rd party indication that I really do get more traffic than my competition - which the advertisers seem to accept.

It does seem to move when my traffic moves, but your mileage may vary.

Other than that, it's not reliable, just a SWAG to see who's ahead of whom.

[chopin2256]

Also, if a significant portion of your traffic isn't using the Alexa toolbar, or something else that reports back to Alexa then they can't track you.

I attract music visitors, not webmasters, so none of these visitors are likely to have the alexa toolbar installed. Even I dont have it installed, haha! When I was getting 40-60 music visitors a day, they were not likely to have the Alexa toolbar installed, and my rank was 780,000. Now when I am doing better, it falls back to 1,600,000 and while this doesnt affect my traffic, this actual decline in rankings (where I was able to predict it before, even if the program is completely inacurate) alarmed me just a very little.

[incrediBILL]

chopin - did you check your current and 1 wk. avg like i suggested?

Let me know if those look better.

[peewhy]

If nobody has it installed ..not even you, then it really is insignificant. Move on. It will not bring visitors to your site, nor take them away.

[chopin2256]

The one week avg is 1,287,482 and the 3 month avg is 1,660,523, with a 3 month change of 871,519. I think the problem may be related to the heavy link exchange I did back in August and September. When I got more traffic and out of the sandbox, I slowed down on the exhchange and concentrated on making more content to build my traffic. Do you think this can also be a reason for the drop?

[coconutz]

Do you think this can also be a reason for the drop?

The reason for the drop is there are now less visitors to your web site that have the toolbar installed.