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Is the Alexa toolbar accurate for checking on sites rankings? I like to use it to compare w/ my competitors.
I ask, because I see sites that claim they receive "thousands of hits daily" and charge a lot more than I do for advertising, yet when I compare our sites on Alexa, I find they are just about at mine, or lower...
One claims that if you advertise with them, your ad will be seen by at least 1,200 visitors in an HOUR. Yet their Alexa traffic rating is about 300,000 below mine.... and I receive 1,4000 visits/day.
Is the Alexa bar an accurate way to guage traffic, and determine quality of sites to advertise on?
Vaguely decent indicator? Sorta.
Important WRT rankings? Can be. ;-)
Is there anything like Alexa that is accurate in showing site comparisons, traffic, popularity, etc.?
site comparisons, traffic, popularity, etc.?
Alexa is a decent general indicator of site traffic, but far from accurate. There are plenty of tools out there to check almost anything, e.g. backlinks, number of pages on a site, etc. So do what everyone else does: Search on the sorts of things you want to find out, and you should be able to find good options.
Also: Network. Make friends in the industry. Attend WW conferences. ;-)
Personally, when I want to understand a given category, I do kw searches on ALL of the major SE's, not just G and Y!. Looking at the variations in the SERP's across the various SE's, is, IMO, one of the best ways to learn not only a given category, but what the search engines value and how they work.
I never use assessment tools until I first get a sense of what's going in a given category/market by checking the SERP's, and make a few guesses as to why sites are where they are. ;-)
Alexa works out its rankings via users that are using the toolbar. Your visits to your own site are included in the stats since you've now installed the toolbar, causing your ranking to improve.
Alexa rankings are just an indication, a guide. From what I've heard, they seem to be rather biased towards techie sites, as those tend to be the sort of people who have the toolbar installed. Just what I've heard though, no idea how true it is.
I wish there was something like Alexa but more accurate. Does Google have anything like this? I wonder if they could, based on which sites are clicked on in their SERPs?
Is there anything like Alexa that is accurate in showing site comparisons, traffic, popularity, etc?
You will need lotsa dosh... Hitwise is the best tool I have seen for looking at traffic rankings.
Dixon.
I sent a link out to a bunch of people showing our Alexa ranking, which led them to visit Alexa and then my site and my rankings went up... anyone know for sure?
anyone know for sure
Nope, but [pages.alexa.com...] covers it the way I understood it... I have heard that they now use other methods, but to be honest, I think the tool bar more or less decides the rankings... at least for lower traffic sites.
