Forum Moderators: phranque
Traffic rank:
Today - 92,375
1 wk Avg. - 281,914
3 mos. Avg - 310,324
3 mos. Change - (up arrow) 40,475
Reach per million users:
Today - 10
1 wk Avg. - 2.5
3 mos. Avg. - 2.65
3 mos. Change - (up arrow) 2%
Page Views per user:
Today - 7.5
1 Wk. Avg. - 6.2
3 mos. Avg. - 4.2
3 mos. Change - (up arrow) 45%
I tried to read their explanations and wound up even more confused. (I feel like a dodo, but I just can't wrap my head around the explanations.)
Does anyone understand these figures? Are they important? Any Alexa aficionados out there?
"Traffic rank" is your site's "rating", according to their data as collected from the toolbars installed on their users' browsers. Assuming that their users are representative (a big assumption, especially since the toolbar only works in IE), and assuming that their data is valid (another biggie), sites are rated according to the traffic (visitors) they get. The number one site would be the site that, according to Alexa's data, gets the most visitors and/or pageviews.
Note: It is my understanding that rankings below the 100,000 mark are regarded as pretty unreliable. Rankings in the 50K - 100K range might be useful in a comparative sort of way, but not for much else. In other words, "ooo, I'm at 60K while my competitor is down at 85K" probably does indicate that your site is more active than your competitor's. It does not necessarily mean that your site is the sixty-thousand-th most popular on the Internet.
"Reach per million" refers to how many users, out of a "typical" million, will have visited your site over a given period. (I think the period is a day.) The higher the number, the more visitors Alexa regards you as having.
"Page views per user" is just what it says: how many pages a "typical" visitor is expected to look at, per visit, according to their data.
Daily values can fluctuate A LOT. The "three months" thing is older, and might be smoothed a bit (like a running average). Thus it might be less helpful (if you're tracking your holiday sales, data from September really doesn't help much) but might also be more accurate (since it may smooth out the day-to-day dips and rises to provide a more useful trend line).
How you interpret the data will, to some extent, depend on what you're trying to accomplish. Am I upset that my "today" info is WAY lower than my "three month average"? No: I have an educational site, and it would be kinda sad if the kids were spending as much time reading algebra lessons over the holiday break as they did during mid-terms. <smile> Am I worried that I've consistently had a page-view count in the 2's and 3's? No, because this shows that my high ranking in the search engines is working, and students are successfully finding what they need in just a few clicks.
Your interpretation of your data for your site may be quite different. In general, you should probably use the Alexa ranking info for comparative value and for trendlines. That is, are you going up or down, and how do you compare? But I wouldn't view their numbers as being absolute.
Just my $0.02.
Eliz.
I guess I was thinking there was more to it than that. From Alexa's rather verbose explanations, I was thinking I was missing something.
I like their tool which allows you to compare your site to your competitors. It gives you a pretty good idea of how your site compares in the marketplace. I have a niche market product and I found it particularly interesting to use this tool.
I was also really interested to see the popularity ranking in various categories. It surprised me to find someone I would have thought was doing rather well down around the 600 mark and someone who really doesn't deserve to do well on the second page of results!
Oh well, its fun if nothing else to have a look see from time to time! Thanks for the info.
