Is Alexa a True Measure of Success?

Alexa traffic rank, provided by Alexa.com, is a measure of how much traffic a website gets. Alexa rank takes into consideration both the number of unique users that visit a website (known as reach), as well as the number of pages each user views (known as page views).

Is Alexa Rank Accurate?

In short, no. Alexa rank is not always accurate. In fact, according to the disclaimer on the Alexa.com website, they mention that traffic rankings of 100,000 and above should be regarded as not reliable. Why is this?

The inaccuracies noted in the Alexa rank have to do with the ways in which data is collected. The first method that Alexa uses is by getting browsing behavior data from users who have installed an Alexa toolbar in their browsers. And the second method of gathering data is by directly tracking all visits to websites which have installed an Alexa widget.

Obviously, this is not an accurate ranking metric. Clearly, most internet users do not have Alexa toolbars, so not all behavior can be tracked. (In fact, it is noted that technical websites generally have a higher Alexa rank because their users are more likely to have the Alexa toolbar installed.) And in the case of the widgets, they are also not widely used around the web.

As a result, Alexa rank can be easily manipulated. For websites that get a low volume of traffic, they can experience a huge jump in their Alexa rank, simply by adding an Alexa widget. Similarly, a better rank can be realized by installing the Alexa toolbar, and repeatedly navigating through the pages of a website.

Should You Care About Alexa?

Even though it is not an accurate ranking system, Alexa is still widely used and respected. So it is a good idea to implement methods to improve your Alexa rank. For more information on doing this, see our article 6 Ways to Increase Your Alexa Rank.