Alexa revises ranking system
四月 17, 2008
In response to criticisms that its ranking methodology is not representative of the entire Internet population, web ranking company Alexa unveiled today a new system wherein rankings are now based on “multiple sources of data” rather than just the Alexa Toolbar.
In the past, Alexa used to measure a site’s traffic rank and reach based on the toolbar users installed on their PCs. This means if you don’t use the Alexa toolbar, your internet surfing habits are not counted. Today Alexa announced that they are implementing a new rankings system closer to the actual statistics of a website.
They won’t delve into the details of the changes but the new system includes:
- More Sources
Alexa rankings are now based on more sources of data to give a better indicator of website popularity.
- Improved Methodology
Traffic is being normalized from the global panel to provide consistently accurate rankings for all countries.
- Better Rankings
Rankings are now an even better indication of website popularity due to new and improved algorithms.
Does this mean the previous Alexa rankings were wrong? Not really wrong but different.
Alexa explained that “users’ interests and surfing habits could differ from those of the general population in a number of ways and … the new rankings should better reflect the interests and surfing habits of the broader population of Web users.”
The new system currently shows only 9 months of historical data but the company promised previous year’s data will be added shortly.
Here’s the impact of the change on some of the big sites in the Philippines.
Inquirer.net
- New Rank: 3,034
- Old Rank: 2,638
- Change: -396
GMANews.tv
- New Rank: 4,030
- Old Rank: 4,451
- Change: 421
eBay.ph
- New Rank: 6,585
- Old Rank: 2,875
- Change: -3,710
Yehey.com
- New Rank: 12,737
- Old Rank: 6,716
- Change: -6,021
The new Alexa ranking for Philippine blogs will be released shortly.
四月 17th, 2008 at %I:%M%p
Thanks for the info, I will go and check my alexa ranking at once, :)
四月 17th, 2008 at %I:%M%p
Perhaps they are sourcing additional data from Google and/or Yahoo toolbars this time?
四月 17th, 2008 at %I:%M%p
really, pano nalang ung rankings ko nun? huhuhu baka bababa pa…
thanks by the way…
四月 18th, 2008 at %I:%M%p
Iba iba naman ang effect eh!
Check out my review on alexa new ranking system.
http://wahb.biz/2008/04/18/alexa-new-ranking-system-got-a-different-effect-on-websites/
五月 23rd, 2008 at %I:%M%p
Okay, so they’ve made changes. I agree that most of the Alexa rankings seem to have decreased in value, meaning that the rankings show that the affected sites are LESS popular.
I think this is due to the fact that the previous system required their toolbar to be installed. And, since the toolbar was being flagged and removed by Norton and other spy-bot type software constantly, the only people who seemed to keep it installed in their Windows systems were webmasters and internet guru’s. Further, users of Firefox and other browsers could not install the toolbar. And, it never worked on Macs. Pretty big problems with accuracy.
So they have junked it in favor of technology that works without spying and measurements that include, arguably, Firefox and Macs.
Okay, but now what? Will someone please let us know where they are getting their traffic data?
六月 14th, 2008 at %I:%M%p
There is some controversy over how representative Alexa’s user base is of typical Internet behavior. If http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=www.fortunehotels.in Alexa’s user base is a fair statistical sample of the internet user population, Alexa’s ranking should be quite accurate.
六月 21st, 2009 at %I:%M%p
Since you’re thinking of improving your Alexa Rankings, better give non-Alexa informed people some quick run down. The Alexa is under the umbrella of Amazon that offers information on different traffic levels for websites.