Ladies and gentlemen,
    Welcome to the Second article in the 3 part series, “The Alexa Code - understanding and influencing Alexa rankings“. It is strongly recommended that you read up(if you haven’t) the prequel to this issue, The Alexa Code Part I, which deals with the general information of how Alexa works, and what they are.

    In this issue, we’ll discuss the uses of Alexa, why its important, but why its baseless and doesn’t work.

    What’s wrong with Alexa? What is wrong is that Alexa takes into consideration a mere fraction of the total number of visitors, and the fraction which varies from site to site.

    To understand this, please read up The Alexa Code Part I. Alexa records hits from visitors using INTERNET EXPLORER who have installed the Alexa toolbar. The Alexa tool bar is not available for any other browsers (there is an addon for Firefox, but studies show that this addon does NOT send information to Alexa).

    75% of the total internet users use Internet Explorer. So that cuts down a lot of visits. Since most of the regular web users use Mozilla Firefox or Opera. Its only people lacking in proper education about security and web browsers OR hardcore Microsoft fans who use Internet Explorer(IE).

    Now consider the fact that only those people who have installed the Alexa tool bar can help in Alexa recordings. Like I said before, most IE users lack in proper web browser knowledge. Such users are very unlikely to install Alexa. All they want to do is browse the web, and wouldn’t be interested in added advantages.

    Thus, repeated studies indicate that only 1% to 1.5% of the total web users have the Alexa toolbar up and running. And according to the subject of the website, this percentage also varies, which makes this system quite unfair.

    For example, hardcore tech sites will receive close to 0% of Alexa hits, since most of the members will be using Firefox. Mediocre tech sites will receive the normal percentage, since a few members will be below average in tech knowledge, and would have installed Alexa tool bar. News websites will also receive the normal percentage due to the mixed population. Sports/philosophy sites will receive very little Alexa hits, due to inexperience of users, who will not have installed Alexa tool bar, though they use IE.

    Most Alexa users are of the impression that Alexa does not display traffic information, only percentages and comparisons. That is not true. Alexa displays a column called “Average Daily Page Views”, which is the average of all daily page views for a selected time (1 week, or 3 months). We can compare this average with our own statistics daily page view average to see the percentage of our visitors using Alexa tool bar.

(click to enlarge)

    I did the experiment for my websites for a few weeks. And here is what I found -

• BlogForPeace
  72% of total users use Internet Explorer
  .9% of the total hits were reported to Alexa
  Therefore, 1.25% of the Internet Explorer users have Alexa tool bar installed

  BlogForPeace fits into the Philosophy category. Mostly low experienced users. They use Internet Explorer, but aren’t experienced enough to use Alexa.

• BloggingIndia
  31% of the total users use Internet Explorer
  2.9% of total hits were reported to Alexa
  Therefore 9.3% of the Internet Explorer users have Alexa tool bar installed

  Blogging India fits into the Mediocre Tech category. Most visitors have Firefox installed(63%). But of the IE users, more than average are better tech educated. Thus, they have Alexa installed.

    I hope that the examples have proved my point. Alexa is unfair. Alexa is baseless. Alexa doesn’t work properly.

    But then why the heck does it exist and why is it so popular????? Alexa exists and survives because there is a serious lack of other established, trusty and fundamental ranking system for websites. Yes, there is Google Page Rank, but that is a very broad system, with no definite boundaries, which makes point ranking impossible.

    Is it useful? How? If it weren’t useful, would I be wasting my time writing all this up? It is useful for one, and only one, reason - monetizing. Yep.

    If you drift away from Cost Per Click (CPC), which is steadily decreasing in popularity in medium scale webmasters today, your options are limited. You can have sponsored links, or featured posts. For all this, advertisers utilize your Alexa ranks. The lower your Alexa rank, the better, the more money you get.

    Advertisers in sites like Text-Link-Ads (pays you to display links on your site) or the new PayPerPost (Consumer Generated Advertising - pays you to blog) select websites based on their Alexa rank. At PayPerPost, there are opportunities for $500 if you have an Alexa rank of something below 20,000!

    So, got the idea? Oh, and sometimes, in some time based popularity competitions, like blogging competitions or web design competitions, Alexa rank is considered to decide the winner.

    That about sums up the positives and negatives of Alexa. I hope that this has been informative.

    But wait for the REAL firecracker! Coming up tomorrow - Brilliant techniques to legally and crookedly increase (i.e. decrease) your Alexa rank Until then, adios amigos!

** upcoming **

PART III - How can I improve Alexa rankings? Alexa plays dirty, so can I play
dirty with Alexa? What are the “twisted” means to improve Alexa
rankings?

****

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