Boost your Alexa Rank? Digg case
pierre | 06/05/2007
Alexa traffic monitoring tool is frequently mentioned by bloggers and Web2 observers.
The problem: it is seriously biased (see hereafter).
But you still have a chance: here are some advice to try and improve your Alexa Rank. It may be usefull to make a good impression on advertisers and investors if they consider betting some cash on your site.
Why Alexa is biased
Point1: Alexa over-evaluates geek sites
Alexa stats come from user navigation analysis. Only from users who have installed the Alexa search bar or plugin. The main benefit of this extension being to allow users to see the Alexa Rank and Google Page Rank when they visit a site, the tool mainly attracts Internet professionals: Alexa users are often webmasters. These people use geek sites quite a lot ... and thus geek sites have a high ranking in Alexa.
Point 2: Alexa over-evaluates US sites versus european sites
The other Alexa bias is geographical: the vast majority of Internet professionals (and thus Alexa bar users) are american, while the vast majority of Internet users live outside the US and don't use the Alexa bar. The behaviour of a sample of mainly american users is used to "measure" the audience of foreign sites that they never visit. To my knowledge, no correction of any sort is done on the raw data. Alexa issues biased numbers.
And nothing prevents you from trying (and succeeding) to influence Alexa user sample. See below.
How can you improve your Alexa Rank?
1/ The very first thing to do is to install on your computer the Alexa plugin! your own visits on your site will be counted. Then you should encourage your friends and collegues to follow your example. You could be surprised to see that this may be enough to push your ranking upwards! as the size of Alexa user sample is so small in many countries outside the US.
Here are sites where you can find the plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer .
2/ Second and most important step: invite your readers to install the plugin!
This may have extraordinary consequences.
This is how Digg Rank exploded in April last year: They ran a campaign to convince their readers to install the Alexa plugin.
Digg's manipulation also pushed other sites ranking upwards, including Techcrunch whose audience is partly shared with Digg. Look at Alexa curve for Techcrunch in April 2006.
3/ Write posts about Alexa. This may attract users interested by Alexa, most probably equiped with the alexa bar. Your ranking will move up.
4/ Some people explain that it is usefull to install the Alexa widget (it displays your ranking) ... personally I cannot find any reason why it would have an impact...
If you wanna share your own experience or advice about Alexa please do so in the comments...but if you haven't done it already the very first thing to do is: install the plugin!
The problem: it is seriously biased (see hereafter).
But you still have a chance: here are some advice to try and improve your Alexa Rank. It may be usefull to make a good impression on advertisers and investors if they consider betting some cash on your site.
Why Alexa is biased
Point1: Alexa over-evaluates geek sites
Alexa stats come from user navigation analysis. Only from users who have installed the Alexa search bar or plugin. The main benefit of this extension being to allow users to see the Alexa Rank and Google Page Rank when they visit a site, the tool mainly attracts Internet professionals: Alexa users are often webmasters. These people use geek sites quite a lot ... and thus geek sites have a high ranking in Alexa.
Point 2: Alexa over-evaluates US sites versus european sites
The other Alexa bias is geographical: the vast majority of Internet professionals (and thus Alexa bar users) are american, while the vast majority of Internet users live outside the US and don't use the Alexa bar. The behaviour of a sample of mainly american users is used to "measure" the audience of foreign sites that they never visit. To my knowledge, no correction of any sort is done on the raw data. Alexa issues biased numbers.
And nothing prevents you from trying (and succeeding) to influence Alexa user sample. See below.
How can you improve your Alexa Rank?
1/ The very first thing to do is to install on your computer the Alexa plugin! your own visits on your site will be counted. Then you should encourage your friends and collegues to follow your example. You could be surprised to see that this may be enough to push your ranking upwards! as the size of Alexa user sample is so small in many countries outside the US.
Here are sites where you can find the plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer .
2/ Second and most important step: invite your readers to install the plugin!
This may have extraordinary consequences.
This is how Digg Rank exploded in April last year: They ran a campaign to convince their readers to install the Alexa plugin.
Digg's manipulation also pushed other sites ranking upwards, including Techcrunch whose audience is partly shared with Digg. Look at Alexa curve for Techcrunch in April 2006.
3/ Write posts about Alexa. This may attract users interested by Alexa, most probably equiped with the alexa bar. Your ranking will move up.
4/ Some people explain that it is usefull to install the Alexa widget (it displays your ranking) ... personally I cannot find any reason why it would have an impact...
If you wanna share your own experience or advice about Alexa please do so in the comments...but if you haven't done it already the very first thing to do is: install the plugin!
