Alexa Analytics Representative of True Web Traffic? June 14, 2007
Posted by Andrew Wee in : web analytics , trackbackWeb analytics are a necesary part of your Internet Marketing operations because it gives you an idea of where your visitors came from and their behavior on your web page. The Alexa toolbar is one of the tools which I have covered previously, but recently it does not be giving you an accurate picture of my website traffic.
Here’s a shot of my blog stats stats from awstats (awesome web stats), the analytics program which comes with my Bluehost web account.
On a month-on-month basis, the stats are increasing from Jan to hit a high in May.
Yet Alexa reports:
A high in January, then plunge in April and a further plunge in June.
I’ve checked a number of sites too and their ratings seem to have dipped quite significantly.
It could be due to getting more traffic from visitors who don’t install the Alexa toolbar on their computers. But assuming the people with Alexa on their machines continue to visit your website, why should the stats continue to drop?
If you’re using your statistics in planning your traffic campaign, you might want to take Alexa’s rankings with a pinch of salt and go with awstats or Google Analytics instead.
Popularity: 29%
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I’d tend to think that every man and their dog trying to “game” alexa has more to do with it.
Many many crapful sites with buggerall traffic generating misrepresented alexa rankings.
The unfortunate fact is that advertisers use alexa as a tool to gauge the popularity of a blog, so whilst this is the case, people will try anything to decrease their alexa rank.
Stu,
True, true.
The savvy investors might ask to see Google Analytics stats though, especially if as word gets more widespread that Alexa already inaccurate stats aren’t giving the true picture.
Hey there, came across ure site from PPS. I have to say no stats are really 100% accurate. Awstats is good, it takes from server, should be accurate but it can be better if they don’t take crawlers traffic into count. Analytics should be reliable but despite that they could be internet surfers with scripts by default turn-off on their browsers, Analytics will not be able to detect them.
Here’s 14 web stats tool I recently compiled, I personally recommend reinvigorate. Have fun.
Hi hongkiat,
Traffic is one of the dimensions to assess a site.
I’d prefer to use revenue and monetization potential because although traffic marketshare and branding mindshare are nice, they’re not easily monetizable.
Alexa is so easily manipulated, that I’m amazed that anyone views it as a legit indicator of traffic.
Mostly.. all stats online are no 100% perfect.. but it good to see various sources of your traffic..
but most of the time.. the one you are using from Cpanel is the most reliable because it resides on your server… =)
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I’d suggest using more than 1 tracking tool because if you allow hot-linking (e.g. Myspace resource website), even Webalizer and Awstats will be innaccurate.
Alexa is definitely the worst of the lot. My 500/day blog has better Alexa rank than my 16,000/day forum. But if you’re looking for a quick fix:
How To Increase Your Alexa Rank”>
Your welcome!
Larry,
Thanks for the info.
I don’t think any analytics program will be wholly accurate.
Someone could use a network of public or private proxies and artificially inflate their stats and uniques.
I’m primarily using my monetization figures as my metrics now.