Alexa ranking System has been updated

Apr

24th

Alexa ranking System has been updated

Author: luq | Files under the internet

A few days back after major Alexa ranking fluctuations all around the Internet, Alexa announced that it has changed its ranking algorithm. Most sites with good Alexa as in below 50K were pushed up a notch while, sites with low Alexa ranking sites were given an upgrade. They haven’t really said what changes they have made to their algorithm; all they have said is that they have now implemented the rankings based on ‘more sources’ and ‘normalized’ traffic from their global panel to give more accurate rankings for countries.

Haven’t heard of Alexa? Alexa is the ‘web information company’ as they like to call themselves but most webmasters out there would rather go with ‘inaccurate web information company’ based on the criticism they have earned all over the blogosphere and the Internet as on clear observations the rankings (which are provided as a number, where ‘1’ would be the most popular site) have turned out to be inaccurate. This is not surprising as the ranking is only based on web surfers who use the Alexa toolbar or similar Add-on which provides information for the ranking system. You can find out more about Alexa on their home page.

With the change in their ranking system, things haven’t got anymore accurate than before. Many blogs hovering at less than an Alexa of 100K have posted about their sharp rise in Alexa after the change while some of the sites like Computer Realm have seen considerable drops (630K to 465K). I guess the only ways it will affect sites is in terms of custom advertising and some of the commercial advertising programs as well like Adtoll which depend on the Alexa ranking to provide an estimate of the traffic the site is receiving.

I guess one of the good things is that sites which try to game Alexa by using scripts like this one have been identified and given the Alexa they deserve.

You can read more about the new system at John Cow and DatMoney

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