Recently,on 16th April 2008 to be precise,Alexa changed its traffic ranking system.It is much better now.Earlier,Alexa’s ranking system was based on information collected from users of the Alexa toolbar.This was because Alexa wasn’t meant to be this big when it was launched.Now,Alexa has understood that the information collected from the Alexa toolbar is not necessarily a barometer of the traffic a page gets.Alexa now collects information from other sources in addition to the Alexa toolbar.The new sources have not been revealed by Alexa and it is likely to remain a secret.Your guess will be as good as mine in this regard.
The reason given by Alexa for this change in ranking system is that they had received too many suggestions from Alexa users for the ranking system to change.Well I think that Alexa has probably given up on the issue of Alexa toolbar as many malware removers call it ‘Spyware’.Who wants spyware on their computer just to help Alexa with its ranking system?Nobody sane.
Alexa.com is a subsidiary of Amazon.com. It is a website which provides information on traffic levels for websites. The Alexa rank is measured according to the amount of users who’ve visited a website with the Alexa toolbar installed. Alexa toolbar is an application developed by Alexa Internet. Its primary use is to measure website statistics. This toolbar collects as well as gives some valuable information. Once you install it, the Alexa toolbar monitors all your surfing and collects information about what domains you visit. They use this data to rank web sites. The traffic rank they assign to websites is based on 3 months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of other users and is a combined measure of page views and users. Webmasters, advertisers and ad networks use your blog’s Alexa rank as a gauge to determine the worth of a link on your website. If you depend on link or site selling as a form of monetization you’ll definitely want to increase your Alexa rank, because it’ll increase your bargaining power when it comes to ad pricing.
The comprehensive and detailed traffic reports by Alexa that merchants use to make business decisions are going a step further. The merchants who use Alexa to make business moves are going to be elated with the news on Alexa upgrading this service. Now Alexa is coming up with unique and exclusive data for merchants with different business backgrounds that will be available only for them. These data can be downloaded at the payment of a price that is minimal as compared to the information that will be available only in the column called the “Top Sites List”. These lists include the topics that will help merchants compare with their respective competitors, attract maximum views, generate traffic etc. No wonder Alexa is having its own stand in the face of very formidable competition from Google!