Yet Another Alexa Question

[dezinerite]

I don't really pay that much attention to any of my site's Alexa ranking. I know that Alexa is not accurate, and they use a list of questionable factors to determine a site's ranking.

However, I do believe that it gives us a [very] general idea of a site's traffic or perhaps activity. For example, a site with an Alexa rank of n/a most likely receive considerably less traffic than a site with a ranking of 30'000.

Having said that, I'm still trying to figure out one thing: The other day I was browsing around for sites that were being sold. Someone was selling an established website, and they said that their site's Alexa ranking was a little over 100'000. I have several sites on the same Alexa range (and some on a xx'xxx range).

According to this seller, the site receives about 10'000 unique visitors per day, and earns a low $xxxx on Adsense every month. This took him about 3 months to achieve. He even uploaded his Google Analytics + Adsense stats. I don't really care about his earnings, but what left me dumbfounded was when I compared some of my website stats with his. My sites that are on the Alexa range of 100'000 receives only a few hundred unique visitors per day according to my Analytics.

This is only a single 'case study'. There are so many cases I've seen over the years, where site owners showcase their very high traffic stats - even if their Alexa shows an extremely high number such as 13'xxx'xxx (I don't even have websites that have an Alexa of anything that high). This leaves me questioning the genuineness of their stats (after all, it is an image file that can be altered - and also, who in their right mind would want to sell a site that's earning them thousands per month?) - OR questioning how much Alexa's got it wrong.

Would love to know if you guys think that Alexa is THAT far off in their algorithm?

 

[iowadawg]

Well, unless the seller proves his traffic, I would suspect with a new site and selling it off?
He is buying traffic.
That is one way to get lots of visitors and to get alexa to drop and drop to the low numbers.

At least that was the way it was a few years back.
Scads of traffic sellers sold on the basis that alexa would give you good numbers.

 

[enlytend]

How many people do you know who have the Alexa toolbar installed?
Small sample sizes tend to skew results.

 

[dezinerite]

I need to uninstall my Alexa toolbar. Perhaps I'm influencing my new websites to score better than they should.

 

[Kate]

I'm surprised Alexa is not considered a form of spyware.

 

[dezinerite]

I'm not surprised that there are people around trying to manipulate their websites' Alexa rankings. However, it still boggles me how websites with very low (by that, I mean N/A or rankings in the millionths) claim to be earning a lot through their targeted traffic. I mean, sure, Alexa doesn't give us exact figures of someone's traffic but if a website has a large number of visitors surely this will be reflected on their Alexa ranking?

 

[JB Lions]

Forget Alexa. They have always been a joke, at least among the affiliate marketing community, easy way to spot somebody new. Easy to manipulate. What was posted above, most Americans don't have this toolbar, except maybe site owners. If you want stats, get real stats from the site owner. If they bring up Alexa, they're usually trying to pull one over on you.