Web Ranking Software

I hear so much about Alexa’s web ranking software, and I’m a real skeptic. I’ll explain why. It’s difficult to evaluate web ranking software when there are really no great products on the market, and Alexa is one that I do rely upon a lot, however I believe that people need to understand its weaknesses. Why do people put so much attention on Alexa’s web ranking software, commonly known as the ‘toolbar’? Doesn’t anyone realize how easily manipulated this, and other web ranking software are? I see this constantly mentioned as a measure of a site’s success. I consider it a very poor measure of success. Yes, I do look at Alexa rankings using its web ranking software, but not for the reasons people here look at them. I have several sites in Alexa’s top 100,000, and I don’t consider any of them successful (yet).

Let me explain a bit about how Alexa’s web ranking software works, and why it’s not a good measure of a site’s success. Alexa ranks sites according to how many people who’ve installed their toolbar visit those sites. Let me put that in a context everyone can understand. Let’s say in New York City, you have a group of friends, Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine. George, Kramer, and Elaine visit Jerry’s home far more often than the group visits any of the other’s homes. Thus, Jerry must be the most successful person in New York City. Well, maybe he is successful, maybe he isn’t, but you couldn’t really measure that based upon these terms, could you?

Alexa’s sampling is very small, and the problem that webmasters who use this type of web ranking software in particular might face is that you’re only looking at Alexa, and you’re all looking at one another’s websites, thus the rankings aren’t going to be a good measure of any individual site’s success. There are many other measures of a web site’s success that are better than using web ranking software.