The Alexa Problem
Syntagma was recently 78,000 on Alexa — not a bad score given the number of sites out there.
Then, inexplicably, it started to rise. Up to 180,000.
Since I’ve switched to a Windows Vista machine with no Alexa toolbar it’s gone up to 325,282. Can this be my own doing for not supporting the number every time I go to the site?
No, Alexa is rubbish. Our traffic has risen enormously in the very months it’s gone from 78,000 to 325,000.
Why do we bother quoting these useless statistics?
[...] you John for your post highlighting the uselessness of Alexa – the statistics app that many take as [...]
By I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again : Alexa Sucks! : The Blog Columnist on July 13th, 2007 at 8:07 am
I agree. I’ve long since given up on Alexa due to its inaccuracies, which are due to its exclusionary practices. Not everyone uses a PC or even a Mac. For me, Awstats is the best bet.
By Deborah on July 15th, 2007 at 2:14 am
Another problem, Deborah, is the gaming of Alexa. Jason Calacanis offered a link to some software that constantly refreshes your site in the background and builds your score. I’m guessing that’s what’s happened to Syntagma. We’ve been overtaken by thousands of people gaming the system.
By John Evans on July 15th, 2007 at 9:49 am
I would like to point out that ANYTHING you do on the internet while you have alexa toolbox installed will be recorded and made available to archive.org. This includes your search queries and many of other things you type in (sometimes it even includes password tokens). Alexa is no good, it provides no meaningful information and worse, it takes your information and put it on the public domain.
By ER99 on March 26th, 2008 at 9:04 am