Alexa

[Romestar]

How does Alexa work? Does it only measure the traffic of sites from the people that use its toolbar (that's pretty lame and inaccurate)? also, how can I trick it so my ranking goes up (blackhat)? Thanks

 

[davidt5353]

Correct. It measures popularity based on users who visit your site that have the Alexa toolbar installed. IMHO it's a worthless gauge of site popularity, merits, or traffic quality.

What's the point of tricking it to make your ranking go up? It won't make you any more money...

- Dave

 

[computerblue]

It is definitely worthless, but for some reason people still look at it, because its a quick and easy way for one person to decide if they should do business with another. There is a program called fake rank that I tried. I tried out the trial, it seemed to work, but I got scared I would be banned from alexa or they would do something weird, so I never made the purchase. here's the link:
Download Fake Rank 3.0 from Files32 : Internet : Web Promotion - Get your beta freeware and shareware downloads!

 

[Laura]

Correct. It measures popularity based on users who visit your site that have the Alexa toolbar installed. IMHO it's a worthless gauge of site popularity, merits, or traffic quality.

What's the point of tricking it to make your ranking go up? It won't make you any more money...

- Dave

Actually, it will - if you use services that base your price/value on metrics like Alexa.

It's so easy to game Alexa. Install the toolbar on your own system and you will easily see a jump in numbers. Tech sites with more savvy users generally have lower Alexa rankings than similarly large non-tech sites. You just have to be aware of its shortfalls, but you shouldn't ignore it completely because people DO use it to make round values of your site and traffic.

Laura

 

[randomlande]

Actually, it will - if you use services that base your price/value on metrics like Alexa.

It's so easy to game Alexa. Install the toolbar on your own system and you will easily see a jump in numbers. Tech sites with more savvy users generally have lower Alexa rankings than similarly large non-tech sites. You just have to be aware of its shortfalls, but you shouldn't ignore it completely because people DO use it to make round values of your site and traffic.

Laura

I'd be a little wary with installing it tho, mostly because its pretty much spyware.

 

[one2]

Are you sure it is based on their toolbar? I find it hard to believe that a lot of people would have the toolbar installed. Most people who aren't so computer literate don't even know what Alexa is.

 

[randomlande]

Are you sure it is based on their toolbar? I find it hard to believe that a lot of people would have the toolbar installed. Most people who aren't so computer literate don't even know what Alexa is.

Exactly, that's why its so inaccuarte.

 

[Romestar]

Are you sure it is based on their toolbar? I find it hard to believe that a lot of people would have the toolbar installed. Most people who aren't so computer literate don't even know what Alexa is.

that's exactly why it's stupid.

 

[Romestar]

Exactly, that's why its so inaccuarte.

lol, we posted almost the same thing at the same time.

 

[ChrisS]

What's the point of tricking it to make your ranking go up? It won't make you any more money...

Maybe if you were selling a site? Kind of like the page rank thing, where it helps only because uninformed people use it to determine the value of your site.

 

[MyOwnDemon]

How does Alexa work? Does it only measure the traffic of sites from the people that use its toolbar (that's pretty lame and inaccurate)? also, how can I trick it so my ranking goes up (blackhat)? Thanks

Yeah. The Alexa Rank of sites is only measured by the people who use the toolbar and then visit the site in question.

It's not too accurate, but I wouldn't dismiss it completely. ALOT of companies and websites rely on this rank to place a value on doing business with other websites.

The most widely known and used method to increase your Alexa Rank: install the alexa toolbar (only works on IE), and set your website as the homepage. Trust me, you'll notice a huge spike within a few weeks.

I have other methods which I have discovered through my own research, but I have to keep them to myself. I found one little trick which brought me from the multi-million mark to the 300,000 (or lower) mark on several of my websites... and all within a couple weeks. However, as you can probably understand, I'm certainly not giving this info up for free. Hmm.. maybe I'll write a "Hacking Alexa" ebook.

Spend some time learning how Alexa works, and you'll come up with something. It's not too difficult.