Does having a good alexa score matter?
In a word, no it does not.
This year post march, many domains saw their alexa ranking drop faster than it takes your favourite character on game of thrones to die. Which is the reason for anger and outrage of many bloggers and site admins who had to suffer this fate.
Why did this take place? According to a blog post published by alexa, they increased the number of the sample space of their data panel (the number of browsers used to analyze traffic.)
The point to note here is that sites saw alexa ranking drop even though they had the same amount of traffic as before. Does this mean that alexa rankings were wrong all along? I for one, believe a system so volatile should not be used as a metric to judge every website in the world.
Here are the reasons why alexa rankings are irrelevant:
1) The sample space is irrelevant
The alexa algorithm is only capable of tracking the activity of the users who have the alexa add-on tool installed on their browser, which frankly amounts for a small piece of the population using internet.Another point to note here is, only the people requiring the traffic related knowledge of websites, like bloggers and seo analysts use the alexa add-on. That means, the mainstream population does not use the add-on and why should they.Therefore, the seo analysts using alexa are only tracking the traffic information about their own demographics and not the rest of the population which they want to know about.
2) Alexa is not transparent
Alexa has not been completely honest with the public on how their algorithm works or the exact amount of sample space they take for analysis. This raises the questions what the alexa ranking indicates and how is it calculated. For all we know they could be a bunch of chimps giving ranking to sites while throwing their feces around.
3) Following alexa is a waste of time
If you are using alexa for analysis of your website or any other website for that matter, you might be wasting your time. Considering the alternatives to alexa like google analytics, moz and semrush for website analysis, seems a better idea as they are more accurate.
4) The system is rigged
Alexa ranking can be easily influenced by using various techniques. A well known method which is not in relevance with the traffic on site is submitting your site to StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit. Why should this be a metric on which a site is judged?
5) Alexa ranking is just a number
So far one thing is clear that alexa ranking is inaccurate and hence irrelevant. Alexa rankings are like chrome; it looks like metal, it shines like metal but breaks easily unlike metal.
For readers still not sure with this argument lets take an example. Consider the domain www.thesportscampus.com, it brings a traffic of 3000/day even after an alexa ranking of 491,585. This example is a clear indication of the fact that a bad alexa ranking does not mean your site is bad or not worth visiting.In conclusion, alexa rating does not represent how good your website is. So stop bothering with alexa rating. Go out, have fun and lighten up.
Cheers !
