Originally Posted by BreaktheSilence

I agree that creating "real value" should be the basic goal. That being said, from a pure advertising/marketing point of view, the sizzle sells more than the steak. (i.e. it becomes a question of style over substance).

I raise this point primarily because I've read a number of posts, that emphatically claim that Alexa has no value. While I can understand why a technically minded webmaster would make such a statement, it does strike me as an oversimplification of a much broader issue.

The most important factor here is not what you or I might think, but rather what actually matters in the real world. If the ultimate goal is to attract the public, (and part of that formula is projecting the image of a popular site), then it really doesn't matter if Alexa is a non-scientific indicator.

In much the same way, it really doesn't matter if a garage mechanic considers a pair of fuzzy dice to add zero value to a car. If a guy walks in and his girlfriend loves the dice, your chances of conversion, (hence value), just went up exponentially.

From my point of view, the marketplace is a reality until itself. It ebbs and flows replete with perceptions, misconceptions and downright false assumptions. In other words, notwithstanding whatever we may think of it, it is what it is.

My approach is to try to take a look at the broader picture. Sure it would be easier just to say that Alexa has no value and be done with it. But then where would that leave me in terms of understanding the market?

You can put alexa next to that green bar you are all staring at on the top of your browser. Useless! Weblogs and conversion ratios are where the moneys at!

Originally Posted by peanutpad

You can put alexa next to that green bar you are all staring at on the top of your browser. Useless! Weblogs and conversion ratios are where the moneys at!

Okay...

Thanks for the persuasive argument.

I understand your point. I don't think the general public knows what Alexa is though for it to make a difference in their perceptions.

I think there is a subset of people who are aware of Alexa and mistakenly think it's accurate that places emphasis on the ranking. And you're right if you're dealing with those people the rank would have value in your dealings. If there's someone out there who will buy your site because you have a certain Alexa rank then the rank has some kind of value. Of course people think many scams are going to lead to something valuable too.

But I don't think the general public knows about Alexa. Do you think your mother has ever heard of it? Your grandmother?

The people who place value on Alexa really are a small group and given that the value they see in the ranking isn't based on anything real that perception isn't necessarily going to last.

Pretend I create my own currency and manage to convince a certain group that it is real and can be exchanged for something like the U.S. dollar. I promise to give a very favorable exchange rate and you and several others give me lots of money for my new currency.

To you it had value because I had somehow convinced you it did. To me it had value because I was able to trade it for your money. But the moment you try to spend that currency the whole value system falls apart because it's based on nothing.

Someone might buy a site with a good Alexa ranking because they believe the numbers to be something they aren't. But they're really buying because they believe those numbers will lead to a certain amount of traffic and consequently a certain amount of sales. If the ranking doesn't live up to its promise and the traffic and sales is less than expected the 'value' of the Alexa ranking will fall apart too. Maybe not as fast as my fictional currency example, but it will still fall apart.

Hello guys,
I agree that alexa is not important and specially for the people selling product and services from website because mostly I have found that alexa is used by webmasters and SEO professionals. But in lots of cases I have found that the greater the alexa rank, greater the google rank. Is this only the coincidence or something else? What do you guys think?

I wouldn't say it's coincidence, but I wouldn't say that one automatically means the other either.

Google looks at a lot of factors when determining what page gets ranked where. Google also leans towards ranking the pages of trusted authority sites more. Authority sits tend to get a lot of traffic and consequently will get more Alexa users visiting the site.

So both the Google and Alexa rank are really caused by other things, but yeah I'm sure if a site ranks well with one it probably ranks well with the other. It doesn't have to though.

As long as the Pay per posting sites and link brokers base the rate they pay a blogger on their Alexa, Technorati and PR rankings, those rankings will continue to be valuable.

Like it or not, until they change how the base their pay outs, those three ranks are valuable to many site owners.

That's a fair assessment Ron. Still if the ranking has no real value then it can very quickly disappear as something that anyone applies value to.

If you work on creating real value those rankings are going to go up anyway. My main concerns is that people don't focus on increasing Alexa rank and work instead to increase the value of their site. That will have the side effect of increasing Alexa ranking to. But it doesn't work the other way around.

It's easy to boost your rank in alexa, their just tracking pageloads of the site by their tool, just a suggestion if I we're you I will stick on boosting my rank in google!

Originally Posted by skysoldier

It's easy to boost your rank in alexa, their just tracking pageloads of the site by their tool, just a suggestion if I we're you I will stick on boosting my rank in google!

OH.. I think it's very easy to manipulate alexa traffic ranking in very short period of time.

Doshdosh have a blog about 20 ways to increase your Alexa traffic ranking. http://www.doshdosh.com/alexa-rankin...ur-alexa-rank/

and new blog also increase their Alexa page ranking 10x in 20 days.
http://www.terencechang.com/2007/06/...-does-it-work/

a lot of people do get benefit from Alexa traffic ranking. I just don't believe that alexa traffic ranking will affect Google page ranking. I beleive a good content will drive your traffic.

Alexa ranking does not mean much. At the end of the day the more traffic you have to your site then the smaller your Alexa ranking is.

Website sellers use the Alexa ranking to coin in but in fact the only reason that some of them have a good ranking is because they have purchased traffic.

Anyone can have a good Alexa ranking but it does not mean that they have a good ranking in Google. If they do have both Google and Alexa rankings it means that they are doing everything by the book and are generating genuine traffic/visitors and also quality backlinks.

Originally Posted by ksmglobal

Website sellers use the Alexa ranking to coin in but in fact the only reason that some of them have a good ranking is because they have purchased traffic.

I do agree that Alexa traffic ranking won't mean anything. Can some one provide me some link that people purchase traffic from? I am curious if they all have high traffic + good high Google PR.

If those site do have both, does that mean they all follow the book do the right thing?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by FindMyPages

If those site do have both, does that mean they all follow the book do the right thing?

Thanks!

There will always be unethical methods around that gains you a high ranking in the search engines but these results will be short lived. As soon as the Google sees what you are doing that is it for you.

Another common mistake people make is thinking that the higher their Google PR is then the higher up the search engines they will be. This is not always the case. I have worked on many websites that have a low PR and an Alexa Ranking of 2 million+ but are higher in the rankings as other sites with a high PR and low Alexa ranking.

To answer your question, if a site has got a low Alexa Ranking, a high Google PR and is on the first page of Google then yes they are probably doing things the correct way.