Alexa is like a dim candle in a pitch black cave.

Alexa is the biggest site ranking script. Without it, there's nothing but a webmaster's word. Logs? Personally, if a site's Alexa ranking is 5,000,000 and the webmaster tells me he gets 20,000 hits per day, I'm going with Alexa. You want me to trust the log file he sends me? No way. I could photoshop a nice little graph that shows my site getting ten gajillion hits per second. As far as logs go, I only trust my own.

Alexa was never meant to be taken literally. A site with 30,000 shouldn't boast over getting more traffic than one with 30,020. Webmasters know it, Alexa knows it, everyone knows it. However, it is safe to believe Alexa when it says Google gets more traffic than fatchickwithpartyhats.com. Stop picking out little flukes. In general, more traffic means higher ranking.

As terrible as Alexa is, it's really the only option. The other ranking sites are based on the number of links to that site, which is far less accurate than a crawler that logs each visit. I say, Alexa is an important tool in determining a site's traffic. Quit whining because you're ranked 4,000,000 and use your time improving your site instead of justifying your poor traffic on Alexa's source pool.

alexa is nice...and so is google.
cant we all just get along?
after all...its all about the love. :-D:-D

I agree.........

Alexa is just a tool, you can get a good idea if someone is lying to you about traffic like you said, I have used Alexa to do that many times.

Using Alexa as a tool knowing its limitations and uses makes it a great tool. Using it otherwise will do you no good.

ie: using a hammer as a screwdriver - duh?!?!

Never put all your concern on one tool, search engine, method, or whatever... Too much expectation on one tool will only let you down.

yes...more harm than good. :razz:
i think 'pk' mentioned something similar somewhere too.

Google can, if they want to, do a better job than alexa in measuring traffic. Google toolbar may have a wider installation base than alexa's toolbar.

alexa doesn't track traffic of any website. if you want to increase alexa rank then u have to just use alexa toolbar for few days to browse your website

your website alexa rank will suddenly become a high

my website had more than 50 lacks rank in alexa now it is just 1 lack now.

alexa can not keep track a traffic of every website on internet. it just give ranking thru using alexa toolbar users database.

i am still trying to figure out if a 'dim candle in a black cave' means its good or sort of good.
wouldnt i want a nicely bright candle in this cave.
how did i get in this cave in the first place?
i dont even like caves.
...and if i had to go into a 'pitch black cave'...
...i would definitely take a really big flashlight or something.
...and a backpack with food and maybe some playing cards.
...and maybe some matches too...to make a fire if i had to.


:-?

Like a boyscout... be prepared!

well...that still doesnt answer the question of the 'dim candle'.

I'm glad you asked!!

Well, the analogy goes like this:

The internet is a cave. You got here because your friends said it was cool... and bats. Bats are neat and make funny noises. So there you are, in the darkness. You don't know what kind of traffic a website gets. There is NO WAY to tell. It is DARKNESS. Here comes Alexa (dim candle). Oooooo this is nice! You can't see much, but at least you can see a little bit.

With Alexa, you can kind of get a rough estimate of what's going on with the internet.

The flashlight would be analgous to raw logs. However, the batteries died on those years ago. Unless you're an uberhacker and can summon up your competitors logs, you're going to have to go with the candle that was supplied to you.

The bats are flamers, spammers.. and they POP UP in front of you and piss you off!! Man, I should write a book on this.

if alexa is a dim candle...then what is google?


.

I sell something that would then be akin to google. http://www.easyautopart.com/vectorl..._spotlight.html -- 3 million candle power!

Yes, the site is terrible. I operate under the make it work then make it pretty rule; thus, I'm adding all the products first, then will outsource the design once the revenue justifies the expenditure.

Anyhow...that's Google's power to Alexa...3 million candles. okay, I give up. 'Night

Cygnus

Hey! No mocking me!

Google would be a firefly. That flashlight right there, that's a raw log file.