New year, so it’s time for a new update one my Alexa Ranking experiment.
I started the experiment back in October, just to see how easy it was to change my ranking on this blog because I found it laking in accuracy.
And it was clear that Alexa Ranking was not accurate at all, which just confirmed my hypothesis on it was fairly easy to change it.
And within one month I change the ranking on this blog from 409,935 to 315,732, which in my book is pretty good. But I didn’t stop here, I had to see if this was a lucky fluke or if I really had proved that the Alexa Ranking is too inaccurate in compared to the significance it has for many blogowners.
Because it’s a part of the things many add sites use to set a prices for any given add on the users blogs, thus robbing these blog owners for the optimal earnings.
And today 3½ month later the Alexa ranking is 139,534
So in order to do that, i needed more sites to play with. ;)
And again I used my own, just in case I made a mistake that would hurt the sites.
On 2 other sites I added the same Alexa Ranking tool as the one on this blog.
The first site is my pagerank checker
Webiq.dk – Starting rank about 500,000 and today almost 2½ month later it’s 232,772.
And I did nothing else to the site, it has the same hits today as it did when I started.
The traffic stats for WebIQ
This lead me to believe that is’t not only the toolbar that determents the ranking, this also meant that I needed to test something else.!
How does it effect the ranking if you use the Site Info, the html file or the verification ID.
So in December i started testing this with two other sites, in theory it shouldn’t matter which of them you use.!
So for Linkdatabase.dk I uploaded the Site Info Plugin, and for Valutakurserne.dk I uploaded the html file option.
To see if the html version sent the same data back to Alexa..
Linkdatabase.dk – Starting rank about 750,000 and today 1 month later it’s 585,928
Valutakurserne.dk Starting rank about 800,000 and today 1 month later it’s 774,563
I added a new site to the experiment today, to see what the verification ID does to the ranking if any.
Beregnbmi.dk – Starting ranking 2,023,658 you can follow it here on Alexa – Ranking on Beregnbmi.dk
And I have to say I didn’t see that one coming, did you.!! 
This means that if you just add the “Site Info”, your ranking is gonna change but the html file doesn’t do a thing.
About Jimmy Sigenstrøm
Twitter: com_howtoguide
says:
I have to give you a trophy for being so persistent in proving this to us
I’ve installed the alexa status bar and the widget not long ago and my ranking has improved tremendously since then. My ranking is about 250k now which apparently not so accurate since you’ve proven it already.
Peter Lee recently posted..Are Tablets Becoming The Preferred Computing Choice?
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
I just hope that the word is spread around, so that add sites will stop using Alexa Ranking as a part of the things they use to set add prices. ;)
Twitter: devjosephite
says:
Jimmy Sigenstrøm I totally agree, people blindly trust the Alexa data for add placements and selling sites. You are doing a great job.
Twitter: bestplugins_wp
says:
Hey Jimmy,
I have been thinking that Alexa wasn’t that accurate for a while now, thank you for confirming it for me!
I wonder if tools like Compete or Quantcast might be more accurate, since they do a similar thing, but you actually have to put the code on your site.
Adam James recently posted..14 Of The Best Premium WordPress Plugins To Buy For Your WordPress Blog
Twitter: trungpc81
says:
Hey Adam, I total agree that Alexa wasn’t that accurate for a while now. It really does not show a real traffic to your blog and so it is only for reference.
Trung Nguyen recently posted..Why and How to Build a Blog Plan
Twitter: namaserajesh
says:
I agree with adam, Alexa rank depends only on Alexa toolbar so rank is not correct.
Rajesh Namase recently posted..Great iPad 2 Tools for Business
Twitter: theapptimes
says:
Wow! You have shown quite a bit of determination and persistence in following up with your experiment and sharing your results with us. I cannot believe that a popular service like Alexa can be manipulated to such levels. Shame that people still give it such importance.
Adeline recently posted..How to Send Documents from the PC to your Kindle
Twitter: webisodestudio1
says:
I had a feeling something was off about Alexa ranking but now you’ve finally proven that. Thank you for your diligence.
Twitter: ForteProperties
says:
I have a buddy that always gloats about how high is site ranks in Alexa. I keep telling him it’s not accurate and if you’re not on Google, nothing else matters in the consumers eye. He doesn’t listen. Maybe when i send him a link to this post he will.
Thanks for sharing.
Homes For Sale Austin recently posted..How To Buy a Home With No Banks: Owner Financed Homes Austin
This is really a great informative guide that will help anyone ,thanks
Twitter: funniestvidz
says:
Great Work! Thank You It Has Taught Me Allot!
Ryan Smith recently posted..Fatty Falcon Punch – Funny Video
Twitter: itechcode
says:
When i start my blog the rank is :
29/Dec/2011 –> 3,274,371
20/Jan/2012 –> 460,402
Is it good Ranking?
Amit Shaw recently posted..Virtual Machine Installation and Setup
Twitter: trainermikem
says:
Thanks for your work on proving this. One less thing I know have to worry about in trying to make my site better.
Mike recently posted..Why Core Fitness is Important in Everyday Life
Twitter: GenuineSEOnet
says:
Here is another tip for you to increase Alexa Rank.
Page views, Update frequency these two things can do wonder for your blog. Try and increase both of them at the same time and you will be able to see a good change.
Eddie Gear recently posted..Keep It Simple Stupid Is Your Way To Blog Success
Thanks Eddie, those are great tips too, because keeping Google interested in you will keep your real traffic increasing, unlike the Alexa fantasy that Jimmy pointed out.
-Joe
Joe recently posted..Florida Gated Community
Twitter: tekgazet
says:
Alexa ranking is not a proper indicator of site ranking. It is basically dependent on people using Alexa toolbar visiting a site. So, those sites which are catering to bloggers’ field get better ranking since bloggers visit such sites and most bloggers have Alexa toolbar installed.
Ashok recently posted..Speed up thumbnail display on Taskbar in Windows 7
You really have succeeded in bringing your Alexa rankings up Jimmy. I haven’t setup a site info of my site yet. I still have to do that. I have been busy sorting all of its contents. It is good to know that a simple thing can give good results. Thanks for the tip. Keep us up to date with the results.
Farrell recently posted..The Year to Improve Eyesight
Twitter: wishesfromhome
says:
Thank you for showing us this! I am pretty amazed at just how inaccurate Alexa ranking is. Hopefully this will prove to people that we should be using something else to determine ad prices, or at least improve the current process.
Site info plugin has totally better affect alexa page rank. i used plugin for my website, and it reduce my rank nearly 200,000, but i deleted it!…because i don’t like the shape of plugin!
Jimmy!…I have to use this chance for asking you a question please.
I don’t know your view about using unicode non-english words as ‘Navn’ field, like ‘حراج اینترنتی’ in Farsi language…please,let me know your policy.
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
You are as such free to use non-english words in the name field, just remember to use your name and not keywords.!
If you have more than 3 approved comments, then you can use keywords with your name and not only ‘حراج اینترنتی’ / ‘Internet auction’. ;)
Jimmy Sigenstrøm recently posted..http://www.bmiraknaren.se – PR.0
I don’t know what to say about Alexa as I find it be a waste…
Me and my friend started blog on same day and today we both have almost same traffic , page views and bounce rate but I don’t know why His blogs alexa rank is 50,000 but mine is 300,000
Why ??
Vineet recently posted..Turn your Laptop into a Wifi Router Hotspot : Mhotspot
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
There can be a lot of reasons to why your ranking are so far apart, it can be the subject on the sites that does it.
Or it can be because your friend has the Alexa Ranking plugin installed on his site, and you don’t.
If you want the higher ranking then try installing the plugin, as you can see with my tests it will change your ranking.
But let me know the outcome if you install it.!
Jimmy Sigenstrøm recently posted..http://www.bmiraknaren.se – PR.0
Twitter: devjosephite
says:
You are right Jimmy the alexa data is not at all trust worthy. A lot of my friends have complained that have seen fluctuations in their alexa rank twice in a day. Now its hard to believe that update their data so often. Keep writing more on this I would love to read.
Deep recently posted..Blocked By Akismet Change IP Address
Twitter: sapphiresmodel
says:
Wow I can’t believe that install the plugin would have an effect on your ranking! Do you know if that’s something that changes almost instantly once you install it on your site?
To be honest this is great news as it’s just another ‘rank’ that I can stop obsessively looking at! Now I just need to stop searching my keywords every day to see if my PR has improved
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
The changes didn’t come instantly, but with in a week I could see changes in the rankings
You can read about it here http://w3blog.dk/random/changing-my-alexa-ranking.html
Twitter: BrianHumek
says:
my experience with Alexa hasn’t been great. Just yesterday I bid farewell to the toolbar. I’m guessing that the inaccurate count totals are inflated upward and the bad counts, like on my sites, are accurate : (
Brian recently posted..Christmas at Mockingbird Station
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
Hey Brian
I found your comment in the spam,
Imo Alexa ranking isn’t worth anything if your website or blog isn’t about webmaster subject like seo, link building, alexa, pagerank and so on. Because it’s almost only webmasters that have the toolbar installed on their browser.
But if you install the plugin you might see some changes in your raking.
Ok, I added the site info widget from Alexa to my site. It is a newly relaunched site and currently has no ranking. I am hoping that this changes rapidly. Thanks for the tip.
Michael recently posted..Light Painting Tutorial and Pictures
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
Give it a week or two to get the 411 on your blog, then you should see your ranking change.
Twitter: TechTeric
says:
Nice update on Alexa Ranking!! Great experiment!!
Use of plugins affect Alexa rank?
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
As far as my own experience say then no, the only plugin that effects the ranking is their own.
Twitter: xbxopcpro
says:
Thank you for the info – I have often wondered how accurate the alexa ratings were ! I will try this on mine and report back my findings as well
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
Sounds good love to hear about your experience with Alexa Ranking
This is fascinating. I knew Alexa was probably inaccurate but I didn’t know there was a way to game the system. Seems a little shady, thanks for sharing.
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
I don’t think it’s shady, because I didn’t do anything besides adding their plugin on my blog and getting more traffic.
I totally agree.Alexa ranking is crap.Mine rose from about 500,000 to 135,000 in 2 months while my traffic remained more or less the same.
I’ve always thought that the Alexa rank was more of an estimate of position. It is very accurate at the very top end and as you move down the list, things become too subjective. What seperates a #1000000 from a #2000000? Almost any little thing could make a big effect.
Eric recently posted..Was the fall of Circuit City Good for Best Buy
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
I really can’t see how the top can be more accurate, they are based on the same data as all other sites.
And I know that they write it, but I would love to see some prof that backs the statement up.!
I had always trusted Alexa’s result until I have read this post. A lot of people like me are using Alexa as basis. Now that I have been informed, I won’t just make a decision from the results I have seen there.
Brian recently posted..DTS Home
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
Unfortunately a high number of bloggers like you, don’t know that Alexa ain’t that accurate thus in a worst case costing you money.!
So do spread the word.!
It is shocking to see your ranking Improve so much in less than four months. How these ranks are decided is a big mystery and what steps should be taken to improve it will always be falling short. It would be great to hear what exactly does it take to get so much of improvement in your ranking in such short time.
James recently posted..CheapestMerchantAccounts.com in the News
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
I would also love to get my hands on there algorithm just to see how they determent the rankings, but I don’t think they would ever give their algorithm to anyone. ;)
hey do you mind to share more details on how you get your alexa ranking improved? It wasn’t stated in your article. Thanks.
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
I will love to to just that.!
Check out this post http://w3blog.dk/seo/how-did-i-change-my-alexa-ranking.html
that;s really all you did? Pretty cool and will help if you want to sell your site down the road. Thus far, any change in traffic?
-Briddick
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
You can read here what I did to make these changes here, but i short I added this blog to a couple of blog lists just to boost the traffic a bit and then installed the plugin and that’s it.
http://w3blog.dk/seo/how-did-i-change-my-alexa-ranking.html
After I begun to write about the Alexa ranking the blog have gotten a small increase in traffic do to the interest in Alexa, which of course also counts in the ranking. That’s also why I’m testing my hypothesis on some of my other sites, just to be 100% sure the results is right.
I’ve been following your Alexa rank thread with interest and would agree that your method works having increased my own rank from 6,500,000 (!) to 2,650,000 just from installing the genuine Alexa bar (I had been using a different SEO firefox bar that included Alexa), verifying my site, and adding a couple of bits of code.
My traffic hasn’t changed at all in the same time – if anything it’s decreased because I’ve been doing a little link building, which is causing my SERPs to fluctuate.
It may not mean anything anymore but I still like a low Alexa number and a high PR on any site I’m doing.
One thing I noticed – two of my sites with exact same traffic – approx 200 per day, one is 6,100,000 and one is 21,000,000. Both same age – but different types of traffic – so like you said I guess site A visitors have toolbar installed (internet marketing related site) and site B don’t (review site)
Mack Michaels recently posted..Mack Michaels Millionaire Society Ultimate Review Part Three
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
Thx great to hear that others has gotten the same results as me, do update me on what happens later on.!
Twitter: Shyxter
says:
Hi, Jimmy. I really appreciate you testing the accuracy of the site rankings that Alexa gives. You didn’t only helped your own site, but you have helped the other site owners as well. Thanks for the heads up! Now online entrepreneurs should know that an Alexa ranking should not be the only basis in determining the ad prices placed on blogs. Let’s spread the word about it!
Good to know about your Alexa ranking. I never thought that Alexa plugins would help to increase your Alexa rank and that is awesome! Glad to know your experiment I will have some try of it. Thanks!
Emelia Fallick recently posted..Timber Doors Brisbane
I’ve always thought Alexa Ranking was not a very good rating of a website. Does it really only go up based on people who have Alexa’s stupid tool bar installed? That’s ridiculous and makes it a terrible judge of a website. But many people ask me about it before placing an ad on my site though.. bleh.
Tabby recently posted..Why You Need Backlinks For Your Site And How To Get Them!
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
I’m sorry to say, but say the ranking is determent by web users that has the toolbar installed or if the website has their plugin installed.
Regarding the ppl that was asking about your Alexa raking, were also setting the prize on your raking right.? I’ve had a couple of them also, my answer was that I and I alone set the price on the ads not Alexa and they are welcome to buy ads at another website.! ;)
very intresting test you have done here i am kind of new to the building up a website and have since starting research ect thought that the alexa rank was important until now.Thank you very much for proving how alexa really isnt anything to worry about.
ryan recently posted..Best Xbox 360 Games of 2011
Twitter: Get_Paid_To_
says:
This is awesome! I am definitely going to do this on my site. My alexa rank hasn’t been very good and I need it to be. I’ve been wanting to use a particular advertising site for a while now. They rejected me because of my rank and I get plenty of traffic, but that isn’t good enough for them. Thank you so much for this post!
Tom
Tom recently posted..Contests For Kids | Free Cash Contests At CashCrate
Twitter: w3blogdk
says:
I hope you can get your Alexa ranking to increase with the plugin, and then landing the ads and earnings. ;)
The blogger of this site has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that humans are still smarter than any computer. Even though the ranking here is showing that proof the information is allowing visitors to the site to see this for themselves. The results are a real ego booster.
Aaron Turner recently posted..Choose the best DSLR slider according to your needs
Twitter: ReadersPedia
says:
But still many webmasters believe in Alexa ranking. If u have to advertise on a blog. They usually inspire u by their Alexa rank.