Apr 18 2008

Alexa Ranking Changes – What effect will it have for Bloggers?

Published by at 2:03 am under alexa

Late this afternoon Neerav sent me an email letting me know that Alexa has changed its ranking system. He pointed me to both the Alexa announcement and a post on ProBlogger. Darren points out:

For example my other blog Digital Photography School now shows up on Alexa with a very similar ranking to ProBlogger. Previously it was much much lower despite having higher daily traffic numbers.

He notes that DPS still has an Alexa rank lower than ProBlogger, but at least the discrepancy isn’t as blatant.

The skew Alexa shows towards websites of a technical nature has often frustrated me, and I agree with Darren in hoping that these changes will address that.

Alexa maintain that they are now using sources other than just the toolbar.

We now aggregate data from multiple sources to give you a better indication of website popularity among the entire population of Internet users.

The reason I’m so interested in Alexa, is that the Alexa ranking forms a large part of the formula used to calculate my Top 100 Australian Blog List.

As a refresher, the formula I use takes into account Alexa Australian Rank (AU), Alexa Rank (X), and Technorati Rank (T).

Index = (3 x AU + X + T) /5

Suffice to say, that any significant movement in the Alexa rankings is enough to make a considerable change to the list. And from what I can gather, it has.

I’ve spent some time analysing the data I have available. It’s probably fair to say there wouldn’t have been a huge movement in rankings over that time period, as rankings are averaged over a three month period. I compared both the Australian Alexa ranks and the global Alexa ranks from the top 100 blogs list I compiled 2 weeks ago.

The average change in global Alexa rank was a decrease (hence “improvement”) of 23,000, with the median change being 25,770.

The average change in Australian rank was an increase of 1,494 (hence decline in relative ranking), however the median improvement (decrease) was 427.

Top 15 Global Alexa rank Losses

Let’s look at the top 15 sites that lost rank (note: this means increased Alexa ranking – confused yet?)

Michael Aulia’s Blog
Aussie Bloggers
Skelliewag.org
Anywired
Ben Barden
My Radical Blogs
Ask Kalena
Freelance Switch
North x East
Entrepreneurs Journey
Dipping into the Blogpond
My Big World of Crap
Blogging Sueblimely
Australian Women Online
Life in the Country

All these blogs are either focussed on blogging, technology (i.e. attractive to a tech savvy audience) or relatively new domains.

Top 15 Improvements in global Alexa rank

Magneto Bold Too!
Eight Black
Staralicious
Flying Solo
Sultana Blog
Motivational Speaker – Craig Harper
Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe
The Daily Reckoning
Better Communication Results
Rodney Olsen . Net
Enjoy Perth!
Thinking Home Business
The Boot
Servant of Chaos
Larvatus Prodeo

None of the blogs (except perhaps Eight Black and Thinking Home Business), have a particularly apparent skew towards the tech savvy audience.

Can we conclude from this, that the change in Alexa ranking has addressed the tech skew?

Please find below a summary of the changes AU refers to the Australian Alexa rank and X refers to the global Alex rank. While I have calculated the changes to last update’s top 100, I don’t want to post that until I’ve had a chance to repopulate the whole list. There will be changes.

Alexa Changes to Ranking

URL New AU Old AU Var New x Old X Var
Problogger 3089 605 -2484 12917 3739 -9178
Photoshop Tutorials and Links 5251 1568 -3683 19437 9145 -10292
Freelance Switch 11497 2132 -9365 51826 13072 -38754
Entrepreneurs Journey 7011 1487 -5524 49443 19778 -29665
Digital Photography School 4570 3146 -1424 16561 19437 2876
lifehack.org 7006 6262 -744 16021 15366 -655
Australian Car Advice 1208 1635 427 25074 31114 6040
Aussie Bloggers 3032 243 -2789 145292 20185 -125107
Skelliewag.org 38840 6638 -32202 132086 38322 -93764
Gizmodo Australia 778 1054 276 38723 64493 25770
Duncans TV Ad Land 1907 1707 -200 42863 59789 16926
i started something 14972 17965 2993 20807 30237 9430
Kotaku Australia 1228 1784 556 43958 70885 26927
Dipping into the Blogpond 1714 1050 -664 101435 73126 -28309
North x East 8517 6434 -2083 115530 82812 -32718
Karen Chengs Snippets of Life 2938 4171 1233 98171 101944 3773
Lifehacker Australia 1681 1798 117 87700 108052 20352
Mummified Times Five 9181 4625 -4556 94307 98271 3964
All for Women 2709 3355 646 105392 104174 -1218
BannerBlog 20067 17861 -2206 68349 73300 4951
My Radical Blogs 6871 3246 -3625 135776 89715 -46061
Swollen Pickles 3337 2844 -493 80655 88935 8280
My Big World of Crap 24216 7353 -16863 116651 96820 -19831
Life in the Country 9021 4292 -4729 129728 117028 -12700
Blogging Sueblimely 15203 11963 -3240 117298 100410 -16888
iCing 7020 11450 4430 85606 125180 39574
Tim Blair 3139 3946 807 100991 158807 57816
Ben Barden 14435 6199 -8236 150845 81882 -68963
Andrew Bolt            
Lightening 4078 3595 -483 131986 131633 -353
Just Make Money Online 6840 8560 1720 124696 141304 16608
TV Tonight 1004 1360 356 91484 141744 50260
Scott Yangs Playground 5149 5804 655 109679 114533 4854
Notjustmama.net 8258 7766 -492 125757 158872 33115
The Original Mx5 11145 6116 -5029 164561 173066 8505
Small Business Branding 18970 17019 -1951 107107 139485 32378
ThomasSinfield.com 8724 8577 -147 155599 179267 23668
Defamer 6320 8313 1993 109729 171110 61381
I will change your life . com 34873 37606 2733 101562 109161 7599
Lost at E Minor 13541 12739 -802 130944 187723 56779
information aesthetics 84065 49743 -34322 93847 95927 2080
On Blogging Australia 2620 3096 476 133354 179518 46164
Shai Coggins 3439 3876 437 161204 205918 44714
Michael Aulias Blog 10969 49508 38539 201106 48492 -152614
Taming the Beast 9723 9408 -315 35469 39618 4149
Deltoid            
Scraps of Mind 5983 4469 -1514 173786 184737 10951
Disassociated.com 3586 3360 -226 186085 203747 17662
Mooiness 5723 8772 3049 111728 129775 18047
Tailored Consulting 4077 7115 3038 134742 189508 54766
The Daily Reckoning 8176 9535 1359 169379 247781 78402
More Than Scratch the Surface 42384 46789 4405 81198 117096 35898
Abundance Highway 7470 8332 862 167153 219035 51882
Insight of Nothingness 15272 17995 2723 111500 124735 13235
Trends in the Living Networks 9871 12609 2738 193218 261919 68701
Personal Development - The Urban Monk 32458 48233 15775 120619 158146 37527
Laketrees 9078 11022 1944 233637 276030 42393
Neerav Bhatt 2228 2285 57 95999 136240 40241
Sultana Blog 7601 9870 2269 182012 257244 75232
20/20 Filmsight 28452 39168 10716 136573 177831 41258
Ask Kalena 21930 24416 2486 236140 190328 -45812
Fashionising 1154 685 -469 44541 43439 -1102
Duncan Riley 8178 14283 6105 215441 270843 55402
Neil Duckett 80538 74585 -5953 90492 100048 9556
Misc. Adventures of an Aussie Mum 5171 7168 1997 202820 270854 68034
Alister Cameron // Blogologist 31037 25239 -5798 198475 239830 41355
Imaginif Child Protection 5200 7554 2354 234003 284536 50533
Cooking is my Passion 19460 23623 4163 218194 265292 47098
Larvatus Prodeo 4809 7606 2797 202622 317013 114391
Hobart Daily 4309 5025 716 287209 326707 39498
Magneto Bold Too! 3003 5604 2601 202433 273306 70873
Rodney Olsen . Net 11375 8309 -3066 219857 302874 83017
Road Less Travelled Blog 5692 4390 -1302 201679 223196 21517
Ausrock 7423 10762 3339 141751 154041 12290
Motivational Speaker - Craig Harper 17284 30519 13235 190146 266761 76615
Column Two 22076 30339 8263 149690 217737 68047
Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe 5105 7370 2265 208902 286074 77172
Virtual Assistant Blog 8181 6540 -1641 231474 276470 44996
Flying Solo 3991 4925 934 161734 236120 74386
Buzzing with Ange 21300 15008 -6292 291251 285565 -5686
Eight Black 2842 3401 559 212513 285565 73052
Thinking Home Business 8395 8421 26 244451 328039 83588
Australian Women Online 6539 6119 -420 282244 266403 -15841
A Roaming Aussie Mum 10525 13323 2798 209277 218697 9420
Semantically Driven 3537 4435 898 232373 301110 68737
Better Communication Results 11805 10643 -1162 275765 357085 81320
The Boot 3304 5645 2341 183668 270552 86884
DigitalBurn.org 9254 10046 792 170082 215952 45870
Design Sojourn 68934 82120 13186 149117 154924 5807
Servant of Chaos 37965 37242 -723 209817 305889 96072
Car News @ MotorDude.com 4589 5718 1129 226894 250525 23631
The Cerebral Mum 4162 6201 2039 245733 281846 36113
Art News Blog 72322 63995 -8327 181584 236505 54921
Anywired 70627 9855 -60772 150540 58955 -91585
Gday World            
Blogging Personal 8027 13889 5862 200200 242218 42018
Staralicious 18023 21465 3442 219494 292807 73313
Kensington Victoria 141480 39634 -101846 141480 193269 51789
How to Live Online 32159 44092 11933 229058 261841 32783
Enjoy Perth! 6120 5765 -355 284183 367552 83369

25 responses so far

25 Responses to “Alexa Ranking Changes – What effect will it have for Bloggers?”

  1. Deborah Robinsonon 18 Apr 2008 at 3:01 am

    I’m totally confused. I have the Alexa tool bar installed on my computer and although my site traffic increases every month, my Alexa ranking fluctuates wildly. In the last two weeks the ranking for ‘Australian Women Online’ got as low as 3 million and then climbed to up to 282,000. Huh? According to the site stats recorded by my web host, the site traffic is actually higher than it’s ever been and yet, I have lost rank with Alexa.

    Thank you for posting this. At least I now have some explanation as to what has been going on.

    Deborah Robinson’s last blog post..World’s Biggest Playgroup

  2. Sueblimelyon 18 Apr 2008 at 6:43 am

    I am one of those who has been hit, sigh. There are a few tech and blogging blogs that have seen an increase – Blogging Personal, On Blogging Australia, How to Live on Line…
    Overall your analysis does seem right though.

    Sueblimely’s last blog post..Blogger Appreciation Day

  3. Karen (Misc Mum)on 18 Apr 2008 at 8:30 am

    And I was one of the ones who went “WOOT! Wacky-do! What happened there?! Lovely :)”

    (I don’t let these things play too important a role in my blogging, but still, I’ll take and help I can get ;))

    Karen (Misc Mum)’s last blog post..The haircut to end all haircuts

  4. Kathie M. Thomason 18 Apr 2008 at 10:32 am

    I’m confused – my ranking has gone down. I think that’s what it means. So, does this mean the higher the number, the lower the ranking?

    Kathie M. Thomas’s last blog post..Blogger Appreciation Day (Unofficial)

  5. jenon 18 Apr 2008 at 11:07 am

    My ranking changed for the better. I still don’t understand Alexa or Technorati which is very erratic.

    jen’s last blog post..Talking the talk

  6. John Lampardon 18 Apr 2008 at 11:32 am

    And if you think Alexa is confusing what do you make of Compete? My web stats figures and my Compete “rank” are going in completely opposite directions. March was the best month at my place by far since I scored a couple of diggs in Q3 2007, but you’d never know that from looking at the Alexa or Compete figures.

    I know they’re not exactly accurate to start with, but really the only “metric” I’m interested in now are my web stats.

    Thanks for the impromptu Top 100 update though Meg :)

    John Lampard’s last blog post..Aussie workers least likely to misuse computers at work

  7. Megon 18 Apr 2008 at 12:02 pm

    Deborah – hopefully with these new changes your ranking will stabilise and better reflect your actual traffic, rather than those with just the toolbars…

    Sueblimely – I probably should have looked at the percentage change rather than the overall movement. Case in point – ProBlogger. Though it *only* moved 9,000 – the jump from 3k to 12k is rather substantial. I guess it’s a curve thing…

    Karen – πŸ˜€ well done. As someone who perhaps doesn’t attract the *Alexa toolbar type*, glad to see your rank moving in the right direction.

    Kathie – I noticed that and was a bit surprised. Yes, the goal is to move closer to #1, so the lower the number, the better. As a consolation, you did improve your Australia ranking though.

    Jen – glad you improved. We can only hope these changes stabilise the rankings.

    John – I haven’t looked at Compete for a while. It’s ok if you have a large US audience, but not so useful for the Aussie market.

    What I do know is that I have another website (very non tech audience) that gets more traffic than my blog, yet still has an Alexa rank 77k more than my blog, so it seems in some cases the technology skew has not been entirely addressed. But hopefully step in the right direction…

    I agree that internal web stats are really the only ones website owners should be interested in – just a shame they are not openly available, then I wouldn’t have to worry about the failings of Alexa at all πŸ˜‰

  8. cerebralmumon 18 Apr 2008 at 12:08 pm

    I got hit, but I was expecting that anyway. I had a couple of insane bumps in traffic for specific posts which sent me to the Top 100. I was expecting to return to normal anyway, so I won’t be surprised to drop back to 101. πŸ˜‰

    But it will be interesting to see how the changes to Alexa’s ranking take shape. If it redresses the technical skew that they have had, it can only be a good thing.

    cerebralmum’s last blog post..Journeys: Trams, trains, and ambulances and… The Dictatorship of Relativism?

  9. Megon 18 Apr 2008 at 12:22 pm

    CM – keep in mind that there have been big movements across the board so it may well be relative to others. In fact CM maintained the exact same position, and Blogging Personal jumped up the list a few spots slightly in front of CM. In terms of your traffic, do you see a correlation between Alexa rank and traffic?

  10. Gueraon 18 Apr 2008 at 1:38 pm

    I barely have a handle on how the rankings worked before, so I’ve no idea how the change will affect me. I’ve always wondered about the value of Alexa though, since it seemed only to count people who’d installed the toolbar. I assume that’s part of the reason for the tech skew and if they are addressing that then perhaps the new rankings will be an accurate picture.

    Having said that I don’t think any of the metrics are definitive so no one measure is going to give the full picture. And then there’s the question of how you measure your blog’s success – it seems a lot of people put more store by their subscriber or comment numbers.

    Anyway, I was just stoked to make it onto the list, even if it doesn’t last with the new changes. :)

    Guera’s last blog post..Expat Schooling and The Cultural Divide

  11. Lighteningon 18 Apr 2008 at 3:11 pm

    Looks like the changes are not so great for me. Ho hum. But then I did think my ranking was better than I really “deserved” anyway.

    Lightening’s last blog post..Children Crave Adult Attention

  12. Megon 18 Apr 2008 at 3:25 pm

    Guera – I absolutely agree that your own internal measurement is most relevant – visitors, subscribers and comments all work together to form an overall picture. Unfortunately, most of that information isn’t publicly available, so when comparing blogs we have to work with what is :(

    While your global rank dropped a little your AU rank improved, so that’s good :)

    Lightening – No, not too bad really. Remember it’s all relative – so I’ll think you’ll find your position didn’t move much :) Glad to see you’re finally out of the Akismet sand trap πŸ˜€

  13. […] saw this today Alexa Ranking Changes – What effect will it have for Bloggers? | Dipping into the Blogpond __________________ Kathie M. Thomas, Author, Blogger, Virtual Assistant […]

  14. Kelleyon 18 Apr 2008 at 5:29 pm

    I have checked in at Alexa a couple of times this month and the numbers have been all over the shop. Then I saw Leigh’s Twitter about it and wandered over to see a huge (for me) difference.

    Thanks for explaining it my lovely. Clear as mud here, LMAO

    Kelley’s last blog post..Arsehats everywhere.

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  16. Gregon 18 Apr 2008 at 8:20 pm

    Alexa’s ranking system has always been so subjective so anything to improve it is in my opinion a huge step forward. Unless my ranking goes down, that is, then its bad LOL

    Greg’s last blog post..More Red

  17. cerebralmumon 18 Apr 2008 at 8:38 pm

    Meg – Yes, I’ve always seen a correlation between my traffic and the Alexa ranking. My ranking changed a lot with the increase I got from being part of the Aussie Bloggers Forum. Obviously a lot of the members use the toolbar because we’ve discussed it a fair bit. With my big bumps on those two posts (which were tenfold+ increases) the average changed dramatically.

    cerebralmum’s last blog post..Journeys: Trams, trains, and ambulances and… The Dictatorship of Relativism?

  18. Gueraon 19 Apr 2008 at 12:38 am

    Definitely, Meg and I think the fact that you are taking the weighted average from a few different sources makes your calcs much more relevant than just looking at one. Even if you we could compare subscriber numbers (and I don’t think even the blogger has a completely accurate figure for that) that skews towards blogs attracting other bloggers (for the most part), as does the technorati ranking, and doesn’t tell us anything about traffic, which in some cases is probably more about SEO.

    I don’t envy you the task of maintaining the list :) but I’m glad that you’re out there trying to make some sense of it and explaining it all to us! πŸ˜‰

    Guera’s last blog post..Expat Schooling and The Cultural Divide

  19. Megon 19 Apr 2008 at 12:49 am

    Kelley, well you came out well in the wash, which is the main thing πŸ˜‰ Any Q’s – you have my email :)

    Greg – or you could stay the same πŸ˜‰

    CM – well, that correlation is a lot more than most see, so that’s a good thing.

    Guera – thanks, I certainly *hope* so.

    So now that you’ve discounted just about every blog metric…. Yup, I’m over it too πŸ˜‰ (obsessing that is)

  20. Babyamoreon 20 Apr 2008 at 10:12 pm

    I am amazed how things can change and I still don’t understand it all. You did a great job explaining it.
    Also a fantastic job of maintaining the list.

    Babyamore’s last blog post..Smiley Saturday – Caturday

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  22. Suzie Cheelon 21 Apr 2008 at 12:18 pm

    Well I am a happy vegemite in the top 50 Aussie blogs and I don’t understand how any of this works.

    Suzie Cheel’s last blog post..All In Order

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  24. PlanningQueenon 23 Apr 2008 at 11:04 pm

    I have not really understood the rankings, this sheds a lot of light onto them for me – thanks!

    PlanningQueen’s last blog post..10 Quick Ways to Feed Unexpected Lovely Visitors

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