Alexa changes ranking system – More sources than the toolbar

Alexa is the Web statistics tool that everyone checks but no-one really likes very much. Mainly because the stats were only compiled from people who installed the Alexa toolbar. But that’s all changed, and Alexa has now overhauled its rankings system.

Anyone who owns or writes a website or blog tends to be obsessed with statistics. They want to know who, when, where and how people access their little space on the Internet.

Therefore, tools such as Alexa, which tracks the numbers of people who visit each site on the Web, are invaluable tools to Webmasters around the world.

Which makes today’s announcement from Alexa, and first reported by Techcrunch, of an overhaul of the ranking system, big news.

The biggest change by far is the inclusion of data from sources other than the Alexa toolbar. From its launch in 1998 to now, the only people whose viewing habits have been recorded on the site have been one willing to download said toolbar, but not any longer.

Alexa doesn’t go in to detail about who or what these new sources are, but the fact they are there is enough for me. Although not everyone will be pleased by the changes.

For starters, many sites have now seen their high ranking drop, while others have received a huge boost due to the new sources and the fairer ranking from all countries.

The data also now only reaches back nine months, as that is when the new sources were added to the mix. Unfortunately, anyone who wants to see how their site has performed on Alexa further back than that is going to be out of luck.

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