This zany world of the web moves pretty fast and when things get too speedy it's nice to stop and revisit an old friend with fresh eyes. Alexa is one of those old friends and if you haven't been around lately, you're in for a surprise.
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"All I know is that re-visiting the re-vamped Alexa was a delightful experience. I'm digging on the added analytics and I'm glad that Alexa has found it's true voice." |
A little history. Alexa was started in 1996. Right off the bat, Alexa was different from other search engines and directories. Whereas Alexa is still basically, a search engine they offered users the chance to track website popularity by downloading and installing the Alexa toolbar. In conjunction with the toolbar Alexa also served up a website ranking service that was based on the searches and surfing habits of its toolbar users. You didn't have to install the Alexa toolbar to analyze site rankings but you could influence those rankings by using the toolbar. The coolest thing about Alexa's website ranking was that it was a way to get general traffic statistics without installing a counter on your site. You could also compare your site to other websites via Alexa's website tracking.
Back in the days of free hosts and iffy sponsor stats Alexa website ranking came in pretty handy. But then, the price of domains and hosting dropped radically. Free adult hosts turned into crap, sponsors improved their statistics and all the big search engines started offering toolbars. In the rush of working our outside links, massaging our keywords and the endless effort to improve our page ranks, Alexa fell out of favor. Our old friend became that embarrassing old auntie who seemed a little lame. We moved with the times while Alexa hung out with newbs and luddites.
Despite what we cool kids thought, there were always plenty of entities that took Alexa ranking very seriously. Through the years, many news outlets have cited Alexa ranking as proof of website popularity. Among non-adult types Alexa ranking have always been revered as legitimate proof of a rocking domain. When Amazon bought Alexa, it look for a while there that our friend was going to be assimilated into the Bezos collective but that didn't happen. In fact, Alexa partnered up with DMOZ, Google and was even part of Amazon's A9 venture.
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Today, Alexa has risen out of the ashes of whatever the hell Bezos was trying to do with it and has become what it was meant to be: A detailed website analytical tool.
Have you seen the new and improved Alexa? It is sweet. Easier than ever to navigate. No more scanning the page to find the Website statistics. No more minimal stats. Now Alexa features spanking new metrics like Bounce Rates, and page views per user and search engine stats. Add that in with the classic monthly/weekly rankings, the familiar line chart and the website comparison metrics and Alexa has turned into one hell of a free resource for webmasters.
Mind you, since results are still derived from individuals that install the Alexa toolbar the stats aren't going to be as hard-line accurate as your webserver stats. Then again, if you install the Alexa toolbar, you can nudge your rankings in the right direction. As well some anti-virus and anti-spyware programs aren't fond of the Alexa toolbar but they're not fond of Google's toolbar either.
All I know is that re-visiting the re-vamped Alexa was a delightful experience. I'm digging on the added analytics and I'm glad that Alexa has found it's true voice. To be honest, reading my webserver stats can be a real pain. Google Analytics are okay but not nearly as user-friendly as the new Alexa. Plus, I don't have to be signed into Alexa to do my traffic research.
I know you're a modern webmaster that looks only forward. You probably think that visiting Alexa is a step back into the past but you're wrong. Alexa is better and badder than it ever was. Give it a look. Give it a chance. Try out the new features. If you're feeling spunky download the toolbar and give it a workout. If you don't like it, you can always uninstall it and just play with the online tools. Either way, the new and improved Alexa is an old friend that never left and managed to grow while you were away.