Manipulating Alexa Traffic Rankings
With the launch of Alexadex “share trading” and more and more sites using Alexa rankings as a way to judge their popularity (mostly because it is the only alternative); especially for ad selling, I thought it would be nice to revisit the manipulation of Alexa, an Amazon.com company. Alexa rankings are based on the amount of times users with the Alexa toolbar installed on their computers visit a web site over a given amount of time.
Most publishers share an unspoken agreement that although Alexa stats are inaccurate, that Alexa is not that far off and its traffic ranking system does give publishers an idea of how they compare with others; the lower the number the better. If a site is ranked less that 100,000 - it’s considered somewhat well traveled, less that 50,000 - popular, less than 10,000 - above the upper echelon of popular sites, and less than 1,000 - the cream of the crop.
I was talking with a friend about Alexa this week and how so many advertising companies, like AdBrite, use Alexa rankings as a way to measure a site’s worth. Alexa is also apparently quite easy to manipulate.
Here’s a step by step trick from Sitepoint Forums member KLB:
1) install the Alexa toolbar into your browser.
2) Create a special webpage that contains a JavaScript array of webpage addresses from your site. Then create a JavaScript function that loops through the array and opens each address into a separate browser window (make sure they all use the same window). Between cycles through the function, cause the function to “sleep” using the “timer()” function for a random interval of time between say 5 and 45 seconds. Make sure that when the function reaches the end of the array of addresses it loops back to the beginning.
3) Periodically set the script to action in your browser with the Alexa toolbar installed and let it churn away overnight. To save bandwidth you can always disable the loading of images. If you want it to be really effective, have a few friends run the same script from their browsers with the Alexa toolbar installed.
That is all there is to it. I did this about a half dozen times to one of my sites over a period of one month and it jumped up to the 80,000 mark in Alexa. I’m sure if I ran it more often it would have done even better.
Or, you can buy your way to a top Alexa ranking via AlexaBooster, which uses some sort of traffic exchange desktop software to boost site views by browsers equipped with Alexa. For $300 a month AlexaBooster claims to secure a 10,000 or above ranking for its customers, for $5,000 a month, a ranking of 100 or above.
AlexaBooster sales copy :
Are you looking for top rankings on alexa.com? If so then you have come to the right place! Alexabooster has been boosting thousands of sites for over 3 years!
Using the alexabooster software can boost your ranking anywhere from 100K or better! Alexabooster is a simple 3 step software that runs hidden in your sytem tray.
And then there is AlexaSurf which differentiates itself with the forementioned Booster tool by not using exchange software but connecting publishers with publishers - humans with humans - for site visiting exchanges to boost traffic popularity numbers:
We have created a tool that does not use any third party software to try and manipulate stats. Our system simply allows you to take part in a traffic exchange system for ONLY users who are using the alexa toolbar. This system will increase your rankings and give you the advantage online.
Our system is the only Free alexa tool that will allow you to boost your rankings without risk of having your site banned. Please feel free to signup and test out or system.
I highly doubt that many publishers are spending $5,000 a month to boost Alexa stats, as true site traffic stats would give more weight to selling ads or trading links than Alexa numbers. But after reading these posts and services, I can’t help but think twice when viewing Alexa stats and feel that they should be taken with a grain of salt more than anything.
When measuring the popularity of a site, along with Alexa rankings one should also review incoming links, web citations (are people talking about the site), request stat & analytics info, and even look a bit into blog rankings in Technorati or Feedster along with Google PageRank. A well rounded approach to judging a site’s worth will give you a much more open idea of value than one set of numbers.
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Comments
18 responses so far ↓
Oluniyi David Ajao on Mar 4, 2006 at 4:27 am
Why would one want to manipulate Alexa’s traffic rank anyway?
One of the biggest wrongs one could do is self-deception.
I’m sure Alexa would find a way to block this “get-arounds”.
Thanks for the self-confession though. :-D
Loren Baker, Editor on Mar 4, 2006 at 4:54 am
Well, I do not want to manipulate the rankings, nor have I.
I just heard it was easy to do, and given these examples it appears that doing so is true.
Brandon Drury on Mar 24, 2006 at 4:22 pm
I see one problem with this in that it can mislead a person who is about to purchase a domain / website from another person. While most experienced webmasters don’t put much stock in Alexa, those that use javascript hacks and such are possibly misleading their potential customer.
Arlan Dean on Nov 8, 2006 at 11:14 pm
a best/worse kept secret: Alexa stats self-select…does this all warrant a snicker, a smurk or a wink…or all three?
Saro on Nov 9, 2006 at 12:20 pm
You guys are right, but if you would like to know if a site is really doing well, or just been manupulated, check its google ranking as well. If both rankings are good, then the site must be in good standings. I’m currently trying to up my alexa ranking. I have a google rank of 3.
Matt on Apr 26, 2007 at 5:04 am
We have released AlexaAutoSurf.com - an auto-surf site that only allows users with the Alexa toolbar to join/surf. Take a look at it, most of the sites in the network have already jumped from 7-8 million all the way close to 100,000. It’s a great way to receive thousands of hits daily and you’ll see the results on Alexa!
Syed on Aug 12, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Matt, your AlexaAutoSurf website feature may be pretty cool, and a sly way jumping through the alexa hurdles as with the techniques aforementioned. But, as far as some website owners are concerned, it’s not the amount of traffic, rather the amount of “quality” traffic. Surely having 1000 hits p/day with 10 sales is better than 10,000 hits with 0 sales. Whilst one may argue the conversion rate should generally be constant, that would only really apply if quality of traffic is in linear correlation. For some people like myself, I’d focus on SEO efforts that will bring targetted, interested visitors. Now that is worth bargaining for. Also, as far as advertising space is concerned, typical buyers nowadays go beyond observation of alexa ranking. Words of manipulation on such ranking monitoring tool are spreading across the internet community like a virus! Although my site www.virtual-reviews.com is new, I’d quite frankly rather focus on quality, not quantity…
diyet on Aug 15, 2007 at 9:37 am
i am always trying to up my alexa ranking.Because i think it is much more harder than google ranking.Having a good google rank is easy.
Wahyu on Nov 23, 2007 at 6:34 am
Yeh maybe everyone can boot alexa rank, but I prefer if everyone not cheating to get truth of data traffic.
Ania on Jan 10, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Now your score is #8,290 it’s great and still “dropping”. Awesome ! :)
You know, I have an opinion about what you write is what you get! If you can write something with enthusiasm, than you can achieve it. Like writing on Alexa Traffic Rank…
I’ve started a blog on career, jobs, and so on 2 days ago, and now it has a rank #10,000,667.
Just watch it how fast the rank is dropping!!!
It’s amazing!
If I reach #1million I let you know it ;)!
http://www.polish-in-budapest.info/
ukgal22 on Jan 30, 2008 at 11:04 am
As an earlier contributor said; self deception is the worst kind of deception. Forget your rankings (google included) and just try to create informative, helpful websites. Your pressence on the web is pointless and fruitless otherwise.
As for the Alexa - google race, dont kid yourself. Google is the real deal, alexa is just for wannabees who want to kid themselves. Alexa said my site had circa 600 unique visitors per day. I know for a fact I have never had more than one tenth of that.
Squeaky on Feb 1, 2008 at 10:06 am
My understanding is that the Java script method no longer works to cheat Alexa. I have a hard time believing that Alexa stats can be faked out that easily.
Chance on Feb 8, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I have needed to raise my Alexa Rank but am not really sure of how to go about it at a costly rate… I found this article useful and I will give it a try. All or nothing! You can look at my rankings now at www.currentreportslive.com and watch and see if my site progresses or not.
iain on Feb 14, 2008 at 7:12 am
i am new to all this but learning fast ,over the last 2 days or so i have brought my ranking down about 2.5 mill which i thought was good going but to hear the ranking can be flaunted by using some software makes me think how long people will actually take alexa ranks seriously when buying websites etc.Could this way of lowering rank not damage alexa’s reputation
Penko on Mar 28, 2008 at 2:22 am
i have web site for free adult amateur pictures and video http://seesexpics.org. Is my Alexa rating is good?
www.atronao.com on Mar 31, 2008 at 6:49 pm
this is sooo wrong!! don’t do it!
William Flynn on Apr 6, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I would rather have a low Alexa rank and build my site naturally rather then try to cheat the system. My alexa rank is climbing because of a well designed website.
Angel on Apr 7, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Finally the results are measured in sales, this is the most important parameter.
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