alexa.com

[Karen]

Does anyone know anything about alexa.com? Just had a client ask:

Just wondering if you know about this site, and what you think about
alexa.com?
I was just on there...checking out stats for the blog.

Do you use it? Do you think it's worth it? Helpful?

Client also said she saw competitor's stats on there.

Thanks!

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[Kurt Guntner]

Alexa was one of the first site's to start keeping track of traffic
stats for sites. The numbers aren't usually very accurate, especially
for smaller sites but I guess if you look at it being inaccurate for
everyone, you could use it as a barometer.

I've also heard that if you install the Alexa firefox plug-in and
visit your own site or site of your clients once a day while the Alexa
plug-in is turned on that it can improve your SEO rankings since some
of the search engines use their traffic rankings in their algo. Not
sure if it's true or to what degree it helps - just something I read
on some SEO blog.

It's only useful for larger sites but I prefer Quantacast.com for
competitive stats. If your willing to pay a subscription fee
compete.com is also pretty good.

Hope this was helpful.

Kurt D. Guntner
Blue Collar Design Studio
C: 402.452.7704
E: kgun...@cox.net
www.bluecollarne.com

[Karen]

Very helpful, Kurt. It would seem very silly if the SEs used the
Alexa stats since people can just throw the results off by visiting
their own sites.

What does Alexa offer that Google Analytics doesn't? Same with the
others that you mentioned....what do they offer that GA doesn't?

Thanks!

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[Kurt Guntner]

Google Analytics will be more accurate for your site but wouldn't
provide you with your competitors stats.

With all the data points Google has for websites - analytics, toolbar,
local business center, etc. I'm sure they don't place a huge emphasis
on Alexa traffic rankings. Maybe, at some point in the past it was
more valuable.

Quantacast offers demographic info on site's visitors in addition to
the traffic rankings that I find very interesting to use for other
marketing purposes- list procurement, geo-targeting, etc. but as with
any information if your not using it for anything then it's not worth
a lot.

Compete.com offers most of the same info as GA or Alexa but you get to
choose several competitors and they deliver a comparison report to you
on a scheduled basis - really just more of the convenience factor.

If you need to get competitive info for PPC campaigns you might also
try SpyFu.com. There is a free and paid version - I've never used the
paid version.

I also like using Google Trends for key term search trends and
HubSpot's website grader for a quick glance at any site's SEO
efforts. I wouldn't use HubSpot as my sole means of SEO research but
I think it's a really good tool to use for benchmarking.

> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hippoim?hl=en
> .
>

Kurt D. Guntner
Blue Collar Design Studio
C: 402.452.7704
E: kgun...@cox.net
www.bluecollarne.com

[Karen]

Cool. Thanks Kurt.

Both Compete and Quantacast sound helpful. Thanks for the run down on
those services and for the other tools.