Alexa rankings Strange phenomenon

The intermediary transaction SEO diagnoses Taobao guest stationmaster buys the Cloud host technology Hall

Alexa site recently ranked the smoke of the four, there is news that Sohu's flow over Sina, the author has conducted a survey, quite strange. Since August, the Alexa frequent change ranking algorithm, resulting in many of China's web site traffic is emptied, and the first three portals Sina, NetEase, Tencent Traffic also appears to have slipped. However, it is strange that Sohu recently in the "industry depression" under the circumstances it can "resorted", in two weeks, the flow of not only not drop, but the rapid rise, very confusing.

Restore a true Alexa

Alexa is a dedicated website to publish the world rankings. April 1996 in the USA established. 1999, Alexa was acquired by the Amazon company. Alexa's website world rankings are mainly divided into two types: comprehensive rankings and classification rankings. Comprehensive rankings are also called Absolute rankings, that is, a specific site in all sites in the rankings. Alexa through the installation of Alexa Toolbar (hereinafter referred to as "Alexa Toolbar") to record the Internet access of IE users, to obtain access to traffic information.

Reporter learned that in China, Alexa Day is not so good: First, Alexa toolbar does not support Chinese, so the domestic user does not install its habit; second, although the Alexa toolbar has the role of advertising shielding, but far less than windows with the shielding tool to use, It has few users in the country; third, because of "rogue software" the rise of the anti-rogue software and anti-virus software function increasingly perfect and powerful, Alexa toolbar has been a number of tool software and anti-virus software as Trojans and viruses, making Alexa toolbar almost eradicated in the country. These have seriously affected the Alexa in China sampling and data collection, Alexa "ranking" of science and rationality can be seen.

Sohu "resorted" have know-how?

Alexa In addition to the above "mishap", there are many "soft rib." Alexa Cheat said, already is a well-known secret. A veteran of the industry to reporters that there are many ways to cheat on Alexa, such as: Repeat the page with the proxy server to solve the Alexa toolbar, change the program, and then repeatedly send access to data to achieve increased access to the effect; You can also add meta to several pages of the target site. Automatically refresh the statement, let the Web page automatically refresh, and so on. In this impetuous network age, the Internet "good faith" phenomenon is more and more noteworthy, in the Alexa rankings appear in China's web site collective decline, Sohu's sudden rise alone or let the Chinese netizens opened the eyes (see figure I), this has to let reporters in all angles to Sohu's recent reflection to do all kinds of speculation:

Guess one, Sohu choppy three major portals-heart unwilling?

January 10, 2007, China Internet Association released the "2007 China Internet Survey Report", which data shows that in the portal, Sina's user relative market share ranked first, up to 19.6%, NetEase and Tencent are 18.11% and 16.95% respectively, This means Sohu has fallen out of China's three main portals. Charles Zhang will not be reconciled to this, so in the amount of visits on the big fuss? The goal is to squeeze into the triple a position?

Guess two, Sohu to taste the Olympic sweet fruit-impatient?

Sohu after becoming the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Internet Content Service sponsor, Big dozen "Olympic" signboard, in with the three major portals of the Olympic report competition into the white-hot state, Charles Zhang through various ways to spread its Olympic marketing strategy, but Sohu's "traffic ranking" problem has been bothering him, In order to give advertisers confidence in investment, desperate?

Guess three, Sohu eager to make show-guilty?

Sohu in the eyes of Chinese netizens have been accustomed to be defined as the "second" role, Sina and Sohu dispute is also a long-standing, the media for the two "contradictions" has gradually lost interest, and only "site ranking" This sensitive topic has not dared to touch, and recently, Sohu frequently for show, in order to create momentum in the early Olympic Games?

Expert Bare Secret

Industry experts say that for a website cheating or not, there are certain methods of identification. Method One: Look at a website Saturday, Sunday visit volume and Friday compared to all did not fall, or the decline is very small, then you can suspect it is "cheating." Because the domestic web site generally Saturday, Sunday less update, plus these two days the number of Internet users is significantly less than the rest day, so it is not much to the upstream; Method two: The rankings suddenly improve, Alexa really will fluctuate, but there is a certain proportion, this ratio to pass two data to compare observation to determine, One is the trend of other networks in the industry changes, the other is a period of time the trend of their own changes, of course, and then exaggerated that is 100%. There are also sites in order to increase the number of visits to improve rankings, using a gradual increase in the "cheat volume" approach, so in the curve trend will be difficult to judge. Reporter according to the first method, on the current domestic several major web sites tentatively compared to a bit (as shown in Figure II):

Internet world is hard to break "Alexa superstition"

Because of the lack of authority in the domestic flow statistics agencies and tools, the United States Alexa website has the opportunity to swoop in, so that the Chinese webmaster are so "superstitious." In the network advertising a huge profit-driven, relying on technical means to optimize the ranking of the site more and more, until cheating. A professional engaged in the Alexa optimization of third-party companies revealed that the Chinese site is Alexa cheating hardest hit, or even large sites have risked various risks, through professional cheating companies to seek the benefits of maximizing. It is this improper competition that leads to a crisis of trust in the rankings of the Internet, fortunately, advertisers have begun to sober up, choose which site to advertise, not only the Alexa index, it is only as a reference, more importantly to the site itself operating mode, team strength, information content, and the integration between the advertising product and the website to do more comprehensive analysis and evaluation.

(Figure I: The green for Sohu in the last six months page views trend is rising) (Zebian Admin01)