Alexa’s Global Traffic Panel Increases Again

We’re pleased to announce that once again, the size of Alexa’s global traffic panel is significantly increasing.

Because it’s impossible to directly track all traffic across the web, one of the ways we calculate our metrics is by using a data panel — a sample of global Inteet traffic, made up of millions of people worldwide. The bigger the sample, the better the estimate.

So by incorporating many new data points, we’ll be improving the accuracy of our estimated metrics, which we use to calculate Alexa Ranks.

So what does this mean for you?

• More accurate rankings
• More accurate estimated traffic metrics
• More actionable SEO recommendations
• Better competitive intelligence

A more robust panel with greater global coverage means we can offer you more accurate rankings, estimated traffic metrics, and actionable recommendations. We can provide deeper insights into your own site but, more importantly, we’ll give you better inside information about your competition.

By giving you a way to peek into someone else’s traffic pattes, we enable you to:

• Benchmark your performance
• Find promising new partners, and
• Size up new markets

With the larger panel, there will also be sites for which we didn’t have metrics before — and now we do.

Another result of the additional data is that you might see changes in your traffic rank. This is especially true for sites ranked greater than 100,000, which are always subject to fluctuation.

A little more about how Alexa measures web traffic

Our estimates draw on data derived from our global traffic panel, but we also use data from direct sources, such as Alexa Certified sites. We combine all this data and filter it though advanced statistical models to determine ranks and traffic estimates.

Few companies can match Alexa’s history of measuring and estimating traffic data. In fact, we’re celebrating our 20th birthday next month. Our data scientists have been working for years to keep our methodologies up to date, and to provide the most accurate metrics possible. Alexa’s data team will continue to grow the panel and improve our models. This most recent increase is notable, but it’s just the latest example of our ongoing commitment to raising the bar for competitive intelligence in web analytics.

In a future post, we’ll talk about how we’re doing the same for another critical component of your marketing stack: SEO.

Kristen Mirenda

Kristen Mirenda is Senior Product Manager at Alexa. Since the '90s, she's built countless web properties for everyone from Expedia to Sesame Street. She's a proud New Jersey native who spent 15 years in New York City before trading coasts for San Francisco.

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