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I read an interesting post today in Alexa’s official blog called Alexa Data vs. Your Raw Logs in which they describe how Alexa traffic is calculated and what constitutes a visit. In pointing out how your very own server logs may not be giving you an accurate picture, Geoffrey Mack, Alexa product manager states,

Few individuals are sophisticated enough to read their logs and understand what they mean. Even with the help of expensive log analysis programs people can be lulled into believing they are looking at definitive stats for their site. But the sad fact is that logs are deceiving and that no two log programs are the same.

While this may be true Mr. Mack continues his point by touting the relevance and importance of relying on Alexa’s stat gathering technology suggesting that it is even better than Google Analytics. He further states the importance of downloading and installing the Alexa toolbar referring to it as “The Web’s very first toolbar is still the best…”.

The alternative is a panel, like Alexa. It isn’t perfect, but provided that your site is adequately represented in our panel, it is often better than your own logs.

This is where I take exception. I have no doubt that Alexa accurately counts the traffic to your site but it only does so for those who have the toolbar installed. In other words, if a user with the Alexa toolbar installed visits your site it is recorded and helps your ranking. If a user without the toolbar happens by it is not. So what is the point? There may be many people who use the toolbar but there are many more who do not. This is hardly accurate or objective. Besides, there are many folk, such as myself, who simply refuse to install toolbars or other BHOs (browser helper objects). I have a problem with BHOs that track and record my web travels. While the Alexa toolbar may not be spyware in the strictest sense it is only because they tell you up front about what it does.

There are many fine third party applications out there, in addition to your own server logs, that will aggregate traffic data for you without the need to install something. A few that come to mind are Site Meter, Stat Counter, Extreme Tracking, MyBlogLog and of course Google Analytics.

Mr. Mack then adds,

Despite some dubious claims to the contrary (Jason) it is next to impossible to generate fraudulent traffic on Alexa.

Again I must take exception. It is very easy to manipulate traffic counts using Alexa. All one has to do is install the toolbar and encourage all friends to do the same then visit your site every day. It won’t take long to see the results and many have. So of what use is the service? The only thing that I can see is to inflate your own logs for the purpose of making your site more attractive to potential sponsors such as Text-Link-Ads among others, who take into account Alexa ranking as part of the criteria for signing up. Alexa ranking in my opinion doesn’t mean a thing.

If you’re a blogger wanting to aggregate traffic data you’re better off going with one of the previously mentioned services. If popularity and ranking is a concern then you would be better served by putting more effort into creating a decent Google Page Rank.

That said, Alexa does have one cool service and that is the Wayback Machine aka Internet Archives.