When you’re trying to get a handle on how well your site is doing, it can be helpful to compare it to other sites on the Internet. Both Alexa and Compete offer up a ranking of your site compared to all the other sites they know about. However, both Alexa and Compete come up with their rankings by extending the data they do have to make a hypothesis about how your site is actually doing (similar to how Nielson does tv ratings by getting reviews by a very small percentage of US households). For B2B and Niche sites, the information may be problematic if the audience polled by Alexa and Compete does not accurately reflect the niche or industry in question.
Understanding How It Works
Obviously Compete & Alexa aren’t going to share their exact algorithms for coming up with their rankings. But there are some basics you should be aware of when using their information. They generally collect data based on the people and companies who actually use their products. For Alexa, this means people who have and use the Alexa toolbar and other products. For Compete, it’s all the people and companies who use their products (both paid and free). When either site gives you a ranking, they are making assumptions and best guesses based on the data they do have. They do not have browsing data on everyone who uses the Internet so they extend what they do have to try to get some useful information. It’s not an exact number or ranking for anyone (even if you are pretty well represented in their audience).
Using Information with Caution
Alexa & Compete can still be useful to use with B2B and niche sites if you use it with a healthy dose of caution. Don’t get too caught up in the exact ranking numbers. Instead, use the scores to compare your site to others in the same niche or industry. This still could be problematic if other sites are more popular with their users than your own, but you still should be able to get some baseline information and a point of comparison.
Getting a Baseline Data Point
Even more helpful is to use Alexa and Compete to measure your own effectiveness in terms of online marketing. Get a baseline of your rankings before you start and then take a look at them every month to see if you’re making any progress. It may take awhile to see any movement and what you’re doing may still not show up in their measurements, but you can at least get another data point to use in your measurement strategy.
Understanding the Measurements
Whatever tools you use in your own measurement strategies, take time to understand exactly what information and data they are giving you. Figure out if they help you measure how your tactics are working and whether or not the measurements relate to your important business metrics. Data and information are also only as good as the interpretation, so once you understand what they mean, you’ll be able to analyze them for more useful and actionable insights.
Thoughts?
(photo by Picture Perfect Pose, on Flickr)