Help > FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

 
 

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Contact Info

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    How can I change/submit the Contact Info for my site?

    If the Contact Information for your site is wrong, or you would like to have it unlisted in the Alexa service, you can change it at http://www.alexa.com/edit/. Once there, simply enter your site's URL and follow the instructions. You may select one of several methods to claim your site and/or update the contact information for it.

    Please note that it can take up to two weeks for these changes to take effect (for manual update requests), but if you claim a site and verify your legitimate access to it, changes can go through in about two days.

    Alexa only shows contact information for top-level domains. We do not accept or show different contact information for subdomains (e.g. subdomain.domain.com) or subdirectories (e.g. domain.com/subdirectory) unless we recognize it as a personal page. Recognized personal pages are designated by an asterisk (*) that appears after the Alexa traffic ranking number.

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    How can I submit my site to Alexa?

    That depends on what you mean by "submit."

    To have your site crawled by Alexa and added to our search index, go to the form at the bottom of the For Webmasters page (http://www.alexa.com/help/webmasters), submit your site's URL, and click on the Crawl My Site button.

    To submit your site's contact information, click on the Contact Info tab of your site's Alexa Site Info page, then click on the link for our Self-service tools. You will need to log in and/or create an Alexa account. Once you have, you will be able to claim your site, or submit request to have an editor update your site's contact info manually.

    If you want to have your site listed in Alexa's Directory, please read this FAQ for more details:

    Can I add my site to Alexa's directory?
    http://www.alexa.com/help/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=35

    For more information in general, please read this FAQ:

    Do I need to register my site to get Alexa stats?
    http://www.alexa.com/help/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=19661

  • How does Alexa get Contact Info for sites?

    The site owners, addresses, and phone numbers shown in the Alexa service are aggregated directly from InterNIC, Whois.net, Ripe.net, Apnic.net and other sites that are in the business of registering domain names. This domain registration information is publicly available to any web user. E-mail addresses may be gathered from the actual website, or from domain registration information.

    If the contact information for your site is wrong, or you would like to have it unlisted in the Alexa service, you can change it at http://www.alexa.com/edit/. Once there, simply enter your URL and follow the instructions. Please note that it can take up to a week for these changes to take effect.

  • How do I contact Alexa Support?

    To contact Alexa Support simply post a message in the Alexa Forums. We read and respond forum posts on a regular basis. Here is how.

    1. If you can't find the answer here in the FAQs, check one of the Help Forums here.
    2. Look for a topic that is relevant to your question and click on it.
    3. If you don't see an appropriate topic, click the "Post a new topic" button, otherwise click the "Post a reply" button.

    If you do not have an account with Alexa it will ask you to create an account first.

  • Do Alexa personnel read/review/respond to forum posts?

    The forums are intended as a resource for you to ask questions, find answers and help others in the community. While Alexa personnel read and monitor the forums on a regular basis we may not respond to all questions in the forums. Your best bet for getting help is to try the forums and the FAQs.

  • Does Alexa have a privacy policy?

    Yes, Alexa Internet has a Privacy Policy. Your use of the service is subject to this policy. Please review this policy at http://www.alexa.com/help/privacy and the Terms of Use at http://www.alexa.com/help/terms for details about the information we collect and how we use it.

    You are required to agree to the terms of that Privacy Policy and Terms of Use as a condition of downloading the Alexa Toolbar and/or using the Alexa service.

  • Can you update my site's Online Since information?

    We get our Online Since information from public sources. If we do not have it displayed for a site, it means that we have not yet obtained it. We may do so in the future.

    Online Since data does not affect traffic statistics in any way.

    If you request an update, please include the URL of a registry page for your site that displays its creation/registration date.

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Data Services

  • Can I get a list of top sites using web services?

    The Alexa Top Sites ( http://aws.amazon.com/alexatopsites/ ) web service provides programmatic access to top sites data. The top 1,000,000 sites list can also be downloaded directly from Alexa at http://s3.amazonaws.com/alexa-static/top-1m.csv.zip.

  • Do you have an XML feed of Alexa's data?

    Yes, you can have a reliable direct feed of Alexa data as a part of the Alexa Web Information Service offering of Amazon.com's Web Services platform. You can find information about this and other Web Services from Alexa at http://www.alexa.com/siteowners/data.

  • How do I open the free Top 1,000,000 Sites file?

    When you download the file, it will be delivered to wherever you've designated that your browser should place files you download. It can be opened directly into software like Microsoft Excel, but you will only be able to see the first roughly 65,000 sites of the million due to Excel's limitations. To view the full million, you will need to open the file with a simple text editor such as Notepad.

  • Can I see more historical data than what's on the graphs?

    Yes. You can use the Historical Traffic operation of the Alexa Web Information Service (please visit http://aws.amazon.com/awis/) to retrieve historical traffic data. The Historical Traffic action gives programmatic access to web site Traffic Rank, Reach, and Page Views going back to September 2007. Use this action to compare a web site's popularity over time, identify trends, or display your own graphs of traffic.

  • Does Alexa have a list of its top-ranked websites?

    Yes, Alexa publishes a free list of the Top 500 Web sites at http://www.alexa.com/topsites/global. We also make a CSV file available for immediate download to your computer, free of charge, of the top one million websites ranked by Alexa. A link for that download is available on the Top 500 Sites page. Lists of top sites by country or globally are available programmatically through the Alexa Top Sites Service at http://aws.amazon.com/alexatopsites/.

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Directory

  • Can I add my site to Alexa's directory?

    The directory (search by category) on Alexa.com is a copy of the Open Directory Project, located at http://www.dmoz.org. The Open Directory Project contains over 4 million sites in over 590,000 categories. The directory is maintained by over 73,000 volunteer editors around the world.

    To add your site to the Open Directory, go to http://www.dmoz.org, find the category your site should be listed in, and click the "Add URL" link at the top of the page. We highly recommend reading their submission guidelines first at http://dmoz.org/add.html.

  • Where does Alexa's directory come from?

    The directory (search by category) on Alexa.com is a copy of the Open Directory Project, located at http://www.dmoz.org. The Open Directory Project contains over 4 million sites in over 590,000 categories. The directory is maintained by over 73,000 volunteer editors around the world.

    Alexa has added the ability to sort categories by Popularity and Avg. Review Rating, and you can access all of Alexa's helpful site information just by clicking on the title of any site.

    To learn more about the Open Directory Project, please visit http://dmoz.org/about.html.

    To submit a site to the Open Directory, please visit http://dmoz.org/add.html.

  • Where do the site titles and descriptions come from?

    Site titles and descriptions are taken directly from the Open Directory ( http://www.dmoz.org ). If you would like your title or description changed, you can change it at http://www.alexa.com/edit/. While this will update your description on Alexa, you might also wish contact the Open Directory editor of the category your site is listed in, as Alexa is not the only site who takes descriptions from the Open Directory Project.

  • Can I change my listing in Alexa's directory?

    The directory (search by category) on Alexa.com is a copy of the Open Directory Project, located at http://www.dmoz.org. The Open Directory Project contains over 4 million sites in over 590,000 categories. The directory is maintained by over 73,000 volunteer editors around the world.

    To change your listing in the Open Directory, go to http://www.dmoz.org, find the category your site is listed in, and click the "Update URL" link at the top of the page.

  • Is Popularity in the directory based on Traffic Rank?

    Sites in the directory (search by category) are not sorted by the overall Traffic Rank.

    Many listings in the directory are for specific pages or subdirectories, not for entire sites. For example, in the Reference > Maps section you'll find mapquest.com (an entire site about maps) and maps.yahoo.com (one section about maps on a larger site).

    If we look at their Traffic Rank, maps.yahoo.com has a rank of 2, because it's part of yahoo.com, and mapquest.com has a rank of about 220. If we used the overall Traffic Rank to sort the list of map sites, maps.yahoo.com would be the first site listed. But the Traffic Rank of 2 isn't for maps.yahoo.com specifically, it's for all the traffic to all the pages on yahoo.com. We think that's not the best comparison if you're looking for a map site.

    We think that if you're looking for sites about maps, you want to know whether mapquest.com is more popular than Yahoo's map section, maps.yahoo.com. The Popularity sorting in the directory is designed to answer that question. We use the same basic traffic ranking technology (a combination of users and page views) but apply it only to the traffic for that specific listing. When we do this, we find out that mapquest.com does indeed receive more traffic than the pages contained in maps.yahoo.com.

    To find out the Traffic Rank of any site in the directory, just click the name of the site and you'll be taken to the Site Info page for the site. You'll find the Traffic Rank near the top of the page, just below the site's description.

    For more information about how we calculate a site's overall Traffic Rank, please see traffic_learn_more.

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Merging Site Listings (Aliasing)

  • Why is another site listed as the owner of my site?

    When Alexa crawls the Web, we merge listings for sites that we think have the same content. When we merge two or more sites, we combine their traffic to form one ranking and list them under the domain with the most traffic. With tens of millions of domains on the Internet, our automated procedures for determining which hosts are serving the same content may be incorrect and/or out-of-date.

    If your site has been merged with another site incorrectly, you can use our Site Information Editor at http://www.alexa.com/edit/dealias to notify us about the error. Additionally, you can post about it in the forum.

    If you would like us to merge two (or more) site listings together, they must have the same content. That means they must display or redirect to the exact same content. When we merge statistics and listings, one site must be marked as the primary domain. Only primary domains carry their traffic history and Traffic Rank into a merged listing, although going forward both site primary and secondary domains contribute whatever data we observe for them to the same listing. In the case of redirected sites, the destination domain will be the primary domain for the listing.

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Partner Data

  • Jigsaw: What is the Jigsaw information and where does it come from?

    That information is provided by our partner, Jigsaw.com. Jigsaw has provided Alexa with data shown in the Jigsaw section of the Contact Info tab of our Site Info pages, including estimated number of employees, type of ownership, stock ticker symbol, and annual revenue information.

    While the Contact Info that we display on the Site Info section of the website can be updated or deleted using the Self-service tools, information on employees, ownership, revenue, or ticker is obtained from Jigsaw.com and must be corrected on their website.

    Additionally, any Jigsaw data resides at Jigsaw.com and cannot be updated via Alexa.

    Please visit http://www.jigsaw.com/ for details.

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Related Links

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    How are Related Links determined?

    Alexa Internet uses crawling, archiving, categorizing, and data mining techniques to build the Related Links lists for millions of Web URLs. One technique used is to analyze links on the crawled pages to find related sites. The day-to-day use of the Alexa service and Related Links by all Alexa users also helps build and refine the data. By looking at high-level trends within the millions of URL "paths" created by Alexa users, we can deduce relationships between Web sites.

    For example, if many users go directly from site A to site B, the two sites are likely to be related. Next, all the URLs are checked to make sure they are live links. This process removes links that would take you to pages that don't exist (404 errors), as well as any links to servers that aren't available to the general Internet population, such as servers that are no longer active or are behind firewalls.

    Finally, once all of the relationships are established and the links are checked, the top Related Links for each URL are automatically chosen by looking at the strength of the relationship between the sites. Alexa Internet recrawls the Web on a regular basis and rebuilds the data to pull in new sites and to refine the relationships between the existing sites. New sites with strong relationships to a site will automatically appear in the Related Links list for that site by displacing any sites with weaker relationships.

    Please note that since the relationships between sites are based on strength, Related Links lists are not necessarily balanced. Site A may appear in the list for Site B, but Site B may not be in the list for Site A. Generally, this happens when the number of sites with strong relationships is greater than ten, or when sites do not have similar enough content.

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Removals

  • What should I do if I don't want Alexa to crawl my site?

    Alexa does not wish to crawl anything you want to remain private. All you have to do is tell us. How? By using a simple robots.txt file. Robots.txt files are the most widely used standard on the Web for telling crawlers where they should and should not go on your site. All major crawlers respect these robots.txt files, including those from Google, MSN, Yahoo!, etc.. There is extensive information about how to create a robots.txt file on our site at our For Webmasters help page at http://www.alexa.com/help/webmasters.

  • Why is Alexa crawling my site?

    Alexa is a free Web navigation service that works with people's browsers and accompanies them as they surf, providing useful information about the sites they are viewing and suggesting related sites.

    Alexa Internet is crawling the contents of the publicly available portion of the World Wide Web to provide this free service to Internet users.

    For more information on why we crawl and how to exclude our robots from crawling your site at the html and server levels, please visit our Technology page at http://www.alexa.com/company/technology.

  • How can I request that Alexa crawl my Web site?

    To have your site included in Alexa's crawl of the Web, simply make a request using the form at the bottom of the For Webmasters page at page http://www.alexa.com/help/webmasters.

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Reviews

  • Responding to and removing Reviews

    If a Review is in violation of the Guidelines (please see http://www.alexa.com/tour/guidelines to read the Guidelines), then it will be removed.

    A Review may be negative and not be in violation of the Guidelines. If the Review is not in violation, then it will not be removed.

    Site owners and webmasters who have claimed their sites (the "Own My Site" feature) in Alexa may comment on Reviews for their sites. Simply log in to your Alexa account, go to the Reviews page for your site, and click on the Respond link next to the Review to which you want to respond. Responses to Reviews must also adhere to the Guidelines.

    You can read more about it, and about Own My Site on our blog:

    http://blog.alexa.com/2009/10/webmasters-own-your-site.html

  • Reviews

    As an Alexa user, you can Rate and write Reviews on the sites you visit.

    All you need is an Alexa account.

    You can Review a site from its Alexa Site Info page. Just click on the 'Reviews' tab and click on the 'Review this site' button.

    If you're not already logged in, a dialog box will open up so you can log in to your Alexa account, or register for a new account. Once you're logged in, just write your Review (be sure to follow the Guidelines!), post it, and voil'!: You've got a new Review.

    To delete a Review, make sure you are logged in. Then go to the Review in question, click on the Delete link, and then confirm that you want to delete the Review. The Review should be deleted.

    What if you don't have an Alexa account, but love Facebook? You can log on with Facebook Connect, instead.

    An Alexa Toolbar helps make it even easier for you, but you don't need one.

    And if you do have an Alexa Toolbar? Just click the Reviews button on your Toolbar and you'll be able to write a Review for the site you're visiting. It all starts with just a click on your Toolbar.

  • How do I delete a review I wrote?

    To delete a review you've written, just log in to Alexa, find your review, and click on the Delete link.

  • Reviews guidelines

    Guidelines for writing Reviews can be found at:

    http://www.alexa.com/tour/guidelines

    Please note that in order to keep the Reviews system free of spam and usable for everyone, we actively delete reviews that violate the review guidelines.

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Site Audit

  • How does the Site Audit work?

    You can get started at the Alexa Site Audit page at http://www.alexa.com/siteaudit.

    You'll need to log into your Alexa account (or via Facebook Connect). Once youve done that, you can make a Site Audit request. Our crawler will visit your and go over it in depth, analyzing its structure, meta data, and links. This is a comprehensive crawl, and it is also "polite"--we don't want to hammer a site with barrage of requests. Depending on the size of your site, this can take up to 12 hours. Once the Site Audit is complete, we compile a report for you, complete with an Overall Grade, individual grades on the most important aspects of your site, and a list of critical recommendations for improving your site.

  • What is the Alexa Site Audit?

    The Site Audit is an assessment that you can run on your site that identifies your sites strengths and weaknesses. This allows you to plan your improvements more strategically, and target the areas that need most development.

 

Site Widgets

  • How can I show my Alexa ranking to my site's users?

    Alexa offers widgets you can put on your website. There are several different layouts at: http://www.alexa.com/siteowners/widgets

  • Why is the rank shown in my Widget wrong?

    Alexa's widgets can sometimes be a day or two behind the rank seen on the Alexa Web site. Wait a day and the rank should change.

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Sites Linking In

  • Sites Linking In - but I have more than that!

    There are a few possible explanations for cases where you are aware of links pointing to your site and Alexa doesnt list them:

    First, please understand that our list is not exhaustive.

    Second, please also note that the Alexa Traffic Rank is in no way related to Sites Linking In.

    Now, to address the point in question--we might not have crawled and indexed the links yet; we try to update them quarterly, but there may at times be an indefinite delay. Additionally, these are updated according to our own internal crawl priorities, and not all sites are weighted the same.

    This means that there are some sites that will not be updated soon because they aren't priorities in our crawl. Unfortunately, resources are limited.

    We also choose not to show links pointing in from link farms or other similar search engine placement mechanisms, like links that are obviously link exchanges.

    Also keep in mind that we are reporting sites linking in, not individual pages linking in. That is, if a Site A has 3 links from Site B, 8 links from Site C, and 1 link from Site D, we are only going to display 3 Sites Linking In, NOT 12 Sites Linking In.

    Finally, if there are links pointing in that exist on pages that have no traffic, we do not show them. We prefer to show links in that are actually being clicked. Because there are many sites on the Web that show many more links in to sites, we feel that our users appreciate our emphasizing quality over quantity.

    The best way to make sure Alexa knows about and will update your Sites Linking In is to actually follow those links to your site with the Alexa Toolbar visible. We then know not only that the link exists, but that our users are actually clicking it.

  • How do you determine the "Sites Linking In" Statistic?

    The Sites Pointing In statistic is compiled from our crawl of the Web. When we find a site that has a link to yours, that is one Site Linking In. Sites Linking In are calculated on a "site to site" basis. This means that if ten sites have links to your site, that is ten Sites Linking In. But if one site has ten links to your site, that is only one Site Linking In. This statistic is updated quarterly.

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Toolbar(s)

  • Is the Alexa Toolbar spyware?

    No, the Alexa Toolbar is not spyware.

    Spyware is defined as hidden software that is installed on your computer without your knowledge. It generally collects your personal information for advertising purposes, and provides you with no value in return. If you would like a more complete definition of the term spyware, please see http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/spyware.html.

    The Alexa Toolbar is only installed when a user chooses to download it - it is not installed without your knowledge. The Toolbar is not hidden, it is prominently displayed at the top of your browser. In order to fill the Toolbar with relevant information, the URL of the page you're on is transmitted to us and we return related information for that page. We have an easily accessed privacy policy which is presented at the time of download and in the Alexa drop down menu in your Toolbar. The Alexa Toolbar can be turned off at any time. Turning the Toolbar off prevents any information from being transmitted to us. Alexa never attempts to identify individual users, and you are not required to enter any personal information to use the Toolbar.

    If you feel that the features of the Alexa Toolbar are not of value to you, the Toolbar is easily uninstalled using Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel of Windows, or from the Add-Ons Manager in your web browser.

  • What is the Alexa Toolbar?

    The Alexa Toolbar is a free Web search and navigation service that works with your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome) and accompanies you as you surf, providing useful information about the sites you are viewing without interrupting your Web browsing.

    With the Alexa Toolbar you can:

    • Search the Web and other resources directly from your Toolbar.
    • See how much traffic a website gets in comparison to others.
    • Surf more efficiently with Related Links for each page.
    • Share opinions about sites with other users.
    For more information, please take the Alexa Tour.

    To go to the Alexa Toolbar download page, please visit:

    http://www.alexa.com/toolbar

  • I tried to install Sparky but nothing happened. What now?

    Sometimes, Firefox will place a warning bar at the top of the browser to warn you that you are installing software. It might be necessary to click on the button in that bar and "Allow" Alexa to install Sparky, then click the Install button again.

  • How do I uninstall the Alexa Toolbar?

    All versions of the Alexa Toolbar may be uninstalled using your computer's Add/Remove Programs feature. Open your Windows Start menu, go to Settings, click on Control Panel, and then double click on Add/Remove Programs. Click on Alexa and then click the remove button. The next time you open a new browser window, the Toolbar should be gone.

    If you have trouble uninstalling Alexa Toolbars using these methods, please take a moment to try our alternate method at Toolbar Uninstall to uninstall the Toolbar:

    Alternative Method:
    If the Alexa Toolbar's uninstall feature did not work as expected, one or more of your Toolbar files may be missing or corrupted.

    The following process will uninstall Alexa Toolbars from Internet Explorer.

    Please click on this link: http://www.alexa.com/toolbar/alexa_uninstall.inf (You must be using Internet Explorer when you click this link.)

    Save the file to your desktop (Save to Disk and save in Desktop). Do not open the file.

    Find the 'alexa_uninstall' icon on your desktop, right-click on it and select 'install.' It will seem like nothing has happened.

    Please close all your open Internet Explorer windows. When you re-open an Internet Explorer window, the Alexa Toolbar should be uninstalled. You can then throw away the alexa_uninstall.inf file.

  • Can I customize an Alexa Toolbar for my site and visitors?

    Unfortunately, we no longer offer custom Toolbars to our users. However, you are welcome to promote the Alexa Toolbar to your users. The download is free, and we have several advertising banners you can use. Read more about the Toolbar at http://www.alexa.com/siteowners/toolbar.

  • What browsers does Alexa have toolbars for?

    Toolbars are available for Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.

    Additionally, we continue to offer an Add-on for Firefox (called Sparky) that installs on your Firefox's status bar.

    To install the Alexa Toolbar for Firefox, or to install Sparky, simply visit Alexa.com with a Firefox browser and click on the "Toolbar" link. For the Toolbar, click on Install Alexa Toolbar; for Sparky, click on Install as Statusbar.

    At this time we have no toolbars that are compatible with Opera or Safari.

    Here are the system requirements:

    Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer:
    - Operating Systems - Windows XP and Windows Vista and Windows 7
    - Browsers - Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer

    Alexa Toolbar for Firefox: Firefox version 3.0.9 or newer

    Sparky for Firefox: Firefox version 3.0.0 or newer. Works on all operating systems that can run Firefox.

    Alexa Toolbar for Chrome: Chrome 5 or newer

  • I download the Toolbar but don't see it. Where did it go?

    If you have Windows 2000 or XP and you're having trouble installing the Alexa Toolbar, please check to see if you have administrator privileges on your computer. With these two operating systems, you must have administrator privileges to install our software.

    If you do have administrator privileges, please go to the View menu and select Toolbars to be sure Alexa is checked. If this does not cause the Toolbar to appear, please try restarting your browser (you may want to bookmark this FAQ first for future reference). If this doesn't work either, please try restarting your computer and then opening a new browser window.

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    Why do I get "No data" on all the sites I visit?

    Your IP address may be blocked.

    We block IP addresses that seem to generate an excessive/abusive amount of requests to our servers--much more than can usually occur from legitimate use of the Toolbar or from visiting our site.

    This blocking is automated, and sometimes innocent IP addresses are blocked. We can review and manually unblock affected addresses.

    If you have an address that has many Toolbar users, or is sent through a proxy, the actions of another user may trigger the block. Likewise, the aggregate usage may look like abusive behavior to our system.

    We regret any inconvenience this measure to protect our servers from abusive activity may cause you. We strive to protect our service and make it available to the greatest number of users.

    If you experience this kind of trouble, please contact us with your IP address. If you do not know your IP address, you may use www.whatismyip.com to determine it. We'll be happy to unblock it if possible.

  • How do I uninstall Sparky / Alexa Toolbar for Firefox?

    To uninstall Sparky, our Alexa Toolbar add-on for Firefox, simply follow these steps:

    1. Open Firefox and go to the Tools drop-down menu
    2. Select Add-ons
    3. Select Alexa Sparky / Alexa Toolbar
    4. Click the Uninstall button to remove it from your Firefox browser
    5. Firefox will ask you to restart your browser; please do so

    Once you open Firefox again, Sparky / Alexa Toolbar should be removed.

  • Custom error handling & location bar search with the Toolbar

    Custom error handling and custom location bar search are optional features we developed to help users gracefully recover from errors they encounter while surfing. You can disable them at any time. (See below for directions how.)

    With custom error handling enabled, when you would otherwise experience some kind of error (404 Page Not Found, DNS Lookup Error, etc.) the Toolbar analyzes the page at the point of error and determines highly relevant alternatives. Whether you mistyped a URL or clicked on a broken link, rather than experiencing the effective dead end of an 'Error 404,' you are served relevant results intended to help you find what you were originally looking for. We preserve the broken URL you were attempting to visit, and we supplement it with links you may find useful.

    Custom location bar search works in a similar fashion. When you type a search term into your browser's location bar (whether on accident or on purpose!), you are provided with highly relevant results to help speed you on your way.

    Note that we never attempt to over-write custom error pages. If you are experiencing otherwise, please let us know and we'll correct it.

    If these features are useful to you, great! We look forward to hearing from you with any feedback you have. If you'd prefer to disable either feature, you can always selectively preserve just the toolbar functionality you want while disabling what you don't want by setting the toolbar options. Here's how:

    1. Click on the down arrow next to the Alexa logo and select Options. (Toolbar for IE only)
    2. Right-click on Sparky in the status bar and select Options. (Sparky only)
    3. Select Tools -> Add-ons to open the Add-ons window. In the Add-ons window, click on the plugin name ("Alexa Sparky" in the case of Sparky; "Alexa Toolbar" in the case of the Toolbar), and then click on Options. (both Sparky and the Toolbar for Firefox)

  • Is the Alexa Toolbar watching everything I do?

    When the Alexa Toolbar is turned on, Alexa collects and stores the URLs you visit as your Toolbar requests data to display about these URLs from our servers. These URLs may include information about the Web pages that you view, the products you purchase online, and the data you enter in online forms and search fields. (Please note: Alexa does not collect information entered into forms while you are on a secure site, so we do not record your credit card information when you are making a purchase online. You should never enter your credit card information on a non-secure site.) Although some of the information collected by the software may be personally identifiable, Alexa does not attempt to analyze Web usage data to determine the identity of any Alexa user.

    Instead, we aggregate and analyze the "usage paths" of all Alexa users so that, among other things, we can improve Alexa features such as "Related Links" by determining relationships among Web sites within those usage paths. You may review Alexa's Privacy Policy at http://www.alexa.com/help/privacy.

    You may also turn Alexa off by un-checking it in the View menu of your browser, under Toolbars. When the Toolbar is off, no information is sent to Alexa.

  • How do I keep the Alexa Toolbar from seeing my usage trails?

    If you don't want Alexa to follow your usage trails, you can turn the Alexa Toolbar off. Turning the Toolbar off prevents any information from being transmitted from your browser to Alexa.

    You may turn Alexa off by un-checking it in the View menu of your browser, under Toolbars.

    In the Alexa Toolbar itself, you can click on the Options menu by clicking on the down arrow to the right of the Alexa logo and selecting Options. Uncheck all the Web Information Features and the "Send usage stats to Alexa" option.

    In Chrome, you can select Tools, then choose Extensions, and click Disable for the Alexa Toolbar.

    You may also uninstall Alexa at any time. Please see our uninstall FAQs at Toolbar Install and Uninstall for help uninstalling.

    Your use of the Alexa service is subject to our Privacy Policy. Please review the policy at Privacy Policy.

  • What does the Wayback button do?

    There are Wayback buttons located in the Alexa Toolbar and on the Alexa Site Info pages. The Wayback Machine is a free digital library of Web sites created to preserve the history of the Internet. Clicking these buttons will take you to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org), where you can see the history of any website in their collection.

  • Why does my anti-spyware program say Alexa is a Trojan?

    We have become aware of some virus protection applications identifying a Trojan Horse associated with the Alexa Toolbar. We've learned that this is a common false positive due to the installer/uninstaller tool we use with the Alexa Toolbar. When you install the Alexa Toolbar, part of the installation is actually the installer itself. (This remains on your system in order for you to keep the uninstaller.) It is this component of the Alexa Toolbar package that is detected by these applications.The false positive is documented on the website of the manufacturer of this Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS).

    The Alexa Toolbar installation does not contain a Trojan Horse virus and is safe to use. Despite that this has been documented as a false positive, some applications still erroneously identify the NSIS component of the Alexa Toolbar and other software as a threat. If yours is among them, you might wish to notify the manufacturers of your security software that they are erroneously detecting safe installs as threats.

  • Alexa Toolbar New Updates Alert

    The Alexa Toolbar regular checks to see if there is an updated version available for download. If there is, a small alert window will discreetly pop up on the bottom right corner of your screen to let you know.

  • Unlocking your Alexa Toolbar

    For INTERNET EXPLORER:

    Click on the View pull-down menu of your browser and select Toolbars. Then check or uncheck Lock the Toolbars. When your Toolbars are unlocked, you can move them around your browsers chrome and place them where you want them to be. Then you can lock them into place.

    For FIREFOX:

    Click on the View pull-down menu of your browser and select Toolbars. Select Alexa Toolbar to uncheck or check it.

    For GOOGLE CHROME:

    You can Disable the Alexa Traffic Rank extension for Chrome. That will remove it from the browser's chrome.

    1. Click on the Customize Chrome button (the wrench)
    2. Select Tools to bring up the scroll-over menu
    3. Click on Extensions
    4. Click on Disable

  • Alexa Toolbar Options

    The Toolbar's Option menu allows you to configure your Toolbar.

    Click on the down arrow button to the right of the Alexa button on your Toolbar and select Options.

    You can choose to disable Web Information Features, to Enable DNS error handler (checked by default), or to disable the Send usage stats to Alexa function.

    Disabling Web Information Features will prevent the Site Info and Review Stars from displaying on the Toolbar.

    Normally, if you mistype an URL, or enter one that doesnt exist, you get an error page. With the new Toolbar, enabling DNS error handler allows the Toolbar to show you an error page that gives you more information to help you find the page you were seeking.

  • Can I hide the Alexa Toolbar?

    Yes, Alexa Toolbar 6.5 and higher can be hidden. Click on View at the top of your browser window, go to Toolbars, and click on Alexa to hide it. To show the Toolbar again, just go back and click Alexa to open it again. When you hide the Toolbar, all new browser windows will have the Toolbar hidden as well. Note that when the toolbar is hidden it remains inactive and does not communicate with the Alexa servers.

    Previous versions of the Alexa Toolbar cannot be hidden.

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Traffic

  • How are Alexa's traffic rankings determined?

    Alexa's traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users and data collected from other, diverse sources over a rolling 3 month period. A site's ranking is based on a combined measure of reach and pageviews. Reach is determined by the number of unique Alexa users who visit a site on a given day. Pageviews are the total number of Alexa user URL requests for a site. However, multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single pageview. The site with the highest combination of users and pageviews is ranked #1.

    Alexa's traffic rankings are for top level domains only (e.g. domain.com). We do not provide separate rankings for subpages within a domain (e.g. http://www.domain.com/subpage.html ) or subdomains (e.g. subdomain.domain.com) unless we are able to automatically identify them as personal home pages or blogs, like those hosted on Geocities and Tripod. If a site is identified as a personal home page or blog, its traffic ranking will have an asterisk (*) next to it: Personal Page Avg. Traffic Rank: 3,456*. Personal pages are ranked on the same scale as a regular domain, so a personal page ranked 3,456* is the 3,456th most popular page among Alexa users.

    For more detailed information about Alexa's traffic rankings, please visit http://www.alexa.com/help/traffic_learn_more.

  • Why do I get "No data" on all the sites I visit?

    Your IP address may be blocked.

    We block IP addresses that seem to generate an excessive/abusive amount of requests to our servers--much more than can usually occur from legitimate use of the Toolbar or from visiting our site.

    This blocking is automated, and sometimes innocent IP addresses are blocked. We can review and manually unblock affected addresses.

    If you have an address that has many Toolbar users, or is sent through a proxy, the actions of another user may trigger the block. Likewise, the aggregate usage may look like abusive behavior to our system.

    We regret any inconvenience this measure to protect our servers from abusive activity may cause you. We strive to protect our service and make it available to the greatest number of users.

    If you experience this kind of trouble, please contact us with your IP address. If you do not know your IP address, you may use www.whatismyip.com to determine it. We'll be happy to unblock it if possible.

  • How can I show my Alexa ranking to my site's users?

    Alexa offers four different ways to show your site's users up-to-date traffic information.

    The Alexa Certified Traffic Rank shows your users the Traffic Ranking number for your site.

    Alexa Certified Site Stats shows your users your Traffic Rank, Links In, and Review Stars.

    The Alexa Certified Traffic Graph shows your users from 1 month to 1 year of Traffic History for your site.

    The Alexa Certified Traffic Comparison graph shows your site's Traffic History plotted against the Traffic History of one or more other sites of your choosing.

    We offer several different layouts at: http://www.alexa.com/siteowners/widgets

  • Sites ranked beyond 100,000 - how reliable are the stats?

    There are limits to statistics based on the data available.

    Alexa's rankings are based on the past three months of global traffic according to our diverse data sources, including the Alexa Toolbar, and are updated daily. Alexa doesn't have access to any site's private usage logs. For more detailed information about Alexa's traffic rankings, you can visit:

    http://alexa.com/help/traffic_learn_more

    Now, as mentioned above, Alexa's traffic rankings are based on the past three months of global traffic according to our diverse data sources, and are updated daily. A site's ranking is based on a combined measure of Reach and Page Views. Reach is the percentage of unique internet users who visit a site. Page Views are the average number of user URL requests for a site. However, multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single Page View. The site with the highest combination of users and Page Views is ranked #1. Additionally, we employ data normalization to correct for biases that may occur in our data.

    Sites with relatively low measured traffic will not be accurately ranked by Alexa. Our data comes from many various sources, including our Alexa users; however, we do not receive enough data from these sources to make rankings beyond 100,000 statistically meaningful. (However, on the flip side of that, the closer a site gets to #1, the more reliable its rank.) This means that, for example, the difference in traffic between a site ranked 1,000,000 and a site ranked 2,000,000 has low statistical significance. Sites ranked 100,000+ may be subject to large ranking swings due to the scarcity of data for those sites.

    Additionally, we discuss the Long Tail phenomenon and how it relates to sites ranked more than 100,000 on the Alexa blog at:

    What's Going On With My Alexa Rank?
    http://blog.alexa.com/2010/02/whats-goi ... -rank.html

  • How reliable are your traffic rankings?

    The traffic data is based on the set of Alexa Toolbar users and traffic data obtained from other, diverse sources, which may not be a representative sample of the global Internet population. Known biases include (but are likely not limited to) the following:

    In some cases traffic data may also be adversely affected by our "site" definitions. With tens of millions of hosts on the Internet, our automated procedures for determining which hosts are serving the "same" content may be incorrect and/or out-of-date. Similarly, the determinations of domains and home pages may not always be accurate.

    Sites with relatively low traffic will not be accurately ranked by Alexa. Alexa's data comes from a large sample of several million Alexa Toolbar users and other sources of traffic data; however, the size of the Web and concentration of most Web users on the most popular sites make it difficult to accurately determine the ranking of sites with fewer than 1,000 monthly users.

    Generally, Traffic Rankings of 100,000+ should be regarded as not reliable. Conversely, the closer a site gets to #1, the more reliable its rank.

  • How can I see the history of a site's traffic ranking?

    To view historical traffic graphs, go to the Site Info page for a site and click on the Traffic Stats tab above the graph.

    These graphs are interactive: you can change the range of time covered by the graph from seven days to the maximum amount of historical traffic data available; you can specify whether you're interested in Traffic Rank, Reach, or Pageviews, or other data, all by using the buttons above the graph.

    Additionally, you can compare up to five sites using the text fields below the graph.

    The traffic graph only charts daily rankings that are better than 100,000.

  • Why doesn't Alexa have a Traffic Rank?

    You may have noticed: we do not offer traffic details for Alexa.com.

    As you probably already know, Alexa's traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users, and other sources, over a rolling three month period. A site's ranking is based on a combined measure of Reach and Pageviews.

    Our Toolbar users come to Alexa very frequently to read Site Info pages, check out Related Links, and use our Directory or search features, all in the daily, typical use of the Toolbar. Given those facts, and given how the rankings work, it makes most sense to take Alexa out of consideration, rather than reporting ourselves to be #1 when this is not the case.

    Essentially, it would be like trying to see the top of the mountain when you're standing on the summit ' it doesn't work. Instead of skewing the rankings, the more elegant solution is to remove ourselves from the equation.

    However, please note that we maintain the other common information found on the Site Info pages ' we list our Speed statistic, Related Links, and Sites Linking In.

    In short, we have nothing to hide about our Traffic Rank; we simply don't want to skew the rankings by including ourselves.

  • Can the Alexa rankings be cheated?

    Our traffic engineers constantly review the traffic data we receive from our users and remove any attempts at artificial manipulation. Our methods evolve as the cheating does, and on the whole, our methods are successful.

  • Why is there an asterisk after some traffic rankings?

    An asterisk (*) after a traffic ranking indicates that the site is a personal page. Personal pages do not have their own domain (e.g. domain.com), but are recognized by Alexa as being separate sites from the domains they are hosted on. Generally these are personal pages like those hosted on Myspace.com or Tripod.com.

    To learn more about our traffic rankings, please visit http://www.alexa.com/help/traffic_learn_more to see how they're determined.

  • Why is my Average Traffic Rank higher than on the graph?

    The Trends graph shows you a site's daily traffic ranking charted over time. A daily traffic ranking tells you where the site was relative to other sites on a single day. In contrast, the Average Traffic Ranking shown in the Alexa Toolbar and elsewhere in the service is calculated from 3 months of data, instead of day by day. The Average Traffic Ranking tells you where a site is relative to other sites over a three month period.

    Daily traffic rankings benefit sites with sporadically high traffic, while the three month Average Traffic Ranking benefits sites with consistent traffic. Since we feel that consistent traffic is a better indication of a site's value, we've chosen to use the three month Average Traffic Ranking to represent a site's overall popularity. We use the daily traffic ranking in the Trends Graph because it allows you to see the fluctuations in traffic more clearly.

    It is possible for a site's 3 month Average Traffic Ranking to be higher than any single ranking shown in the Trends Graph. The number that's plotted on the graph is a daily ranking, and on any given day there may be other sites that temporarily shoot up higher in the rankings. But if one site has consistent traffic performance while hundreds of other sites have sporadic performance, the consistent site may end up ranked above them when you look at a three month average. A good analogy is a 4 day golf tournament. If a different player comes in first at each match, but you come in second at all four matches, you can end up winning the tournament.

  • Why doesn't Alexa match up with my Google Analytics?

    First, it's important to understand that Alexa and Google Analytics look at and measure two very different things.

    Google Analytics are meant to help webmasters learn about the visitors to their particular site, where they come from, which pages they visit, etc. It is an excellent tool for looking at one's particular site. It's like using a microscope on a site.

    Alexa looks at traffic patterns across the web as a whole. Our traffic data are based on the past three months of global traffic according to our data sources, primarily our community of Alexa Toolbar users. This helps us get an excellent portrait of how traffic is shaped across the web. It's a great "big picture" analysis, like using a satellite in orbit to look at weather patterns across the globe. It is an excellent tool for comparing sites and understanding them in relation to one another, but it is not meant to serve as a tool for analyzing visitors' behavior in depth at a particular site in the manner of Google Analytics.

    This is especially true for sites that are ranked worse than 100,000. We have limited data available for such sites, and because of that, the statistics we are able to generate will not be as robust or reliable as they are for sites approaching #1 on the list. The closer to #1, the more data we have, and that means the better our statistics.

  • Do I need to register my site to get Alexa stats?

    No.

    There is no need to register your site for Alexa to report traffic statistics for it. We report on all sites for which we have the data. We get our data from our own sources, primarily from our Alexa Toolbar users. Based on that, we are able to create a comprehensive big-picture view of the web as a whole. If we have data on your site from our users, we will report it. If not, we will display a notation of "No data," which means that in the last three months, none of our users visited your site.

    If you wish, you can verify and claim your site on Alexa, which will enable you to update your site's contact information at your convenience and to post site owner's responses to Reviews left for your site. Claiming a site does NOT affect Traffic Rank or other statistics in any way.

    You might also wish to submit your site for inclusion in our crawl of the web. You can do so by filling out the form at the bottom of the For Webmasters page, here: http://www.alexa.com/help/webmasters.

    If you would like your site included in Alexa's Directory, you should have it included in the Open Directory, http://www.dmoz.org/. Our Directory is a modified copy of theirs, and updates there will be reflected at Alexa, too. Many other sites use the Open Directory, too, so including your site there is a good idea in general.

  • Why does Alexa say my visitors come from country X?

    Like all our traffic statistics, the 'Visitors by Country' figures come our diverse data sources, primarily our Alexa Toolbar users. Please note that we don't have access to any site's private usage logs. As sites' Traffic Ranks grow farther away from 1, the amount and quality of the data lessens. Past 100,000, we have a very limited amount of data.

    We display the site's Traffic Rank in the country where the greatest proportion of its users are located (based on the Alexa Toolbar). This might not be the same country in which the website is located.

    Based on the information we have available, our users' origin countries are as we describe.

    If we do not display a By Country Traffic Rank for a site, it means that we do not have sufficient data to do so. Keep in mind that the standard Alexa Traffic Rank is the GLOBAL Traffic Rank, not the regional one. The regional Traffic Rank is extra, and only displayed if there is enough data.

    Please see this FAQ for more details on sites ranked beyond 100,000:

    Sites ranked beyond 100,000 - how reliable are the stats?
    http://www.alexa.com/help/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1282

  • Does Alexa favor Alexa-friendly sites in search results?

    No. Alexa's search results are ordered by traffic rank and by query relevance.

  • Why isn't country X in the Top Sites By Country list?

    The Top Sites by Country list is generated automatically. When there is enough data from our sources within a country, that country is added to the list. If there is not enough data to publish a country-specific list, the sites within that country are still ranked in our system in our general worldwide basis.

  • Where does Alexa get its search results?

    Alexa's search results are provided by our own site screener engine. The Alexa website provides information about websites and our search engine is geared toward finding sites, not documents.

  • Does Alexa's search offer unique search options?

    You can fine-tune your search experience on Alexa using the Advanced Search options at the top of the search results page. You can control the language of results, and adult content filtering using this tool.

  • How do I read the Audience data?

    The graphs on the Audience tab of our Site Info pages display how popular a given site is, relative to the general internet population.

    Red means that a group is UNDER-represented relative to the general internet population. Green means that a group is OVER-represented relative to the general internet population.

    The size of the bar illustrates the relative strength of the under- or over-representation.

    (The Audience tab was formerly called the Demographics tab.)

  • Subdomains — Where Visitors Go

    In general, subdomains are not ranked separately from their domains. The only major exception to this is the case of blogs or personal pages that are hosted on a recognized blog/host site. For example, blogs on blogspot.com or livejournal.com will usually have their own Traffic Ranks, provided we have sufficient data for them. If we don't have enough traffic data, we might still show the host site's Rank.

    When we show the subdomain ranked under its domain, it may also be listed in the "Where people go on X" section of the Traffic Stats tab of that site's Site Info page. However, not all subdomains of a site might be listed here. We only list those for which we have data available (based on our Alexa Toolbar users). The list of subdomains may change over time, as more or less data is available.

    Note that even if a particular subdomain is not listed in the "Where Visitors Go on X" list, traffic to that subdomain is still counted as part of your site's traffic.

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