Features and Benefits of the Alexa Rank Comparison Tool

Alexa is a toolbar that, once installed, collects browsing behavior data. From there, the data is transmitted to the Alexa website where it is analyzed and stored. The company provides web traffic reporting of its toolbar users and other data sources to determine website rankings. Its metrics include pageviews per user, time spent on site, bounce rates, demographics, clickstream and search traffic statistics.

The Alexa Traffic History Graph allows users to analyze their traffic rankings over a three month period of data aggregated from Alexa toolbar users, using a combined measure of users and page views. Reach is a measure of the number of users expressed as a percentage of site visitors to that of global internet users. Three month changes reflect the site’s current reach with its reach from three months previous.

Developer Shed Network’s Alexa Rank Comparison tool is free and can be embedded within a webpage. By entering a URL and selecting the parameters of daily reach or rank, and the time span from 3 months to 2 years, it will display a graph with that information.

 

First Step to the Alexa Rank Tool

Daily Reach Alexa Rank Screenshot of the Tool

Trend Checker Screenshot of the Graph

The tool is useful in that it is handy for a quick look at the Alexa reach and/or ranking information for a given period of time without having to visit the Alexa website. It does not include the range of site information available on Alexa, however, such as specific site pages most visited, where visitors are coming from, and average load time along with the other metrics offered like bounce percentage, time on site, etc.

Since it allows for up to ten domains to be entered, it was presumed that all of the domain rankings would be reflected individually in the graph. Only one result is returned, as shown above. When compared to a test of only the first domain alone, the results were identical, indicating that only one domain, the first entered, is considered. It makes one wonder of the purpose of entering several domains. To compare rankings for several domains, it is necessary to run each indivually and compare multiple graphs.