Alexa versus Compete.com
I’m always trying to find ways to track how Oshyn.com ‘s traffic is performing against our competition. A few weeks ago I noticed a big change in our rankings on Alexa.com (down). I looked at our competition and one of the biggest competitors was no longer ranking in the US! Weird!
So I decided to check out Compete.com. Compete like Alexa relies on methods similar to Nielsen: an estimation based on visitors opting-in for research. What I found on Compete.com was that all of the FREE metrics (the only metrics I reviewed) were nearly identical in their ebbs and lows to what our internal metrics show: the actual numbers are FAR lower. So it seems that compete is far more consistent with our internal trends making it possibly a more reliable tool than Alexa.com.
So I did some hunting on Compete.com to try to better understand their methodology. According to Compete.com “Compete does not rely on cookies which are often used by log files and web metrics firms. Because of cookie deletion, return visits by the same person (with deleted cookies) wrongly appear to be a new unique visitor. In addition, if cookie implementation on the server side is done incorrectly with vague or inconsistent definitions, visitors will be overcounted.” It seems Alexa does gather info from Local Logs.
Compete.com Data Methodology Table copied from Compete.com
So for now, I will be cross-checking Alexa and Compete metrics to determine if I can rely on one to give a clear picture of how my competitor’s websites are performing against Oshyn.
I’d love you to hear your input!
Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments
Tags: alexa, alexa.com, analytics, compete.com, marketing analytics, online analytics, traffic analytics, web analytics, web metrics
Kimberly-
As someone who appreciates online analytics, I thought you might be interested in Heardable.com, an online brand optimization platform that is complementary to Alexa and Compete, yet different in many ways.
Heardable helps companies measure how well they are doing against their competition in six key areas:
1. Actionable: Do you make it easy for your site visitors to engage & transact with you?
2. Measurable: Do you monitor your site via web analytics software and/or advertising tracking beacons?
3. Portable: Have you optimized your site experience for the major mobile web browsers?
4. Searchable: Is your site SEO optimized, with an emphasis on local search?
5. Shareable: Does your site make it easy to send and receive data feeds in multiple formats?
6. Sociable: Does your brand actively participate in social media across a span of external services?
I just scanned Oshyn.com and your brand scored 348/1000. Not bad, but you could improve a bit here and there. Let me know if you’d like to be introduced to one of our company founders for a deeper understanding on how the platform works. We’re in BETA right now so all our online tools are free. We’d love to hear and feedback you or your team might have!
Cheers,
-Porsche
Social Media Marketing Manager, Heardable, Inc.
http://www.heardable.com
marketing@heardable.com
I checked out heardable but it didn’t find many of the components on our website that exist. I guess this is why it is still in beta?
KM-
When you get to http://www.Heardable.com, there is a search tool at the top of the home page. Simply enter your company’s URL, Oshyn.com, and press GET FREE SCORE. A modal window will appear with all your results. Just scroll down to see everything.
Alternatively, you can click the Brand Directory navigation button. Once on the brand directory page, enter Oshyn.com into the Search Brand Profile tool and click SEARCH. Your results will appear within a few seconds.
Hope this helps!
-Porsche
Right – but there are many aspects that gave us a low grade that are tools we would not likely use. For example no ecommerce transactions are done on our website, so we would we really need an authority certificate? That would look lame. I think our badge of honor from alltop.com is more valuable than a BBB logo or something like that. So to me, the results your product showed will give us a low grade. I’m not sure its a valuable scoring system the way it is now…but that’s just my opinion. For now I think I’ll stick to grader.com because it makes sense.