Are Alexa.com traffic rankings reliable for Indian Websites?
There is clearly a dearth of information about website traffic data for Indian websites. I have often tried to search for any publicly available sources of information about data for Indian websites (reach, penetration, page views etc) but to no avail. No Indian website publicly gives out its traffic figures and there is just no external database or tracking methodology or agency.
Alexa.com (a subsidiary of Amazon.com) is widely acknowledged as the default choice for estimating website traffic ranks (specifically for US websites). There is no other source that has the credibility that Alexa has and hence their published data serves as a good reference point for webmasters or SEO companies. However, I have noticed a few Indian websites quoting Alexa data to substantiate their claims about Indian website traffic. I think this is NOT JUSTIFIED and here’s why.
Alexa.com has been around since 1996 and their web traffic data gathering/mining is based on samples collected from people using the Alexa toolbar on their computers. The Alexa toolbar has been downloaded by millions of people (this is what Alexa claims and there is no reason to disbelieve that) and the toolbar tracks the websites visited from the computer having the Alexa toolbar and relays it back to Alexa’s server for aggregation and analysis. The figures are then extrapolated for the entire web universe to generate overall website ranks. That’s perfectly reliable from a statistical perspective. And since most of Alexa’s users are likely to be in the US, it would provide reasonably good estimates about web traffic data and traffic ranks for US sites.
Now, how many Alexa toolbar users are there in India? Nobody has any idea and Alexa does not publish country wise penetration figures for their toolbar. I am a fairly heavy Internet user by Indian standards and I don’t have an Alexa toolbar (my browser has a Google toolbar currently and I have downloaded Yahoo & MSN toolbars in the past); also I don’t know or have heard of anybody in India who has an Alexa toolbar on his/her computer. Ask web savvy users around you if they have heard of Alexa. I bet they haven’t. So what does this mean? This means that since the number of Alexa toolbar users in India are negligible, insignificant Indian data is getting captured in the Alexa figures for estimating Indian website traffic. If this is true, are Indian websites justified in using Alexa data for substantiating their claims.
To get a sense of what I am driving at, check out the list of disclaimers on the Alexa website.
I have seen Indian websites use Alexa.com traffic ranks to back their own claims. Check out this banner ad that Naukri.com has on their site. 
The ad clearly mentions that the figures are based on Alexa data. As per the ad, Naukri.com has a rank of 363 worldwide and is the most frequented Indian job site. That by itself (for Naukri.com) is a great achievement. But this data does not give the correct picture. What the figure indicates beyond reasonable doubt, is that amongst Internet users in the US, Naukri.com is ranked 363rd and is the most popular Indian job portal. This is probably because the Indian community in the US is a sizable portion amongst US Internet users and they are frequently logging onto Naukri.com for their job needs. It is also possible that, with India becoming a big recruiting ground for overseas companies, many overseas companies are using Naukri’s huge database to search out suitable employees.
But this data has practically no relevance to Indian users. What I would be interested in knowing is the following - amongst Indian internet users (and not amongst US internet users), which website has the highest traffic, reach or coverage ? Unfortunately, I think that there is just no data available on this. I am aware of a few surveys that some Indian market research firms have undertaken from time to time to estimate web traffic ranks but those are one-off dip-stick studies and do not involve continuous tracking.
I use the example of Naukri.com to exemplify my assertion though I have no doubt that they are the biggest (and the best) Indian job site. I use Naukri’s recruitment services myself and I think they are the most effective jobsite in India. I also have huge respect for them because they were the first Indian dotcom to have a viable business model. Not for a moment am I contesting any of the claims that they have made in their banner ad, no questions about that.
All I am saying is that simply because of lack of any other reliable data, Alexa figures for Indian websites can at best, be quoted as a passing reference. From a technical perspective, the data does not give the correct picture and any claims made on the basis of that data are unjustified.
24 comments
Could it be possible that if a majority of Indian users installed the Alexa browser, Indian sites might rank *higher* ? I recall reading that 51% of Indian surfers use the Internet for job hunting.
I actually worry that Indian websites are adversely affected by US-centric traffic estimates.
Sumedh,
Yes, if more Indians started adopting Alexa , that would improve significance levels for Indian traffic data . Automatically the ranks of Indian websites would start pushing upwards on a global comparitive scale.
Indian websites just have no India centric traffic estimates, thats why they have to use US centric estimates as a surrogate.
regards
amit
Btw, the Alexa is a toolbar that you can dowload into your browser and not a browser itself.
Amit,
It’s a well written post and very nicely argued out. During the dotcom rush in 2000, everybody in India used to quote Alexa ranking. Now hardly anybody does. I am amazed at the fact that Naukri is doing it. Maybe, Sanjeev Bikhchandani is of pre-Internet era, and is still not out of the Alexa days. In the early days of his startup, he actually had a shell internet account (without graphical applications) and he even used to go to a cybercafe to update his fledgling jobs portal. That was then.
Now Naukri is definitely the numebr one jobs portal in the country by its sheer brand recall if not anything else. He doesn’t need validation from Alexa for that. So, Sanjeev, please knock of that button claiming Alexa ranking.
The point missed here is the percentage - I’m sure a similar percentage of Indians use Alexa compared to the percentages of worldwide users. You don’t expect naukri.com, rediff.com or indiatimes.com to get such high Alexa rankings based on NRI clicks?
On Traffic and Alexa Rankings
While we have our own logs to indicate how much we are getting used, it is always fun to get external validation.
Alexa is the place that everyone goes to. The absolute numbers on Alexa are definitely not very reliable, particularly for Indian sites …
You said. “This is probably because the Indian community in the US is a sizable portion amongst US Internet users and they are frequently logging onto Naukri.com for their job needs”
Now why would you presume that Indian community in the US have the Alexa Toolbar installed. I am willing to bet that even a fairly heavy internet user (and folks in the US most of them should fall in the same category) do not have the Alexa toolbar or have heard of it. Only webmaster have.
So the argument that it is indicative of true rank just does not hold water even in the US. However just the fact that there is data in Alexa for quite a few websites (even newer entries) where the newbie webmaster may himself not have the Alexa Toolbar. I am gravitating towards the opinion that Alexa just may be using data off the routers, does not seem likely any other way.
Sonal,
You’re probably right in saying that the only people who have Alexa toolbars installed in their browsers are the webmasters.
Although I did not try to address that issue in my blog post, I am puzzled about where the alexa data actually comes from.
I think (am not sure) that Alexa now has some kind of a paid service, whereby they let you take a look at the details of the data.
[..]..Doing an Alexa ranking of the Indian portals is merely an academic excercise. However, I did this one just to check who is popular among NRIs. Of course, Rediff won it hands down and that was not surprising. Alexa ranking is skewed since it measures only those people who use Alexa toolbar. Amit Ranjan has a nice post here on why it’s not relevant for Indian websites. But this metric at least tells us which sites are popular among NRIs primarily in the US…[..]
Alexa Traffic Rank by Countries:
Rediff.com Statistics:
Country
Code
Traffic Rank Page Views
IN 4 86.9%
US 311 5.4%
GB 448 0.8%
Indiatimes.com Statistics:
Country
Code Traffic Rank Page Views
IN 9 68.6%
US 417 15.8%
GB 750 1.6%
As is clearly evident from the above statistic
a. Page traffic rank is higher for rediff.com
b. However Indiatimes.com have more page views in US and Britain than rediff.com has.
So indeed page rank is a matter of so many parameters. The overall rank also depends on who is using what statistic, and from what source.
Amit,
As a marketer using these sites, it is not only impressions volume that one looks for, one looks at the profile .
Over time and having undertaken a number of marketing campaign it has become evident that timesofindia.com beats any other indian site for US - NRI audience both on volume and profile terms .
Alexa data is not consistant with this market reality in this particular case .. which gets one to doubt the modality used ..
[…] amit ranjan Are Alexa.com traffic rankings reliable for Indian Could it be possible that if a majority of Indian users installed the Alexa browser, Indian sites might rank *higher* ? I recall reading that 51% of Indian surfers use the Internet for job hunting. […]
[…] amit ranjan Are Alexa.com traffic rankings reliable for Indian for Indian Could it be possible that if a majority of Indian users installed the Alexa browser, Indian sites might rank *higher* ? I recall reading that 51% of Indian surfers use the Internet for job […]
Can you please suggets me some other source from where I can conclude the the most visited site.
Even for US Centric Data we can’t rely on Alexa rank alone. Becuase the traffic shown by Alexa is not perfect, and if that is not perfect you can’t believe that thing.
Take a sample of my site urlsdirectory.com.
Right now the overall ranking is around 3,17,000 but for India ranking it shows around 26000. How could it be possible whereas most of the my users don’t come from India.
So all in all I don’t believe in Alexa rankings.
True Amit,
I completely agree with you. The rankings and stats available are skewed and would depict Indian sites getting traffic from US. (As most of these sites are US based and use a toolbar to capture data)
There’s definitely a need for such a website/organisation that would give us the true picture or close to the true picture.
What is also questionable is the method of research. http://www.juxtconsult.com too does research for Indian websites but the sample size and method are questionable.
Hi Amit…Thanks for the article however I have a doubt to ask.. you have said “Now, how many Alexa toolbar users are there in India?”. I went to Alexa’s disclaimers as suggested by you and got this - ‘Alexa’s sample includes users of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Mozilla browsers’
Does this not mean that by using IE etc, most of the Indian internet population is accounted for?
Awaiting your reply.
Peacock Financial launches an informative and comparison website http://www.getmeinsure.com for Indian insurance consumers. Consumers can apply online for a free quote for their Life insurance, home insurance, health insurance, car/auto insurance, child plans and retirement plans from any number of companies of their choice. Its one the only portal connecting insurance consumers directly to insurance provider. The advantage of the website is that with a single insurance quote request form consumer’s can contact all insurance companies operating in India.
Consumers can receive , compare and go with the lowest quote offered and reduce their insurance cost. As of today insurance was sold to consumers but now they can decide when and from which company to buy insurance.
If you buying insurance the old fashioned way? then http://www.getmeinsure.com bring you a simple way of getting insurance and also saving 100’s of money on your insurance cost. Let the competition get the best prices for your insurance needs. Apply from your office or home and connect to the insurance providers directly without even stepping out from the comfort of your office or home.
It’s a unique approach to buying insurance from the market place. The main aim of the website is to give the power of selection , comparison and negotiation to the retail consumers. Today only large companies and institutions used to enjoy the power of negotiation to reduce their insurance cost, but now even the smallest retail insurance consumers can negotiate with different insurance companies to lower their insurance cost.
very insightful article. previously i was not sure of alexa. as a content editor of a site a few days back i came to know that alexa is boasting of only us stes traffc. no relation to indian sites or indian users. but i need a site for comparison. could you tell me?
thanks amit.
The same problems arise for sites in any country where Alexa Toolbar usage is insignificant…especially sites which are not in English…since people who visit those sites probably do not have Alexa toolbar installed.
yes, you are perfectly right amit. alexa ranking is not necessarily gives the real traffic rank for any site in the world. it is in fact misleading.
I feel google rank is the best. I am giving best contents on my site http://www.agranews.com and my google rank is going up. One should make update site very often to get better rank in Google and Alexa too
Alexa is more accurate below 100000. Above that it is more accurate. It gives fairly good idea if not accurate data on traffic.
A very insightful article Amit, I would also request you to throw some light on how Alexa actually calculates the figures for sites linking in.Although I have the company website url posted on several sites but still they donot feature in the sites linking in statistics of Alexa for my company.
Could you please tell me how this works?
Why do you care? Alexa’s rankings are a meaningless number anyway… now meant only for entertainment value, has not accurate infos whatsoever so people don’t even bother about alexa ranking these days
Ya, Google Rank is much better
Leave a Comment