< Back to basics - Understanding website statistics : A beginner's guide to Google Analytics, part 1 >
All over the web I see sites mentioning things like Google PageRank, Alexa, Technorati, Feedburner subscribers, unique visitors and so on. I'm going to explain a bit about these statistics in a moment, but first I'd like to make a broad statement about them all.These statistics do not guarantee anything. I have seen sites with thousands of subscribers and the posting quality is very hit and miss. At the other end of the scale, I've seen sites with 20 subscribers that write quality content far more often than some larger sites do.
With that out of the way (for now, anyway) let's take a look at each of the above statistics in a bit more detail. This is not meant to be a definitive guide - it's an overview of each statistic so you can see how they compare.
Google PageRank
Unlike most of the other statistics, PageRank (sometimes abbreviated to "PR") measures the value of a page, not a site. It is calculated using a complex calculation that I'm not going to get into here.In brief, the PR of a page is based on the number of different sites that link to your page. However, if a page that already has a high PR value links to your page, it'll be worth more than if a less popular page links there.
PR is measured on a scale of 0 to 10. In the past it's been viewed as a sign of a good page - very high PR values are rare and sought after. My opinion is that PR would be a lot more useful if it was updated more frequently than it has been in the past (in some cases not for two to three months).
According to Google PageRank, my websites are ranked as follows:
- benbarden.com - PR3
- injader.com - PR4
Alexa
Alexa measures how much traffic a website gets and provides graphs where you can compare up to five different sites. The most popular website has an Alexa rank of 1, and it just keeps counting down into the hundreds of thousands, then the millions...The problem with Alexa is that it can be easily manipulated. They provide a toolbar - "Sparky" - that you install into your browser. Now, not only will you see the Alexa rank of every site you visit, you'll also boost the rating for each site.
As far as I'm aware, Alexa relies heavily on people using the toolbar in order for its statistics to be generated. This means the stats are not even close to accurate - and you could probably up your rank by going to your site and hitting refresh over and over again.
Also, the page that lists the sites that link to benbarden.com looks like it hasn't been updated in well over a year. So... it's not a particularly reliable place to get stats. But the graphs are handy. Even if the stats aren't very accurate, at least you can compare sites to see how Alexa reports their traffic over a period of time.
On Alexa, benbarden.com is ranked as follows:
- Rank: 170,518 (3 month average)
- Rank: 99,631 (yesterday)
Technorati
Technorati looks at the number of different sites that link to your site over the last three months. Each site that links to you gives you 1 authority point. The higher your authority... well, the more authority you have!Authority contributes to your overall rank. Technorati rank is much the same as Alexa in terms of numbering; the Top 100 features the most popular sites according to Technorati.
I think this is one of the better sites for ranking and statistics. It has a much wider scale than PageRank, and relies more on links than - ahem - whether or not you install a toolbar.
Technorati shows benbarden.com as having the following stats:
- Authority: 31
- Rank: 263,682
Feedburner subscribers
This tracks the number of people who subscribe to your blog and who actually click on the items in your site feed. It doesn't count someone who subscribes but never reads your posts or clicks to make a comment.Personally, I find this value quite frustrating at first. Recently, it's wobbled between 20 and 30. It's quite a challenge to increase the number of subscribers. But what really makes it difficult is that it doesn't simply tell you how many people have subscribed. I would actually like to know that too.
I'm told that it's better not to show your subscriber count until you reach 50 or even 100 subscribers. However, I've got nothing to hide. My blog is still relatively new so it makes sense that I don't have a lot of subscribers. What's good to see is when it goes up. I like to share this information with my readers, so I keep the counter on my page.
Currently, Feedburner tells me that benbarden.com has 27 subscribers.
Which stats should I be concerned about?
I do keep an eye on how benbarden.com is doing on all of the above sites, but I don't go out of my way to increase my rank. I focus on writing good quality content, reading other blogs, and networking with other bloggers on forums and sites such as Entrecard.Stats are a good way to see how I'm doing, but none of the above sites give me a lot of information. I much prefer to use the stats that I get with my web hosting (AwStats) and Google Analytics, as they provide detailed information about how people found my site.
You can read more about website statistics in one of my previous blog entries: Back to basics - Understanding website statistics
What do you think of these sites?
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Tags: statistics, google, pagerank, alexa, technorati, feedburner, awstats, google analytics
Posted by Ben on January 15, 2008 19:43 / Edited: January 25, 2008 13:29
Tags: statistics, google, pagerank, alexa, technorati, feedburner, awstats, google analytics
Posted by Ben on January 15, 2008 19:43 / Edited: January 25, 2008 13:29
Comments
2
Hi Seiko, thanks for the comment. :) You're right, the Feedburner subscriber count is different to LiveJournal. If you want to keep track of my site outside of LJ and you want to try subscribing to some other non-LJ sites too, you might want to check out my Google Reader guide. It makes life so much easier! Plus, it should register you as a subscriber. It's up to you.
3
Handy reference, thanks. Even in my limited experience I have come to realize that Google Analytics seems to be the one to trust, the one that tells you what is actually going on.
4
Glad it helped, Arnold. :)
This is really interesting information. But I assume with the last one you mention, it doesn't include people who subscribe outside (like me on LJ)? I mean, I'm thinking that if I just read (since your entire information is always posted on my list without me having to click) it would never register someone like me as a subscriber/reader ?_?