For years users have complained about Alexa’s unfair ranking system.  Well, Alexa has finally heard their pleas and implemented changes into their ranking system.

How has the change affected bloggers?
Many “pro” bloggers have seen major drops in their ranks with a site like johncow falling back beyond the 100k mark.  Meanwhile I’ve seen a nice increase from 85,000 down to 51,000.

The Alexa Changes Made?
Though Alexa hasn’t clearly stated what changes they’ve made, clearly the rank is no longer dependent only on the Alexa toolbar as it previously was.  Before, each visit from a user with an Alexa toolbar installed counted as a “vote”.  The more “votes” the better your rank.  This number could become greatly inflated the more toolbar users you had coming to your website.

It seems as though other factors have been taken into consideration, not only toolbar viewers, but factors that should matter like page views and total unique visitors.

The statement by Alexa
“Your ranking wasn’t wrong before, but it was different. Alexa toolbar users’ interests and surfing habits could differ from those of the general population in a number of ways, and we described some of those possible differences on our website. While the vast majority of sites’ rankings were unaffected by such differences, we’ve worked hard on our new ranking system to adjust for situations in which they could matter. The new rankings should better reflect the interests and surfing habits of the broader population of Web users”