R.I.P. Alexa Dot Com: You Will Be Sorely Missed

What happens when you want to check your website's rank in 2022? Well, you get this message:

How do you feel about it? If you're asking me, it brings back a lot of memories.

Can you believe it has been that long? Alexa was founded as an independent company in 1996 and acquired by Amazon in 1999 for $250 million in stock. I just realized the "symbolism" of these numbers: $250M for 25 years.

And isn't it ironic, don't you think?

Yes, Alanis Morissette, I couldn't agree more; it is. "For more information, click here." I clicked.

"Questions? We have answers." Yes, I have only one question.

Why, Mr. Bezos? Why?

Amazon is retiring Alexa as it feels that the cost of keeping the site active is not worth the expense now. I don't buy it. Amazon may have 99 problems, but the money definitely ain't one.

Alexa.com’s rankings have always been simultaneously popular and contentious — not surprising given the importance of establishing traffic metrics in many online businesses. Over the years, there have been many accusations that the service’s Alexa Rank could be gamed, but it nevertheless remained the most familiar name in the web-ranking world. (Source: The Verge)

I'm free to say, not only "the most familiar name in the web-ranking world," but rather a synonym for the quick and reliable web-ranking. And now, it's on its way to forced retirement. Why? Why now?

According to online visibility management SaaS platform Semrush, Alexa.com's organic traffic has been experiencing a steady decline for quite some time. The move to shut operations of the platform may have come due to the significant drop in its popularity.

Kudos to SemRush, but I don't buy this one either. I'm not sure about the decline, but I'm pretty much sure that it has nothing to do with the "drop" in popularity. On the contrary, 25 years say more than enough about its popularity.

Thinking about Alexa's competitors, I can confirm first-hand that I've tried and used quite a few, SemRush included. They're all good and useful in their own right. However, Alexa Rank has been the one and only all these years; until now. Here's my unbiased word of advice.

While you still can, you should compare your website's ranking results on Alexa against all other available alternatives out there. The numbers don't add up, to say the least. So, which one do you trust the most? One click. One number. That's what Alexa Rank has always been about. The most important thing to add to its reliability - it is (was) FREE, period!

Alexa?! No, Not That One!

Hey Alexa, why are you retiring, Alexa?

I don't understand the question.

Yes, you do. Type "Alexa" in Google, and see what happens.

Yes, I want to "learn why."

So, as far as Amazon is concerned, Alexa dot com is already gone. We all know what's the search result #2, don't we? And, after Alexa is officially retired, there can be only one Alexa, and that one will have nothing to do with your website's ranking.

Hey Alexa, what's my website's current ranking?

I don't understand the question.

If Alexa dot com had to be sacrificed, so it can be only one Alexa, Amazon Alexa, then I really don't know what to say or think.

Amazon named its voice-computing technology Alexa as an homage to the Library of Alexandria, a company spokeswoman said. Amazon also controls the name commercially, having acquired Alexa Internet, which ranks websites by traffic and provides marketing tools, in 1999, and which was also named to honor the Egyptian library, an important storehouse of knowledge in the ancient world.

Talking about "homages," here's an interesting fact about this ancient "storehouse:"

Despite the widespread modern belief that the Library of Alexandria was burned once and cataclysmically destroyed, the Library actually declined gradually over the course of several centuries. This decline began with the purging of intellectuals from Alexandria in 145 BC during the reign of Ptolemy VIII Physcon, which resulted in Aristarchus of Samothrace, the head librarian, resigning from his position and exiling himself to Cyprus. (Wiki)

And, who was this Ptolemy VIII Physcon? What kind of a ruler was he?

I don't know. Ask Alexa.