Alexa or Compete - Pick your poison

Chuck

Accepting that nobody has a great solution (yet) for measuring the comparative popularity and traffic of websites, two of the major players trying to do so are Alexa and Compete.You can see StartupNation`s snapshot on both right here:CompeteAlexaAs I said, I don`t necessarily put a great deal of stock in either measurement at this time, relying as they do on what could be argued is unscientific data, but I`m curious to hear about other opinions on the matter - what say ya?

Chuck

I should clarify that nobody has a great way to do this that`s publicly available at this time - if you`ve got a pot of cash, you can of course use the comscores or nielsens of the world.

Chuck

One can easily argue that the metrics they`re using to gauge one site against another are flawed, but as far as the core issue of whether or not `popularity` matters, I would say it does to the extent that you need to benchmark your performance against those businesses you see as your main legitimate competition.Maybe not a factor for absolutely everyone when it comes to website performance, but a factor for many who rely heavily on that presence as either an integral part of their business or as the primary driver of their success.

Chuck

Spot on, and I`d never say this is the be all end all of how you measure your website, company or anything else - but just because you don`t do that doesn`t mean that website performance can`t be a data point you use at some point.