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There was some buzz on the blogosphere recently: Alexa changed its ranking algorithms and the change affected all the indexed sites. Although in the press release announcing the change Alexa doesn’t specify how the new rankings are processed and calculated, bloggers and web authors commented vividly the news, tracking ranking changes in various blogs and even starting polemics about why some blogs lost their high ranks while others gained better positioning in the Alexa hierarchy.

What many people forget is that before this change Alexa based its rankings in data gathered from users in its own network – meaning users who had the Alexa toolbar installed.

To believe that Alexa’s new system is infallible is a little bit overreaching. There is still not clear how Alexa collects the data now.

If Alexa no longer counts solely on its network to process traffic statistics, what other channels could possibly deliver the stats?

Each traffic analyzer needs at least a tracking cookie to work – and that cookie almost always has a “host.” The most popular traffic analytics software use a code snippet or a script you have to manually insert in your html – or else they cannot display any results.

Is it safe to assume that Alexa made a contract with such a service? In this case we might be confronted with a rather dangerous scenario, as data collected by analytics software is often private.

There are some speculations, that Alexa dropped the rankings for blogs that offer space for paid reviews. This is not impossible – but what does this scenario remind you of? The all mighty Google that dropped PageRanks for blogs found guilty of similar practices. Is Alexa working now with Google?

If you choose to ignore the questions above, there is still one that should keep you busy: how will the new ranking system affect your site?

Well, there are many implications, especially for sites that sell advertising space, link ads and even sponsored reviews. Traffic is very important for the advertiser, even more important than PageRank, and so far only Alexa offers a statistic opened to the public. For the publisher, high Alexa rankings are vital: they lead to more revenue.

For sites less interested in monetization through ads, the new Alexa rankings don’t mean too much.

My personal opinion: treat this upgrade as a normal progress in Alexa’s online existence and don’t lose sleep over it. There is no proof that the new rankings are better and there is no proof that Alexa has now better sources than its own network. As long as you continue creating quality content and increasing your community you cannot go wrong. Besides, no rankings in the world can trully measure the true quality of your work.