Can a site be removed from alexa?
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let's say you have complete control over the webserver, and the hosting server.
is there a way to set it up so that alexa statistics CANNOT be gained?
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thanks - i had done a bit more research and found the name of the user agent and the use in the robots file at http://www.alexa.com/help/webmasters
i did not know about 2 - did not know you can collect that data on your own..
and of course 3 - that wouldn't help this client ( or wannabe client... lol )
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There are several methods used by Alexa to collect data about your site.
1. The Alexa crawler. It can be blocked using robots.txt as follows:
User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /2. Alexa analytics. Similar to Google Analytics, simply remove the code from your site's web pages and Alexa would no longer have access to this data. This method only applies if you have installed Alexa Analytics code on your site.
3. Alexa toolbar. The toolbar is installed on user pc's. It tracks all web traffic by users. In order to prevent this tracking, a user would either need to uninstall the toolbar, change a setting on the toolbar, or block traffic to Alexa. These form of data collection is a primary source of information for Alexa, and is why Alexa data is relatively unreliable.
There is not any reasonable step you can take to prevent this form of data collection.
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