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Despite having favorable (90% or higher) metrics from YSlow / GTMetrix / PageSpeed, Alexa claims my site is "Slow - 74% of websites are faster than yours."

I can't find out how they determine this precisely nearly as easily as the algorithms that YSlow / GTMetrix / PageSpeed use.

I'm wondering a) how much Alexa matters in the site speed analysis game and/or b) also how to go about fixing any slowness that Alexa is discovering.

Tony DiNitto
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    I would think the results would be an indication of your computer speed and network speed as opposed to the speed of your site. Alexa is pure junk. Here is an answer I wrote some time ago: http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/58602/what-is-wrong-with-alexa-ranking/58606#58606 It does not address the toolbar much, however, I am surprised that people still install the damned thing. Sorry! It is just bass ackwards and incomplete logic. Cheers!! – closetnoc Jul 15 '16 at 22:58

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In 12 years of doing this, I have never used Alexa for anything and I don't know why anyone would. I think even YSlow has been abandoned but I could be wrong. The best tools are from Google PageSpeed and Chrome or Firefox dev tools along with http://webpagetest.org

Rob
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  • This definitely answers "is it useful" but I'd still be interested to see if anyone even knows how Alexa comes up with their speed tests. I know Alexa loves Ajax based URLs for speed - the #! (hash bang) URLs are horrific for SEO and redirecting, but they are indeed fast. – Tony DiNitto Jul 15 '16 at 14:10
  • @DisgruntledGoat If you want to direct a comment at one person, you put the @ symbol in front of their user name. Otherwise I get your comment and I didn't know what you were talking about. – Rob Jul 16 '16 at 12:29
  • @Tony The two figures you cite are measuring different things. Alexa is measuring speed relative to other sites while the other tools are measuring pure speed. Example: if your site scores 90 in Yslow then Alexa's 74% figure would mean that 74% of all sites score over 90. – DisgruntledGoat Jul 16 '16 at 12:32
  • @DisgruntledGoat That still won't work. You don't have the complete user name which should have been displayed as you typed it. – Rob Jul 16 '16 at 12:33
  • @Rob I've been here for years, pretty sure it works fine. (Also the autocomplete doesn't show on mobile.) – DisgruntledGoat Jul 16 '16 at 13:22
  • I would second closetnoc's opinion that Alexa doesn't know what it's talking about. @DisgruntledGoat 's idea that GTMetrix is an absolute measure of speed vs Alexa being a relative measure of speed would imply that Alexa has run GTMetrix upon 100% of sites, and then given me the relative result of "Your site is 74% slower than others". Since this hasn't happened, it's unlikely that Alexa's ranking of speed has any real merit. My only question was "how" it was judging those speeds, which we don't seem to know quite yet. – Tony DiNitto Jul 16 '16 at 16:29
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Network speed of course plays a role, but more important what kind of hosting you choose. I have Internet music was first on one hosting, and under tested through an online website speed test, showed that it hangs and the speed is unstable. I have now moved to another hosting and everything is in order. A good site, it keeps track of all data on my site and shows a black list of domains.

dan
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Ket3112
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