It’s had a fair run, and over time has amassed information on over 30 million websites. Their data collects information on everything, from traffic insights, to global ranking statistics – and it’s heavily relied on by some of us in the digital marketing industry. So why is it shutting down? And where do we go next?
New Alexa.com subscriptions stopped becoming available on December 8, 2021, in a bid to avoid the disappointment of new users coming in.
What is Alexa.com?
Many people will relate “Alexa” with Amazon’s line of AI voice service devices, from the Echo Dot to the Echo Auto. But this isn’t what we’re referring to when we talk about Alexa.com shutting down! Don’t worry, your Alexa devices will remain fully functioning and continue to work.
Also known as Alexa Internet Inc., Alexa.com is a subsidiary of Amazon that focuses on providing analytical insights for those in the digital marketing industry. Initially, the software involved using a toolbar that people could add to their browser. This bar was available across IE, Chrome and Firefox (showing its age), and displayed the ranking of each website visited – at first this ranking tool was limited across those websites visited by people who used the toolbar, though this extended to provide global analytics rankings. The bar also tracked users activity, then suggesting where they could go next based on historical analytics of their browsing habits. It included a link to Amazon, a handy search bar, and even ad blocking functionalities. And unfortunatelly, Alexa.com is shutting down in 2022.
This toolbar was eventually replaced with the more commonly used browser extension, and an Alexa Pro service was announced. This was a great shift for those wanting to reveal more extensive data regarding each website visited, and was especially favoured amongst those working in digital marketing.
Why is Alexa.com Shutting Down?
With its roots taking us back to its initial creation in 1996, Alexa.com has been around for a while now. It’s safe to say that while they’ve relatively kept on top of tech innovations and user habits, it’s been tricky for them to compete with alternative tracking software that’s been released over the years. Constantly innovating and on top of their game, marketers have frequently turned to the use of more extensive services such as SEMrush, Moz, and Ahref. These tools have become extremely competitive over the years, and they all do it well… Perhaps that’s something to do with the industry they’re dominating in the first place. It goes without saying that marketing and SEO specialists, competing against marketing specialists, is a recipe for a highly competitive marketplace. The issue here is that Alexa has just struggled to keep up with the rest of them.
Another reason Alexa.com may have decided to shut down is a pretty obvious one. You might have even made the same mistake upon reading this article – associating Alexa Internet with the synonymous Alexa home devices. This is just a bit of a confusing situation, and Amazon have probably realized that it’s time for them to move on after a great 25 years in business.
The Alexa .com Internet team stated the decision was a difficult one, and thanks its customers for choosing Alexa.com as their go-to SEO research resource. While they don’t explicitly identify why this is in their statement, we can draw just a couple of conclusions based on where Amazon is headed next. Unfortunately amazon is shutting alexa down.
With Jeff Bezos retaining his elusive position as the second richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $202 billion, it’s not like he can’t afford to keep Alexa.com running. But he may have other, much bigger, plans that require more dedication. His new space tourism company – Blue Origin – was announced in 2021, and Bezos made his first short journey to space back in July. The admirable plans he has in mind for the future of Blue Origin are astounding in terms of the level of dedication to the task they’ll require. While it’s evident he can hire enough staff to get the project well underway, we can imagine he’s probably been thinking about re-organising some of his business assets for some time. In preparation for what’s to come with these huge space-oriented plans, Amazon has been a hot topic within news headlines as of late.
They face losing £1.4 billion in revenue from UK-based shoppers as they plan to ban the use of VISA credit cards for payments. They’ve set out the ban due to high fees, but it’s questionable whether the cost of these fees might be worth paying due to the significant loss in income they may face once the ban takes place from January 2022.
We know Amazon has a ton of companies under its overarching belt, but those companies can’t just keep running forever. One of the reasons Bezos is so wealthy might be down to the fact he recognizes where to cut his losses. Unfortunately, Alexa.com became one of those situations.
How Do I Keep my Alexa.com Data?
Luckily, for those that have relied on Alexa for all these years, they are still allowing the exportation of data from their databases to your computer. This means you’ll still be able to utilize the data you have collected thus far – though they won’t be continuing to track the rankings and further data of websites from May 2022. You can export data from all tools – including your site audit reports, the competitor keyword matrix tool, keyword difficulty tool, and content exploration tool. Just find the download icon and click. You can find more information on how to export Alexa data on their FAQ page.
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