In late June 2007 we decided to do an extensive review of the most heavily trafficked Cuba related websites. We wanted to research the traffic and quality of other Cuba related websites in order to evaluate potential candidates for advertising the Havana Journal. We also evaluated HavanaJournal.com.
We found over over 50 potential candidates and judged them on the following criteria:
Alexa Traffic Rank
Compete Traffic Rank
Quantcast Traffic Rank
Google Backlink Count
Google Indexed Page Count
Google Page Rank
DMOZ Listings
Wikipedia References
Sites were not excluded for any reason such as location, content or design. Sites were excluded if they ranked as the very last two or three in one or more criteria. We ended up doing a thorough review of 40 Cuba related sites.
Here’s how HavanaJournal.com ranked:
Traffic Ranking
Alexa, Compete, Quantcast average traffic rank: 10th place - 299,209
Compete and Quantcast only average traffic rank: 9th place - 168,260
Google Information
Google Backlinks: 7th place - 272
Google indexed pages: 8th place - 5790
Google Page Rank: tied for second - 5
Miscellaneous
DMOZ: tied for 5th place - 2 listings
Wikipedia: 3rd place - 24 references
Here are the exclusive Havana Journal “Cuba Select” top ten rankings
Alexa, Compete and Quantcast average traffic rankings:
1. CubaWeb.cu
2. Cubanet.org
3. Cuba.com
4. TasteOfCuba.com
5. BabaluBlog.com
6. DTCuba.com
7. CubanFoodMarket.com
8. Netssa.com
9. MyCubanStore.com
10. HAVANAJOURNAL.COM
Compete and Quantcast average traffic rankings:
1. CubaWeb.cu
2. TasteOfCuba.com
3. Cubanet.org
4. Cuba.com
5. CubanFoodMarket.com
6. BabaluBlog.com
7. MyCubanStore.com
8. Netssa.com
9. HAVANAJOURNAL.COM
10. Cuba-Junky.com
Google Backlinks rankings:
1. BabaluBlog.com
2. CubaWeb.cu
3. Cubanet.org
4. Sprachcaffe-kuba.com
5. LaHabana.com
6. DTCuba.com
7. HAVANAJOURNAL.COM
8. NetForCuba.org
9. WebHavana.com
10. Gran-Caribe.com
Google Indexed Pages rankings:
1. CubaWeb.cu
2. Cubanet.org
3. Cubamania.com
4. CubaXP.com
5. VacacionarTravel.com
6. BabaluBlog.com
7. DTCuba.com
8. HAVANAJOURNAL.COM
9. CubanFoodMarket.com
10. CubaHotelBookings.com
Google Page Rank rankings:
1. Cubanet.org
2. BabaluBlog.com
3. LaHabana.com
4. TasteOfCuba.com
5. HAVANAJOURNAL.COM
6. DTCuba.com
7. Cuba-Pictures.com
8. CubaXP.com
9. CubaMapa.com
10. Gran-Caribe.com
DMOZ rankings:
1. CubaWeb.cu
2. Cubanet.org
3. DTCuba.com
4. Sprachcaffe-kuba.com
5. TasteOfCuba.com
6. HAVANAJOURNAL.COM
7. Cuba-Junky.com
8. WebHavana.com
9. NetForCuba.org
10. GoCuba.ca
Wikipedia rankings:
1. CubaWeb.cu
2. Cubanet.org
3. HAVANAJOURNAL.COM
4. BabaluBlog.com
5. TasteOfCuba.com
6. Cuba-Junky.com
7. NetForCuba.org
8. CubaVIP.com
9. PaseosPorLaHabana.com
10. Cuba-Pictures.com
Only three Cuba related sites in the world ranked in the top ten in every category: HavanaJournal.com, Cubanet.org and CubaWeb.cu.
Cubanet.org is a non profit political organization that accepts USAID funding and Cubaweb.cu is based in Cuba and they do not accept advertising from foreign companies.
Regarding the traffic rankings: The Alexa traffic ranking is determined by visitors to a site who have installed an Alexa toolbar. Therefore, the Alexa traffic ranking can be uncharacteristically high or low and therefore we see Alexa traffic ranking to be unreliable. Also, the Alexa toolbar is not available to Firefox users. So, we took the average of the Alexa, Compete and Quantcast rankings to determine the average of the three. Then we also calculated the average using only Compete and Quantcast rankings which are more scientific in their data gathering.
If you have any comments on our ranking system or suggestions for improvement or if you think your site should be included in our “Cuba Select” ranking, please let us know by posting here. (You will need to be logged in to see the Reply button.)
