Why You Should Care About Alexa Ranking

The value of a good Alexa ranking has been debated among Internet marketers for some time.  Those of us who know the value of metrics, regardless of their credibility, know that website owners (and buyers) look at Alexa ranking to get a general sense of website traffic and popularity.

Alexa is actually owned by Amazon.com and provides a ranking of web sites on the internet according to a system of their very own. The way it functions is quite simple. Alexa accumulates data from all over the web through their Alexa toolbar which is installed on millions of computer systems in the world. So by understanding customer behavior they rank web sites on metrics.

Why you should care about your website's Alexa Ranking...
Yes, you should care about your ranking if own a website or manage a blog.  For example, being a blogger is all about influence and reach.  A blogger's primary goal is to grow and expand web presence - something that Alexa theoretically measures.  As you attract more visitors to your website, your Alexa ranking grows. It's not too difficult to attain a good Alexa ranking if you know what to do.  I'll show you a few basic things you can do easily to can get your website under an Alexa ranking of 100k easily!

Is Alexa Ranking Alexa Ranking accurate?

It's accurate according to Alexa.com standards but not with global web standards. This is due to the fact that not every computer has the Alexa tool bar installed.  In fact, fewer and fewer browsers do. As such, Amazon may be integrating other factors (such as Amazon wishlist, etc.) to provide support to their algorithm.  So the data accumulated by Alexa is extremely minimal but in the same time quite effective because it's primarily installed by Bloggers, Webmasters and Internet enthusiasts.

Did you know: My site, MarketingScoop.com is ranked 28,621 on Alexa

How Do I improve Alexa Ranking?

If you've been reading this article, then you must be interested in improving your Alexa ranking.  The closer to "1" your Alexa ranking is, the more popular your website or blog. If you want a top Alexa ranking, follow these easy steps:

1. Update your website or blog on a regular basis, at least 3-4 articles per week
2. Encourage your customers to install the Alexa toolbar (It’s safe)
3. Claim your website on Alexa.com: www.alexa.com/siteowners 
4. On the same page, there's an option for entering and editing your site's listing.  Make sure you have a listing on Alexa and it's up-to-date 
5. Also use on of Alexa's site widgets from the following page www.alexa.com/siteowners/widgets 
6. Get more visitors on your blog especially from the blogging community.  Encourage sharing through social media
7. Exchange links with other relevant sites that already have a strong Alexa ranking
8. Do not use automated methods to artificially inflate your Alexa ranking!

I'm hoping I've given you some insight into Alexa and how it works to rank websites.  If you'd like to learn more about improving your Alexa ranking and receive step-by-step instructions on achieving a ranking of 100,000 or better, view my Alexa ranking guide.

Improve Alexa Ranking - Who Cares?

As someone who loves to look at web stats, I can't help by act surprised every time I see people interested in a topic that to me is somewhat meaningless.  Now, I'm not saying that I'm the end all be all with regard to what topics should be part of any mainstream conversation but this one really surprised me - Alexa Rankings!

Alexa's been around for a very long time.  If you're not familiar with Alexa, let me give you a quick background. Alexa is owned by Amazon.com and known for its toolbar and Web site information. In 1996, Amazon paid 250 million bucks for this site (stock deal) which was quickly becoming one of the standard measures of a website's traffic.  

Users can install an Alexa toolbar which collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the Alexa.com site where it's stored and analyzed.  This data is used for the company's web traffic reporting which is very robust and informative. 

What's great about Alexa is that you really don't need to install anything on your site to get data and it's free.  You can view info about your site, competitor's sites, and really anyone's site for that matter.  The only thing that I've ever included on my site is a little Alexa widget that gives me quick stats each time I visit my site.  Unlike other analytic programs you don't need to place code on every page of your website.  Don't ask me how it works, it just does.  

So why are people so concerned about Alexa ranking?

People are obsessed about rankings.  And why wouldn't they be?  Everyone wants to see where they rank among their peers and strive to be number one.  But Alexa's been around forever and it seems that all of a sudden there is a renewed interest in Alexa rankings.  Personally, I would think that people are more interested in Klout, Facebook Likes, or some other "measure" of online popularity.  

Giving it some additional thought, maybe the draw is simply that website owners who don't subscribe to other analytic rating services, like Compete, want to see how they rank among their peers.  And the reality is you wont find a more popular resource for website rankings as Alexa.com.  The other benefit is that Alexa provides some amazing insight into your traffic that you just can't get anywhere else.  

The screen shot I provided on this post shows real Alexa information on one of my websites, MarketingScoop.com.  You can see from the traffic breakdown that the majority of organic traffic is coming from Alexa related terms.  About four years ago I wrote an article on "Improving your Alexa Ranking" and now it seems to be one of the largest drivers of traffic on my site.  I suppose this is the unintended consequence of writing about an emerging topic which has now become mainstream.

Improving your Alexa Ranking

Although a number of the recommendations I made in my original article are no longer valid, the overall concept of Alexa ranking remains the same.  The secret to top Alexa rankings is traffic and inbound links.  Of course, there are other factors you can manipulate to improve your rankings as well.

1.  Make sure to register on Alexa and complete your profile.

2.  Get others to review your site on Alexa.

3.  Place an Alexa widget on your own website.

Once you've applied the three recommendations above, the next step is to start generating traffic to your website.  There are plenty of books on generating traffic so I'll just give you two recommendations that have served me well.

The first is to focus on search engine optimization.  SEO is one of the most valuable tools in your arsenal for generating traffic and seeing results.  This has been my number one asset for generating sustainable traffic to my website day over day and month over month.  (Check out SEO Made Simple)

The second traffic strategy is creating something that's unique or worth returning to your site for.  In my case, I didn't see my Alexa ranking break 100,000 until I added a forum to my website.  Once I did, the traffic and repeat visitors significantly improved my Alexa ranking.  Think about sticky content that can draw your visitors in and back to your site over a sustained period of time.

Apply the techniques and Alexa ranking improves

Put these tips and strategies to work for you.  If you don't see your Alexa ranking moving too much, be patient.  The goal is to continually be strive towards a lower ranking.  Remember, progress is your objective.  The more traffic and links you build, the better your Alexa ranking.

Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Alexa Ranking

After spending two years building my own website, I was very disappointed that my Alexa ranking was still higher than one million. Alexa ranks each website based on the number of visitors it receives. The top ranked website, Yahoo! has an Alexa rating of 1 or 2. Less popular sites could be ranked up to 5,000,000.

In order to improve my Alexa rating, I spent about three weeks combing the web to find tips, secrets, and proven strategies for increasing my Alexa ranking. Unfortunately, many of the sites offering advice didn’t even have a high ranking themselves. Finally I discovered a number of sites ranked within the top 100,000 that were all applying the same “Alexa techniques” to improve their ranking. I’ve begun implementing a number of these techniques and have improved my Alexa ranking by 250,000 spots in just one week.

Here’s what you need to know. The basis for many of these techniques is the fact that your Alexa ranking is based reach and page views. However it only counts those who visit your site and have already downloaded the Alexa toolbar. Anyone can download the toolbar for free which is automatically added to your browser and tracks the sites you’re visiting. Increasing visits from those who do not have the Alexa toolbar installed will not help your Alexa ranking.

I’ve summarized the 10 strategies that I’ve discovered and applied to my own website to increase my Alexa ranking. Apply these strategies to your own website and see your ranking climb towards the top.

1. Download the Alexa toolbar and use it every day to visit your own website. Alexa even gives you the ability to co-brand the toolbar with your own logo and give it away. You can download the toolbar here: http://pages.alexa.com/prod_serv/associatetoolbar.html

2. Use Alexa redirection whenever you can. No matter when or where you provide a link to your website, be sure to use the equivalent Alexa redirect URL. For example, when providing a link to my website, I use http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com. If you copy this URL into your browser, it will take you to MarketingScoop.com. To use this technique, simply replace the name of my website (marketingscoop) with yours.

3. Encourage your website visitors to add their positive testimonials on Alexa’s detailed listings page for your website. This can be done by placing a link to the appropriate Alexa page on your website and asking visitors to “Click here to rate this website”. You can find your detailed Alexa page here: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=marketingscoop.com. Again, just replace the name of my website (marketingscoop) with yours. By clicking on the URL, visitors will be able to reach your detailed rating page and write a review using the review link located on the left hand side of the page.

4. Write your own site reviews on the top 100 rated Alexa sites and include your redirect URL. The top 500 domains, according to Alexa can be found at http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500 When you write a review, be sure to use the redirection URL we discussed in number 2 above specifically for your website [http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com].

5. Download the Alexa ranking button, traffic history graph, info links, and other traffic counters onto the page of your website that receives the most traffic. For example, at the bottom of my home page http://www.marketingscoop.com, I’ve added the Alexa ranking box. You can do the same for your own site by visiting http://www.alexa.com/site/site_stats/signup You’ll notice that I haven’t added the traffic history graph. This is because it wouldn’t look appropriate on my home page and because Alexa is only providing detailed history on the top 100,000 sites. So if you’re not in the top 100,000, site stats would not be available.

6. Take an inexpensive advertisement out on the ExactSeek search directory for only a few dollars per month at ExactSeek.com Search engine results are directly correlated with Alexa rankings. You’ll notice that if a website is highly ranked on ExactSeek, chances are that it will be highly ranked on Alexa.

7. Get listed on as many search engines as possible by placing a free listing in DMOZ. This is the largest human edited directory on the web and is co-branded among hundreds of thousands of sites. Be patient though, it often takes up to 5 months before you see your website listed after submission. Even though it takes longer than it should, you have little say in the matter because it’s so widely used across the Internet.

8. Encourage friends and co-workers to write a review. You'd be amazed at how quickly you can improve your Alexa ranking with the help of a few friends. Invite others to review your site using Alexa. I like to place a "rate this site" link at the bottom of each email I send out, encouraging others to provide a positive rating.

9. Ask your co-workers to download the Alexa toolbar. The more people who download the toolbar and visit your site the better. Once they've installed the toolbar, send them a link to some valuable content on your site. Once they click through the link, they'll receive valuable content and you'll receive Alexa points!

10. Keep Alexa top of mind. When posting in forums, publishing articles, or promoting your site, encourage others to click on your redirect URLs or download the Alexa toolbar. The more you do, the faster you'll achieve a top Alexa ranking.

These simple Alexa strategies are easy to implement and will make a huge difference in your Alexa ranking. Ultimately you want visitors to do more than visit your home page, you want them to interact with your site. Be sure to optimize your home page for SEO purposes, ease of use, and interaction. Creating a positive user experience will get visitors to return again and again.

*Michael Fleischner is a marketing expert and the president of MarketingScoop.com. Visit today for free marketing information and marketing blog directory. Michael has more than 12 years of marketing experience and had appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Visit his marketing blog for further details.