Understanding Why Alexa Rankings Are Important

By Jeff Alderson | July 19, 2007

Web publishers face a host of challenges when it comes to keeping up with all the information they need to pay attention to. Getting a handle on the numbers that are important for tracking success and those that aren’t can be tricky. While Google ranking counts, the truth is this ranking isn’t the only one that matters. Alexa ranking can also be a vital number that impacts potential advertising revenue.

Alexa is a creation of Amazon.com. The site offers a ranking system that tracks the traffic sites obtain. This measurement system, however, does have its share of problems. Ranking is based on the number of visitors who use a special Alexa toolbar on their browsers when they visit sites. Despite this issue though, many advertisers pay attention to Alexa ranking to determine value and rates. This makes it important for publishers to pay heed to this ranking number.

As stated, the Alexa rank comes from the number of visits a site has had from those with the toolbar installed. The rank itself is based on historical data collected over several months. The number is a measurement of both page views and visits combined. The site does take daily computations of reach and page views. The actual rank results from these two numbers averaged out over time.

Alexa ranking can be important financially. The rank is used by many advertisers to decide how much a blog or website might be worth in regard to links. If your site sells links or ad space, Alexa ranking can be a valuable tool in determining pricing. Organized sales programs like Sponsored Reviews and Text Link Ads both base ad selling strength on the kind of ranking a site has on Alexa.

Getting going with Alexa is easy. All that’s necessary is downloading the toolbar. Those who use Firefox can pick up the SearchStatus extension. Once this is installed, pages you look at will register on Alexa’s radar.

Although Alexa ranking can be important, the system does have some big flaws. The biggest is the fact that ranking tends to go in favor of sites that happen to have a technical audience. This is because sites with a technical audience tend to have viewers who use the Alexa toolbar. This makes the overall ranking Alexa offers a bit unfair in the minds of many. Despite this, Alexa is still widely used by advertisers. This makes paying attention to this ranking important for those who want to increase revenue. There are ways to boost ranking.

Getting into Alexa’s upper echelon is difficult, but making an impressive showing isn’t necessarily all that hard. Some methods for increasing rank here can take more work than others, but they can all pay off. The best method, in fact, really involves nothing more than creating useful content that draws in traffic. Putting up content that can generate incoming links is also a great way to go. These two things can improve traffic, Google ranking and Alexa ranking as a spin off.

Some of the more tried and true methods are fairly simple to get started. They include placing an Alexa rank widget on your website, encouraging others to download and use the Alexa toolbar, installing the toolbar and your homepage on computers at work and asking friends and family to review your Alexa profile. Other fairly easy concepts include promoting your own URL in webmaster forums, writing articles related to webmasters and employing Alexa redirects to your own website.

Other more time-intensive methods for boosting rankings are out there. They include setting up a webmaster tool section on your own site, having your site’s articles Dugg or Stumbled on, buying ads and so on. Some webmasters create their own “Alexa” sections, too.

Some less favored methods for rankings can also be tried. These include tooling MySpace pages to work as Alexa redirects, using auto-surf programs and purchasing homepage rights at Cybercafes.

Although Alexa isn’t the most accurate system going, it is a very important one. Boosting ranking can help increase the ad revenues a site enjoys. With this in mind, it can be very smart for publishers to pay close attention to where they stand.

About the author: Jeff Alderson develops webmaster SEO software. He is an expert on boosting traffic and sales. Jeff recommends using Ad Word Analyzer to uncover popular keywords for your website.

Article kindly provided by UberArticles.com

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