Improve Alexa Understanding

By Nigel Evans

Alexa has long been known as a significant provider of statistics relating to web traffic on the Internet and depending on who you speak to, the importance of its ranking system is either significant or does not warrant that much attention. In regard to assessing the importance of a particular website or webpage online, Google Page rank is an important metric. However, many webmasters want to know how they can improve Alexa ranking as well.

If you want to improve Alexa rank, you need to understand what it is. The company's ranking system is based on the level of traffic received by a website, where the visitors are measured only if they have an Alexa toolbar installed. While there are many millions of Alexa toolbar users, this does only represent a relatively small part of the entire Internet world of course and thus many would question the credibility of the readings obtained.

When people first become aware of Alexa, they want to know how they can be classified within the list of the top 100,000 websites in the world. This list, as composed by the company, shows a lot of information, graphs, visitor levels and a certain element of prestige is associated. Webmasters go out of their way to improve Alexa rank as they strive to get to this level.

Critics are particularly vocal about the Alexa toolbar related approach, as they say that many of the people involved in the process of search engine optimization are aware of the concept and have the toolbar installed. This, they say, skews the results and does not represent the world in general. Although there are certain things that you can do to improve Alexa, fundamentally you must be attracting traffic to score.

Draw people's attention to the existence of Alexa by signing up with the company and then downloading a widget which you should display on your website. If you have a WordPress blog, there are plug-ins available which will enable you to do the same thing. Once you have downloaded the toolbar and installed it, either as an extension on Internet Explorer or Firefox, you will automatically start to improve Alexa ranking.

Ideally you should try and ensure that many people visiting your website have the relevant toolbar or extension on their computer. If your website or blog is in the Internet marketing or SEO fields, many of the people who visit will do already and you should be at advantage in regard to your overall ranking therefore. Advertise your URL at many webmaster forums or Internet marketing related sites and forums as you can, as it is likely that many of the visitors who click on this link will be Alexa enabled.

Fundamentally, you should always ensure that the information contained within your site is pertinent anyway. This is rule number one for optimization as it is, but if you provide great information on Internet marketing subjects all the time, your traffic levels will naturally increase and your associated Alexa ranking will go down.

There are a number of black hat and questionable techniques that you can use, including redirects and auto surfs, but these are not recommended. As some advertising networks put great emphasis on your results here when it comes to ad spend, you may be particularly motivated to improve Alexa positions, but do not do so at all costs. There are many other ways to improve your website's visibility and position and they should all be viewed carefully. Consult experts who are in a position to tell you your best course of action. Look for dedicated forums, many of which are located within Internet marketing membership sites for access to this expert information.

About the Author:
Writer Nigel Evans has more than two and a half decades of marketing experience and is an avid Internet marketer, affiliate marketer and content creator. He has compiled a valuable resource at www.reviewability.com, where you can learn a lot more about how to improve Alexa and all the options available to you.