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November 12, 2012How to Improve Your Alexa Ranking
If you run a blog or website you already know driving traffic can be somewhat of a challenge.
Alexa Rank – a subsidiary of Amazon, is a free analytical web metric system that tracks traffic to your site. The lower the rank the better, meaning they’re are more visitors coming to your site. Users can download the free tool bar and use it to optimize site visibility and attract more visitors. Basically, it’s another SEO trick. Although the average Joe or Jane may use Alexa to increase traffic, it’s mostly popular amongst tech oriented websites, bloggers or advertisers looking for placement on highly visible sites.
Before we divulge the essential details, lets clarify one major point; a good Alexa rank isn’t indicative of a good web site loaded with great content, it is simply a metric used to optimize you sites visibility through keyword, category or country-wide searches. Some folks don’t’ care too much for it, but others have easily reaped the benefits by downloading the toolbar and playing the game. If you have a website and employ decent SEO practices, the following rules apply with or without Alexa. The ultimate goal is to lower your Alexa rank (lower is better) to 100, 000 or less. Be patient however, as this will take some time, but rest assured your brand identity and online presence will be rewarded.
6 Steps To A lower Alexa Rank
Step 1: Download & Install Alexa Toolbar
– Step one is to actually download and install the free Alexa toolbar into your web browser. A lot of web-masters lower their Alexa Ranking very quickly by including it in their signature link when commenting in forums (see commenting step). Encourage your friends to install the Alexa toolbar on their browsers as well. Whenever you visit each others site, your ranking will improve just from having the toolbar installed.
Step 2: Content
– This goes without saying, every reputable blogger (with decent SEO practices) knows that content is king. Make sure your are actively, if not daily, writing and publishing informative content on your site. When Alexa crawls your site they will see you’re content is up-to-date and reward your accordingly.
Step 3: Guest Blogging
– Writing unique content for submission on other sites is great for Alexa rankings. Guest blogging is also a great way to build back-links -directing traffic back to your site. If you are looking for guest blogs for your website let us write one for you.
Step 4: Commenting
– Make sure you are actively commenting on other people sites. Visit other blogs that you like and write a positive comment. Reminder: only post positive comments as posting negative comments will hurt your ranking. Also, make sure you post an informative comment that actually adds something to the conversation. After you’ve done so, kindly drop a link that supports your argument or directs traffic back to you. See examples below:
Step 5: Writing Reviews
– You can also achieve a better ranking by writing reviews on blogs you like. Tell your friends to do the same and you will all benefit Tip: only write positive reviews as leaving negative reviews will affect you adversely. Tip: you can search how to Exchange Alexa Reviews on Google.
Step 6: Engage
– Make sure to engage with people who care about the Alexa Ranking. Go to tech/webmaster forums and talk to people that have the little widget in their signature. Chances are, they care about Alexa and thus will help in the long run. Don’t forget to talk about Alexa whenever possible – after all, people like hearing about themselves.
Of course the Alexa ranking system is flawed and is not always indicative of sites with quality content, nor bad content for that matter. Here are a few myths about the ranking system.
Alexa Myths
Installing Alexa Widgets – Alexa has stated that installing their Widgets on your site do not help your ranking. Not only that, but the widget is pretty awful looking (another reason not to install).
Using 3rd Party Software – There are a lot of folks worried about their poor Alexa ranks so they inevitably seek out 3rd party software that promises to improve their rankings. We say don’t waste your money. Unless you are willing to invest in some legitimate SEO services don’t expect magical results from money hungry app developers.
Alexa Rank Indicates Quality – What many forget is that Alexa is not an authoritative system that reliably ranks a web site. Third party applications that grade a site (based on rank), miss the quality sites that fail to rank because they don’t have the toolbar. You can’ t always trust a websites’ quality unless you visit the site yourself.
Closing Remarks
Many site owners worry about Alexa rankings because they look good to advertisers, prove that a lot of people are visiting their site and that their site is highly visible within SERPS (search engine result pages). The Alexa ranking system is not everything however. It is important to remember the myths and not blindly trust the Alexa rankings.
They’re are holes in the system and some users manipulate it to achieve a better rank. Though there are some advantages (as discussed above) to playing the game. If you are just starting out as a blogger and are trying to drive traffic and increase visibility, install the Alexa toolbar and give it a go. If anything, your participation within your online niche will naturally be encouraged. We say install it, comment and ask us to comment back, that way we can actually prove that the system works.
8 Comments
Just like I always say, Alexa ranking is not something to be worried about. Great content and SEO commands traffic that eventually makes one rank better on Alexa.
I never completely understood what Alexa was. Thanks for answering some questions.Why would Amozon care?
I have asked around about Alexa Rankin (as I'm new in SEO, since June this year), and although I have managed to bring my site from 15 mil to 357k (worldwide), and from 15k to 3k national, I don't understand one single thing: why my page had less traffic then a page on the same theme and with no Alexa ranking (I have improved my SEO and worked with keyword tools from Google, and I've done all the s*** necessary)… and I'ts very frustrating!
I wanna ask about reviews, is there any test for reviews effect? How many reviews can boost my site for example?
Hi James,
Thank you for this clear, well written description of how to use Alexa properly.
I have been searching for quite some time for an intelligent article from someone who could lay it out as concisely as you have done here.
You seem well informed and objective about the whole subject which I find helpful and so refreshing, given all the hype and blatant lies online.
I have just installed the tool bar and begun writing reviews on the Alexa site, so it is too early to tell how it will work for me.
But thanks for your insights and continued success, James!
Agreed, Alexa makes us mindful of the good practices we should all be using to drive traffic to our respective sites. Without proper SEO we’d all be spammers – making the internet an even wilder place.
If you look at the history of how the company got started, you start to realize why Amazon acquired them. Back in the 90’s, it was a battle over which search engine to use. Amazon probably figured they’d compete with everyone by offering their own search tool bar, which included back-link information as well. It’s importance is trivial these days, although some still swear by it. We’ll see if they stick around.
Hi Scott!
I stumbled upon your blog on ‘Secrets to a Better Alexa Ranking’ and must say, it’s an excellent read! Your insights on improving alexa rank have provided me with valuable information and actionable tips. Thanks for sharing your expertise and helping us all improve our Alexa rank. Keep up the great work!