What is Alexa Ranking?

Most internet marketing and search engine marketing professionals have heard of Google's PageRank system at some point or another, but not everybody has heard of the Alexa Ranking system. Alexa Internet is a web based company that is owned by the noted Amazon.com Company. They are best known for their efforts toward a website that ranks different websites.

Whether or not the Alexa Ranking system is an important one is relative.

For some websites, the Alexa ranking is vitally important. For other sites, the ranking when it comes to Alexa is relatively unimportant. The Alexa Ranking is a ranking that is based on the traffic to a website. Unlike the floating number that Google's PageRank utilizes, the Alexa Ranking system is ranked anywhere from 1 on up. The lower the number is, the higher the Alexa Ranking is for that site. For example, Yahoo! Is rated number 1 or 2 on the Alexa Ranking system.

How is Alexa Ranking Determined?

Again, Alexa Ranking is a determination that is made based on traffic. That means that sites that see less traffic are bound to have a substantially lower ranking. There is a slant to this ranking system, though and it is that not everybody can participate. Only users who have the Alexa Toolbar installed can participate. There are some other select toolbars that can be installed through Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer that can participate, as well but the main method of tracking is through this Alexa Toolbar.

For this reason, the size of the sampling audience with this tool is relatively small. Many people do not know the Alexa toolbar even exists, and many who may fail to make use of it. The benefits of the Alexa toolbar are lost on many average Internet users, and as such many people who might visit certain sites are not being included in the tallying of the statistics. This means that those who are visiting certain sites are not being counted toward the Alexa Ranking, simply because they do not make use of the toolbar that is used to keep track.

Should I Be Concerned with Alexa Ranking?

Whether or not you should be concerned with Alexa Ranking as a webmaster is up to you. There are many people who take such things into account, and it doesn't help to have yet another positive ranking for your site in your favor. After all, positive page rankings doesn't take any money out of your pocket, but it does have the potential to put a few in.

Google's PageRank is the most important and widely used page ranking system out there. Just as PageRank does, the Alexa Ranking system does have its flaws. The lack of tracking for those that don't have a toolbar installed is just one of them. Also, the system does not keep track of sub-level domain names. Only the main pages of a website are taken into consideration with this system.

Advantages to Alexa Ranking

One of the great advantages to making use of the Alexa Ranking system is that it allows you to compare different web sites. This means that you can take a look at how your competitor sites are doing out there, quite a plus for those who are looking to keep up or exceed the performance of other websites within the same niche. It can also help potential investors or advertisers see how well your site is doing as far as traffic is concerned. The information that the tool passes on is very useful for search engine optimization and helps a lot of webmasters see when and where they might need improvement.

How to Improve Your Alexa Ranking

For those out there that are looking to improve their Alexa Ranking, here are a few tips on how to get that done.

Install the Alexa Toolbar, and tell your friends and associates to do it, too. Pass it on to as many people as you can, and have them visit your website.

Use the Alexa Redirect URL. It is: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect? Followed by your website URL. This will help to boost your Alexa Rank as well.

Get listed on several sites by placing a listing on DMOZ. Remember, it can take up to five months for this to update so you will have to be patient.

Add the Alexa Widget to your web site. This counts visits from people who do not have the Alexa toolbar, and so will naturally boost your ranking.

The Alexa Ranking is not the be-all and end-all of your website's success as some people regard Google PageRank to be. It is a very useful tool for people working on optimizing their pages, and there are some significant benefits to paying attention to the tool and what it has to offer.

Whether or not you choose to actively pursue a positive Alexa Ranking is up to you. Some sites can benefit more from it than others, and there are some great ways to improve your ranking. It never hurts to have yet another internet authority regard your website in a positive light, now does it?

Okay ... so what you need to do is put an Alexa widget on your site (like I do, see bottom of page) and send real traffic to your site - That is the only way to increase your Alexa ranking - and of course visitors (and sales!).

You have some options, you pay other people to send traffic, or invest in some tools to develop more traffic to all your sites.

The guy I'm recommending here has a long history in developing successful software to build traffic and sales, and he's just started a club where you can get your hands on it cheap!

If you are serious about developing more traffic and building yourself successful websites, study this guy's work: Traffic building Software - Click here

More Articles on Web Site Ranking:

What is PageRank? The Ins and Outs of PageRank and Why It Should Matter to You
The buzz around the search engine marketing world is that there is this thing called PageRank that is pretty important. They say it can stand to make or break your website?s presence on the internet, and that webmasters should do everything they can to bow down to this almighty PageRank.

The Importance of DMOZ: Is it Something You Should Be Concerned With?
Most webmasters that are at all seasoned in the business have at least heard of DMOZ, or read about it somewhere on the web. DMOZ stands for Directory Mozilla, but has been officially renamed to the Open Directory Project. In essence, DMOZ is a listing of all of the websites on the internet that have been submitted. They have been meticulously categorized and checked for authenticity before being placed in the directory.

The Yahoo Directory: Is Submission to the Yahoo Directory Worth Your Money?
A good webmaster is always on the lookout for the best ways to improve their site’s exposure and get valuable traffic. Positive search engine rankings are an important part of such endeavors, and search engine marketing is the process of going about modifying the practices and content of your website in such a way as to affect your rankings on the search engine in a positive way.

Increasing Your Website's Visibility: Are Backlinks Really That Important?
Most webmasters are concerned with increasing the visibility of their website on the Internet. Nowadays, a website that goes unnoticed by the search engines is a website that gets very little to no traffic and about the same amount of revenue. If you are at all involved in the world of internet and search engine marketing, you know just how important Google is. The Google Company really is the King of the Internet world, and their search engine website ranking system, PageRank, is vital to any website's success.

Domain Age: Is the Age of Your Domain Really That Important?
Webmasters are all concerned about what it is that is going to contribute toward the success and positive search engine rankings for their site, and rightfully so. A website that gets no exposure is hardly a website at all, at least as far as profit is concerned. While many people do have websites just for the fun of things, there is a lot of money to be made on the World Wide Web with the right kind of site. This is where search engine marketing tactics come in so important, and domain age is one of these techniques.