There are many reasons why you might be interested in improving your Alexa Rank, and also increasing your website traffic.
But what is exactly Alexa?
As you probably know Alexa is a company that takes care of keeping track of the most visited sites in the world.
For each website is assigned a score relative to its position in the ranking of the most visited sites. Google is number 1 and this means that it is the most visited online place in the world. And so on.
Each score is unique, which means that there are no two sites with the same score.
In order to judge the sites around the web, Alexa ranking is based on a toolbar that is installed by millions of people around the world, which sends information (anonymously) about what sites are visited by each user.
The system is quite vulnerable because many do not have this toolbar installed and above all this habit is more marked in some countries rather than others.
Another vulnerability is due to the fact that the sites dedicated to webmasters – for instance WordPress guides, news about tech, web design blogs – usually have a very high ranking and the reason is that at the visitors of these kind of websites often have installed the toolbar. Of course this increases their rankings.
In order to correct these vulnerability factors, since at least 2 years, Alexa no longer depends solely upon its toolbar to gauge traffic stats and it uses several different sources to gather that information.
I am really curious about which traffic sources are considered by Alexa, and unfortunately like the Google algorithm, the secret is well kept.
Common Tips to Increase Your Alexa Rank
1 . Install the toolbar
It is perhaps the more obvious operation to do : install the Alexa Toolbar. Any time you visit your website, you contribute to increase your rankings. Every visit is considered once every 24 hours, so do not continue to refresh the page in order to increase your rankings, as it is useless.
2 . Suggest Your Readers to Install the Alexa Toolbar
You can add a link in your website where your readers can easily download the Alexa Toolbar. You should then invite your users to get it. If you have a newsletter, this could be a way to communicate with your audience. Even if only 20-30 loyal users will install the toolbar in their browsers, this will help a lot in improve your Alexa rankings.
3 . Add the Alexa Widget in Your Website
Unlike what you may read in some articles, adding the Alexa Widget in your blog does not automatically increase your rank, but it gives some more information about your site numbers and invite your users to click on it. For every redirected visit, it’s an improvement of your ranking.
4 . Write Some Reviews on Alexa
I am sure you have some favorite blogs you read with pleasure. So why not write a review on Alexa of these sites? Let the blog owners know you wrote a review, and they will probably exchange the favor. Also writing a review in one of the top 100 rated Alexa sites and then include your URL, could be a method to improve your rank.
5 . Get Some Social Media Traffic
Submit your best posts to popular social media sites like Facebook, StumbleUpon or Reddit : this will bring a lot of traffic to your blog and will contribute to improve your Alexa rank. 6 . Write Webmasters Related Content
Many webmasters have the Alexa toolbar installed. You want to write interesting posts related to SEO, online marketing or webmaster tools and guides. You can then share these articles on webmaster forums and social networking sites.
More Content? More Conversions and Visits by Users!
You already know: the most important part of any online project is made up of the content. Better to say, the most important rule is the creation of high quality content.
It is also known that, in addition to quality, quantity of content is also important. This is important primarily in a SEO point of view. In fact, if your website has a lot of content, you will have more chances to be well positioned on search engines, for a variety of reasons – and keywords. Your visibility will be so much greater than those who, on equal terms, creates less content than you. An analysis published by HubSpot Blog shows us some data on how the amount of content has a positive impact on a website. As mentioned above, if you have a site with lots of content, you have a better chance of getting more visibility and conversions.
Specifically, here’s what the study showed:
- Content shared on social media sites is more successful and popular;
- Websites with a greater number of indexed pages – that is, with a greater number of content created – are more likely to get inbound links;
- Websites with more content have more conversions. It is yet another proof that creating content in quantity – especially when it comes to quality content – gives a nice competitive advantage to your website in relation to your competitors.
- Below, you see a graph from HubSpot that summarize the findings of the research.
This is a cropping of the infographic you find here.
Do you agree with this graph? I did a test in my website, and this case study shows that publishing content daily will bring you quickly a great Alexa Rank (from 100k to 29k in 2 months).
What is your experience?
Do you care about Alexa?
Please share your opinion in the comments. Thanks! Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Sandy Appleyard says
Wow! This is very informative! I’m ashamed to say that I’ve heard of Alexa ranking, I didn’t know until now what it actually was. Thanks so much for sharing!
Erik Emanuelli says
Glad you liked the post, Sandy! π
Thanks for your comment!
Erik Emanuelli recently posted..Helpful Tips to Train Yourself as a Freelance Content Writer
Frederic Gonzalo says
Excellent post, Erik. I monitor my site every now and then with Alexa to track progression from month to month. But since I don’t monetize my blog – it’s basically a thought-leadership showcase, leading to consulting and speaking opportunities, I don’t drive myself nuts with trying to get a better PageRank of lower Alexa score.
As you say, and most experts will agree, the more you post, the better the rankings. But I just can’t justify spending the amount of time in order to post on a daily basis like some folks do. Not with three young kids at home, that is π
Cheers,
Frederic
Frederic Gonzalo recently posted..Social Media Addiction? Who, Me? [INFOGRAPHIC]
Erik Emanuelli says
I see, Frederic.
As you said, Alexa ranking only counts if you are interested in monetizing your website, then you do well not to try to improve the ranking in all possible ways.
And family before everything else! π
Thanks for your comment, Frederic.
Erik Emanuelli recently posted..Blogging Tools
Carol Lynn says
Interesting, I haven’t really bothered to think about my Alexa rank for the very reason you mentioned, which is that it’s highly dependent on having the toolbar installed. I wonder if it would really have any benefit in terms of search rank and traffic? Have you had any experience with that?
Carol Lynn recently posted..4 Things My Cats Can Teach You About Marketing
Erik Emanuelli says
I do not think Alexa can directly help you increase your traffic, Carol.
But I think when you reach a certain level – I can say below 50k – some bloggers will tend to come to your blog and leave a comment, to have a backlink from a good Alexa Ranking blog.
Also, people will search for Alexa rankings articles -and blogs with CommentLuv enabled- in order to leave comments, so they can receive a backlink to their own post about Alexa ranking.
I think it’s all a matter if you are interested in Alexa or not.
Ergo, if you are interested in sell advertising in your blog. π
Erik Emanuelli recently posted..The Most Common Mistakes of a Blog: You Must Avoid Them!
Kritika says
Great article. People really need to utilize the resources you gave. I have used a couple of backlink services and my ranking drop big time.I certainly will be using them. Another great way to get great alexa ranking, it to Get Some Social Media Traffic.
Kritika recently posted..New Top 10 Bollywood Songs list 2013
Erik Emanuelli says
That’s right, Kritika.
I love Social Media and I love to socialize.
I suggest you Triberr and JustRetweet if you have a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn account to connect with those tools.
They are great to increase traffic.
Erik Emanuelli recently posted..2 Unusual but Powerful Ways in Making More Money with Affiliate Marketing from Blogs
Maya says
Hi Erik,
Yes I care about alexa rank. I knew most of the things you have discussed. Writing SEO related articles and reviews about top 100 sites is really very clever idea.
Maya recently posted..Diamond Engagement Rings
Erik Emanuelli says
Yes, Maya,
a clever way to attract people interested in Alexa rankings! π
Thanks for your comment!
Erik Emanuelli recently posted..6 Penguin Types Of Safe Links You Can Get
Mitchel Reverra says
Great article. People really need to utilize the resources you gave. Thanks for sharing!
web designers darlington says
Thanks for sharing such nice tips for increasing the alexa ranking. Web designing is important to make a certain website appealing to the general public. However, the design must be molded into the purpose and objectives of the website to get more traffic by which alexa ranking can be improved.
Alexa says
Really nice tips to increase alexa rank……………….I am a rgular visitor to your blog……..Very nice qualoity content posts…Keep on Posting new things with your post i got alexa rank of 6,00,000
Alexa recently posted..How to find who is online though your friends kept offline in facebook chat