Recently, I was asked by a reader how they could increase traffic to their blog. When I asked them what their Alexa rating was, they had no idea what an Alexa rating was. They aren’t alone. Judging by the Alexa rank of many *good* websites, I’m guessing that it’s a mystery to most. If you are already familiar with Alexa, you may want to know some ways you can improve your ranking.

First, you will want to go to Alexa.com and check out your website or blog’s rating. On their homepage, there will be a searchbox, just type your website’s domain name there.  You will instantly see your rating, and probably the top queries to your website. Out of 22-25 million websites, the closer your ranking is to #1, the better. If yours is under 3 million, you should be proud-especially if you haven’t been working on improving it.

Then go to “Toolbar” and install the Alexa toolbar. It’s not only good for your rating, but you’ll find it very helpful. Everytime you log onto your own site, you can see how your ranking has changed. You will be able to see what causes your score to go up or down. In fact, make a note of what your ranking is when you first check it, then compare it in a week or so after you have completed a few of these tips. Let us know if it helps!

There is another way to view your Alexa ranking as well as several measures of a site’s success from Quirk.biz, but I’m not sure it will benefit your ranking. You will find it less intrusive, hiding so quietly in the bottom corner of your screen, and it will also give you the Google page rank. So for now, I have them both installed. (What can I say? I try, then I tell you what works…it’s what I do. )

You’ll also be interested in seeing what other websites rank, and you will begin to learn what makes a difference and what doesn’t. So what is a good Alexa ranking? Well, Google is #1 (surprise, surprise), Facebook is #2, and you can view the other 498 on the “Top (500)Sites” tab. Detailed information is available if you are in the elite ranks of the top 100,000, but it was a landmark event when this little site of mine made it into the 6 figure range (under 1,000,000). Our next goal is the 5 figure range, but I have a feeling that may take a bit longer. Who knows, maybe some of these ideas will work for us, too.

WHY is your Alexa rating important?

From an advertiser’s point of view, it is worth money. The better your rank, the higher perceived value of your website. Now there are questions whether or not Alexa is a true measure of a site’s intrinsic value, due to the way it is calculated. The only other revered measurement tool is Google’s page rank system, and we all know how fickle that can be-especially on only a 1-10 scale!  So the bottom line is Alexa’s opinion of you may not be entirely accurate, but it is important because it’s all there is for significant others to judge you by.

HOW is Alexa’s ranking calculated?

All their calculations are taken from those that have the Alexa toolbar installed in their browser. So the argument against Alexa’s accuracy stems from who actually downloads something like that to begin with? Webmasters, techies, and people that care about their ranking. In defense, yet not complete agreement, of those that say it’s skewed towards a certain groups of users, aren’t they usually the heaviest users representing the lion’s share of purposeful surfers? To read more about the inner workings of Alexa’s ranking system, go to http://www.avangate.com/articles/alexa-ranking-99.htm

How to improve your Alexa ranking

For the record, I believe the best way to improve your traffic, your ranking, your online income is to consistently post quality information that others can use. It’s also extremely important to connect to other quality websites. For instance, in addition to a good overview and summary of what you came here for,  I’m also giving you several excellent links to find more information on improving your Alexa ranking.

Ben Lang is a young entrepreneur that has a blog that has you will find a lot of great information, including these 10 ways to improve your ranking. He used these methods to go from 2,000,000 to 115,000 in about 4 months:

http://ben-lang.com/10-free-ways-to-improve-your-alexa/

1. Install the Alexa toolbar, and set your site as your homepage in your browsers.
2. Add an Alexa widget, button or graph to your site.
3. Get reviews and ratings on the Alexa site.
4. Write or blog about Alexa (as I am doing now.)
5. Share your site in webmaster forums, since many members have the toolbar installed.
6. Write content related to “techish,” “web” people, so that they are attracted to your site.
7. Make sure your site is active on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon.
8. Join Asian social networks, the Alexa toolbar is very popular in the Asian tech community.
9. Set up a freebie page, tool or resource list, free e-book that attracts other people who may have the Alexa toolbar installed. (in other words, target the techies and webmasters!)
10. Don’t forget, more traffic = better! (sort of a ‘Catch 22′, huh?)

DoshDosh.com also has a really good overview (and some definite opinions) on improving your Alexa ranking. Some of the methods are questionable, but thought you had a right to know. I thought it interesting that when the author of Dosh Dosh moved his blog from Blogspot to his own domain, his ranking went from around 3 million to 21,709 in just 2 months.He does mention other factors affecting that increase, too.

And you thought all you had to do was put your blog or website up and write a few posts….it’s only the beginning!

Posting your Alexa ranking in a comment will help!  Let us know what works for you.

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