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What is Alexa Ranking and how Important it is?

All Media planners, Internet marketing guys refer to alexa to get a idea about the traffic a site gets…….. but most of them dont know how alexa works… The article below throws some light on it….

Alexa Ranking – A Web Site Monetization Strategy?

All businesses that employ online marketing, strive to improve their conversion rate. Now, there are
different ways of attracting targeted traff?c. Some try to achieve a good ranking in the SERPs, while
others are satisfied with heavier traffic. Either way, everybody has the goal of achieving financial success.

But, while scoring high with Google may seem to certain business people the only way to make themselves
known and thus reach their goal, there are others that think that a good position in the Alexa ranking
system might benefit them just as well.

What is Alexa Ranking?

This is a ranking system set by

alexa.com (a subsidiary of amazon.com )
that basically audits and makes public the frequency of visits to various Web sites. The algorithm by which
Alexa traff?c ranking is calculated, is simple. It is based on the amount of traffic recorded over a period
of three months from users that have the Alexa toolbar installed.

This traff?c is based on such parameters as reach and page views. The reach refers to the number of Alexa
users who visit a particular site in one day. Page view, as the name indicates, is the number of times a
particular page (URL) is viewed by Alexa users. Alexa.com makes it clear though that, if a particular user
visits the same URL multiple times on the same day, all those visits will be counted as one.

The first step of the ranking process is calculating the reach and number of page views for all the sites
on the Web on a daily basis. Alexa ranking is obtained by performing the geometric mean of reach and page
views, averaged over a predefined period of time (three months).

How Alexa Ranking Works

It’s quite easy to get started. All you have to do is visit the

alexa.com site and download (and install)
the Alexa toolbar. This toolbar offers a search function, but it mainly displays the rank (at a global level)
of the visited site, as well as the sites that have been visited by Web surfers that are linked in some way
to the site being visited.

The Alexa toolbar not only displays information, but it also sends data to the central server. Thus, each
time you visit a Web page via a Web browser (be it Internet Explorer or Firefox) that has the toolbar
installed, information is sent to the server indicating your IP and the page you are visiting. Such data
is gathered from all the Web users who have the Alexa toolbar.

With Alexa, the smaller the numerical ranking, the better. Most people say that if you manage to make it
in the top 100,000, it is a sign that your site enjoys quite heavy traff?c.

Is Alexa Ranking Worth Anything?

Benefits

• Alexa Traffic can be used as acompetitive
  intelligence tool, but you should take into consideration the fact that the audience sample size is fairly
  small. Just enter your competitor’s site in the “Compare Sites” section and measure the results of your web marketing
  efforts in comparison with your competitors’.
• As opposed to Google’s PageRank, the lower your ranking number, the better.
• It helps Webmasters and advertisers see the real marketing potential of your Web site. The better your
  Alexa rank, the higher they may be willing to bid to buy advertising space on your Web site.
• Personal pages or blogs are also ranked in the same way as ordinary Web sites. They will even get a
  distinctive mark (*)
• Because Alexa ranking helps you with information about your Web site, it is a good instrument for
  search engine optimization.

Disadvantages

• Not everybody has the Alexa toolbar installed, so there might be mill?ons of Web sites that, even if
  they have a lot of traff?c, will not be ranked (or not high enough) by Alexa. It is rather relative.

• Many people say that it is inaccurate and that Alexa traff?c can be greatly influenced (or “gamed”,
  as some prefer to call it).
• Subdomains are not ranked separately, and neither are subpages within a domain. The overall
  traffic is calculated for the top-level domain only.

Ways to Improve Your Alexa Ranking

If you want to boost your Alexa traff?c ranking, you just have to follow some quite simple rules, such as:

• Download and install the Alexa toolbar and then surf your own site.
• Place the Alexa widget on your Web site. It will entice visitors to use it and, you know,
  each click counts.
• Write useful, quality content, mostly webmaster-related. Promote it on webmaster forums and on
  social networking sites. The idea is to get as many computer and Internet savvy people as possible
  to visit your site, since the probability that they will have the Alexa toolbar installed is high.
• Write blogs and articles about Alexa. You will get links to your pages that will help improve
  your ranking.
• Try to get your articles on such blog sites as digg.com, del.icio.us, or www.stumbleupon.com
• Optimize your site (or relevant pages of it) for Alexa related keywords.
• Tell your friends about the Alexa toolbar, have them download and install it on their computers,
  and then tell them to visit your site.
• Use an Alexa redirect. This means placing http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect? in front of your Web
  site’s URL. Alexa will then take into consideration clicks on redirected links even if the visitor does
  not have the Alexa toolbar.
• Apparently, Asian people are huge fans of Alexa. Therefore, many people suggest posting in Asian
  social networking forums.
• Whenever you post on webmaster forums, include your site’s URL in your signature. It is very likely
  that most webmasters have the toolbar installed, and there’s a great probability that they’ll visit your site.

Conclusion

As we have seen, there are pros and cons to Alexa ranking. The bottom line is that most people consider
it valuable only for direct advertising. Given the fact that Alexa ranking for a site is calculated on
the basis of how many visitors with the Alexa toolbar installed have visited that particular site, the
results can be inaccurate.

Nevertheless, it may prove useful for sites with very good traff?c that attract highly target?d leads,
since Alexa focuses more on the traffic that Web sites receive rather than on links to it. As a Web
site monetization strategy, we can safely say that Alexa ranking might be the right solution.