Some would argue that it is not worth it and is only a system to track traffic. In fact a lot of the traffic they track usually depends on whether or not your visitor installed the Alexa tool bar. So how does Alexa put together a number for each site?
According to Alexa’s FAQ How are Alexa’s traffic rankings determined?, traffic rank is determined by the number of uses of their toolbar. The uses are divvied between page views and reach. Even if you visit a site multiple times, your visit is only counted once. Again, this is solely based on Alexa users.
So what could this mean for some people who want to improve it?
This means that you should probably encourage your visitors to download the Alexa toolbar. For those who have websites already, it might be a good thing as there are plugins for Firefox that you can install and monitor your Alexa rank without even directly visiting the site.
Does Alexa Rank Really Matter?
Yes, it does. A lot of ad systems and advertisers look at these ranks to figure out how successful a site is and gauge how many people they could possibly attract through purchasing advertising. Others think of it as a site goal to make a certain number. That is fine too.
People need these type of systems to find some sort of progress. Please do remember that it does take some work to achieve these types of goals. Some webmasters will succeed faster than others due to their website’s topics and their influence within social networks as well as other online communities.
Dan Keller writes in his article How to Improve your Alexa Ranking. You might want to hop on over there and read his post. I do want to note that even though he mentions webmaster, you can pretty much exchange it with your target audience and you will do fine.
Do you know your Alexa rank? Have you already downloaded the Alexa Toolbar? Should website owners pay attention to their rank at Alexa?
Note: In 2019, I did a follow-up on whether Alexa Rank still matters. You may want to read it before considering.
Lots of people will say it's not the important it, but to whom? this is the question, it depends on what you think and what your want from blogging and your blog!
For me Alexa rank and any other rank matter because it's one thing advertisers looking for on blogs!
Ah, I see Alexa rank of your blog is 100 wow! …. ah it's because I am opening it through Digg tool bar, I have just dugg your post 🙂
So your rank is 140k which means you need to enhance it, I read Dan's post earlier today, it has pretty good tip, specially if you can get some reviews for your blog, and some those guy who are using Alexa toolbar and Firefox add-on (like me) to your blog!
mmm by comparing my Alexa rank to yours, mine is 29K my traffic is higher than yours, and I have a few reviews and you only one (I have just review your blog), so I think now you know what you need to enhance your Alexa rank if you are interested, and this depends on the way you look to your site and where you want it to go!
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I have not been working too much on my Alexa rating until about 2 weeks ago. It has gone from 179K o 140K. I actually have a goal to get it to under 100K by June before I go to WordCamp. For WPAddict, I have a goal to get it to at least 150K or better.
Congrats on the great ranking. I actually use to run a fanfiction community that was 46K on Alexa.
I hope you can reach your goal by June! by the way my blog is only 6 months old, so you can imagine!
I am working today on FB blog, I need to play a little with the theme.. I will be active again by tomorrow so we can start publishing new posts 😉 have a great weekend!
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I hope so too 😀
I just go through a few times when I focus on certain things. Since I write alone, it was last year I noticed my site around 3 million in Alexa. I got it to 300K in 2 months. I stopped focusing on it and now started back up again.
Thanks for the link and as you know I think Alexa does matter. Like Hesham states if it matters to advertisers then it matters to me.
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I saw your post on Seeded Buzz and I really do not talk much on the subject, but it was a great motivation. And why not link to your post. It is helpful and obviously you have worked on your site to produce good results rank- wise.
One thing, people says Alexa is unfair! But the thing is… most of the people check Alexa rank to check the state of the web site….. specially, most of the advertisers do this! 😀
Alexa rank is really important, at least advertisers do use it. Just that their data is biased.
Thanks
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It's not as important as before because by now, everybody knows that you CAN manipulate your Alexa rank, all you need is the Alexa toolbar, family and friends. I administer some websites that are not even indexed in any search engines and managed to get them to rank around 500K-600K from 8M in less than 2 weeks! I even bragged about this at presentations for prospective clients a few years back and they gave me that who-gives-a-damn-about-alexa-ranking look with a matching smirk! It would be a good idea for Alexa to put a disclaimer on its website warning people that thier data is "For Amusement / Entertainment Use Only" as Alexa rankings CAN be easily manipulated.
Do any search engines or indexing sites give any priority based upon the alexa ranking? I hope so. Either way, I think the ranking will matter for advertisers as stated(but which ones?, adsense?) and if you are wanting to sell your site it may also help greatly, at least if you are in the top 100k.
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It is so important to track your site with Alexa. It brings the sports spirit into your web development. You want it better – so you work harder – improve your rating – get better result – better sales! Alxa is giving to the web world the same rankings as in professional tennis or golf – if you are not compeeting on alexa – you are not a pro!!!
I have created a custom Toolbar for Alexa that displays my network of high quality webmaster's blogs with dofollow links and approved commenting. My website will continue to grow as community of these people categorized by interest, increasing their rankings with Alexa, and the search engines as well with high quality backlinks. Here is the link, https://s3.amazonaws.com/com.alexa.toolbar/atbp/e…
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Alexa doesn't really matter for most of the users but it could be very helpful for advertisers. I look at my alexa rank a lot of times and it motivates me to get it higher, so I make myself some goals that I want to reach each month.
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alexa matters only to advertisers. the only thing bloggers and website owners should care about is making money from their visitors. If you are running adsense ads on you blog or site.. then why would you care about your rankings?
Good Topic. Previously I didn’t rely on Alexa rank but i saw whenever it comes to rank gradually people started to think on Alexa rank like Google rank. This implies that Alexa rank has some important (matter) in the industry, especially in the case of traffic. Thanks…
I never new that about the Alexa toolbar needing to be installed. Thanks for the heads up!