Is Alexa ranking important for your blog or website

Alexa ranking has started gaining great deal of significance in recent times when it comes to your website evaluation.Websites in the internet which offer information related to site’s metrics, Search Engine Optimization insights, competitor analysis, website worth, rank checking etc., do include Alexa rank of the website being evaluated. Alexa rank of a website has become so important for even monetizing the site as few advertising networks vary the pay based on your Alexa ranking and few even deny your proposal for displaying contextual ads for your Alexa rank being very low or not up to the mark.If you plan to sell your website at a popular marketplace, the first key factor which will affect your site’s price would be it’s Alexa ranking.Though I personally do not give much importance to Alexa rank as it is not that reliable and accurate,I am still discussing it because it has become so popular and it plays a significant role when it comes to getting financial success online.Virtually it has become the key parameter for any website evaluation tool available in the wild.Let me explain you about Alexa ranking and it’s importance in getting success online.

About alexa.com and Alexa ranking strategy

Alexa, an amazon.com company has been a global pioneer in offering actionable analytics, meaningful insights that lead to real competitive advantage for your business.They claim to offer powerful tools which help you benchmark your site with standard metrics, discover competitors traffic strategies and optimize site content.

What is Alexa ranking and how is it calculated 

They provide both global rank and rank in a specific country where the blog or website is actually popular.These ranks will let you know how your site is ranked relative to other sites.For the websites with an Alexa rank over 1,00,000, the global rank is actually a rough estimate of the site’s popularity.You could actually believe in Alexa rank only if your website’s rank is below 1,00,000 because they do not possess and process the historical data of sites ranked > 1,00,000.Put in good effort to enter into top 1,00,000 sites where it stands as a sign that you are getting heavy traffic.Their traffic rank is a measure of how the website is doing when compared to all the websites in the internet over the past three months.The Alexa ranking algorithm calculates the website rank using a combination of average daily visitors to the evaluated site and page views to the website or blog over the past three months.

Role of Alexa toolbar in Alexa ranking

Alexa gets most of the information to generate the traffic ranks, related links, total sites linking in and much more from the Alexa toolbar community.Users of this toolbar get useful information and contributes useful information about the web back to Alexa.Even the extension they have build for all the popular browsers like Chrome,Firefox and Internet Explorer also does the same and helps you in quickly getting details like Alexa traffic rank, top queries driving traffic to the site,related links, site load time and much more of the site you are currently viewing in your browser.Please find the below image which depicts the features of the extension. You could get the extension from here –  http://www.alexa.com/toolbar

How does Alexa ranking work and is it really worthy

I am sure you would be waiting for the answers to the above questions.Let me get into facts and details of Alexa ranking.In reality the Alexa rank has got nothing to do with your website’s traffic.Many people live around with a false assumption that website’s with good Alexa rank get heavy traffic when compared to other websites.There are thousands of websites which are very popular but still with a bad Alexa rank.

Those blogs and websites which get heavy traffic with their visitors having Alexa toolbar or extension in their browsers do rank high and end up having a better Alexa rank than websites with even more traffic.Since it is very common that web masters, bloggers, Search Engine Optimization experts, website building freelancers and guest post writers etc., have these tools of Alexa in their browsers, it is vivid that websites and blogs related to online marketing, Search Engine Optimization, tips and tricks for blogging, blogging guides, web design etc., will have a better Alexa rank when compared to other blogs and websites.

Positive side of Alexa Ranking and its importance

• These days the blog’s reputation and popularity are measured based on its Alexa rank.
• You could sell your website for a higher price if the Alexa rank is good and below 1,00,000.Buyers will estimate the site’s traffic by Alexa rank.This is being referred by every potential buyer and a lower rank ensures them that they could go ahead and buy it.
• People regularly submit guest posts to popular websites to gain quality backlinks. Does the website administrator blindly publish your article? Even if the article is well composed and has no spam content and copied content in it, the chances are high that the administrator might not publish your post just because of your Alexa ranking not being good or less.
• The chances are high that advertisers might contact you for posting an advertisement in your blog or website if your Alexa rank is less than 1,00,000.

Now that you know how important Alexa ranking is for all those who want to monetize their website, let me explain you the tips to improve Alexa ranking.

How to improve Alexa ranking for your blog or website?

Many people keep complaining that their traffic has increased by leaps and bounds but the Alexa rank has increased.I make it clear that its just a myth where people think that their Alexa rank is totally dependent on the traffic they get.Traffic is also considered but it is not the major factor.My observation is that Alexa rank improves over time if you regularly update your site.Point to note is that even a site with constant traffic rates with no improvement over a period of time will also see an improvement in Alexa rank if it is regularly updated with good quality posts.The following tips will not guarantee but will help you to improve Alexa rank over a period of time.

•  If possible update your blog or website daily with at least one good post and make sure you use the Alexa toolbar or extension in your browser.
• Write about Alexa and ask your readers and friends to install the toolbar or extension so that if your blog gets returning visitors,your rank will gradually improve.
• Make sure that you avail the website review feature in alexa.com. Ask your readers to write a review of your site there.
• Create an Alexa account or use your Facebook account to sign up and claim your site or blog.They will ask you to verify by either uploading a file available for download or by adding a meta tag to your site’s header.

Use File Manager available in your control panel provided by your web host to upload the file to appropriate directory.I hope this article answered your doubts with respect to Alexa ranking and its importance when it comes to getting success online.

Note : Just make sure that you do not employ any false strategies to boost your Alexa rank.Do not purchase any plan from any website saying that they would improve your Alexa rank in no time.Remember that,employing false means to achieve good rank or something will always ruin your site’s credibility and might even ruin your ranking in search engines.

Conclusion : I conclude saying that Alexa ranking has great significance in the web.But the ranking strategy they have employed is not appropriate.

Please do write in the comments section if you have any queries or any more ideas.