Alexa Ranking

This blog is quite new. It's about a pretty tightly focused area of information and the competition are all experts in SEO. That means that it shouldn't really get huge traffic or ever achieve great search engine position. At least not in short order… that takes time right?

Alexa is a free site ranking service, owned by Amazon that provides an interesting (and controversial) view on how your site is doing compared to all the other sites on the net. The controversy comes from the fact that the ranking is skewed and not in any way an accurate measure of your site traffic. Since the data comes from users of the Alexa Bar, it's also open to manipulation.

However, it is a relative measure and it does show a "big picture" image of how popular your site is getting. There are also some useful metrics available on the site. Linking to Alexa, also gets them to link back to your site…

Today: November 14, 2009 our Alexa Ranking is 782,345

Here's a look at some of the other data that you can get:

1. Why is this number different from the previous rank which was generated 5 minutes beforehand?

2. No links showing here yet; I have over one hundred links to the site in reality.

3. Here's all the information that you can glean. Now webmasters will go on about how the data from your server logs is far more accurate and useful. I agree. But, when was the last time you looked at your server logs, hmm? This can give you a quick snapshot to see whether or no your site is headed in the right direction.
(For the record, I look at server logs every week.)

4. More useful data and I can hear many people commenting, "But Google Analytics is far more accurate." Again, I agree.

5. Interesting to see how the site ranks in the 2 countries.

These stats are only useful when compared to how you are doing in three, six or nine months time. What are the trends? Where are you going? Is your SEO firm taking your site in the right direction?

Alexa is a quick way to check. Do Not check it daily! That's just crazy making.

Alexa Is Great For Quick Competitive Research

You can also use it to check on the competition or to see what the competition is like in a new business niche that you are considering entering. I find that Alexa is most useful for that quick look, competitive research.

It's worth the time to register/claim your site at Alexa, even if all it gets you is a link back to your site from a Page Rank 7, 1 million + visitor a month site.