After spending two years building my own website, I was very disappointed that my Alexa rank was still over a million. Alexa ranks each website based on the number of visitors it receives. The highest ranked website, Yahoo! has an Alexa rating of 1 or 2. Less popular sites could rank up to 5,000,000.
To improve my Alexa rating, I spent about three weeks scouring the web for tips, secrets, and proven strategies to boost my Alexa rating. Unfortunately, many of the sites offering advice didn’t even rank highly. Eventually, I discovered several sites ranked in the top 100,000 that were applying the same “Alexa techniques” to improve their rankings. I started implementing several of these techniques and improved my Alexa ranking by 250,000 points in just one week.
Here’s what you need to know. The basis for many of these techniques is the fact that your Alexa ranking is based on reach and page views. However, it only counts those who visit your site and have already downloaded the Alexa toolbar. Anyone can download the toolbar for free, which is automatically added to your browser and tracks the sites you’re visiting. Increasing visits from those who don’t have the Alexa toolbar installed won’t help your Alexa ranking.
I have summarized the 7 strategies I discovered and applied to my own website to increase my Alexa ranking. Apply these strategies to your own website and watch your rankings climb to the top.
1. Download the Alexa Toolbar and use it every day to visit your own website. Alexa even gives you the ability to co-brand the toolbar with your own logo and give it away as a gift. You can download the toolbar here: [http://pages.alexa.com/prod_serv/associatetoolbar.html]
2. Use the Alexa redirect whenever you can. No matter when or where you provide a link to your website, be sure to use the equivalent Alexa redirect URL. For example, when I provide a link to my website, I use [http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com]. If you copy this URL into your browser, it will take you to MarketingScoop.com. To use this technique, simply replace my website name (marketingscoop) with yours.
3. Encourage your website visitors to add your positive testimonials on the Alexa detailed listings page for your website. This can be done by placing a link to the appropriate Alexa page on your website and asking visitors to “click here to rate this website”. Again, just replace my website name (marketingscoop) with yours. By clicking the URL, visitors will be able to reach your detailed rating page and write a review using the review link located on the left side of the page.
4. Write your own site reviews on the top 100 Alexa rated sites and include your redirect URL. The top 500 domains, according to Alexa, can be found at [http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500] When writing a review, be sure to use the URL redirection we discussed in #2 above specifically for your website.
5. Download the Alexa ranking button, traffic history graph, information links and other traffic counters on the page of your website that receives the most traffic. For example, at the bottom of my MarketingScoop.com home page, I added the Alexa ranking box. You’ll notice I haven’t added the traffic history graph. This is because it wouldn’t look appropriate on my home page, and because Alexa only provides detailed history for the top 100,000 sites. So if you’re not in the top 100,000, site stats won’t be available.
6. Post a cheap ad in the ExactSeek search directory at Exactseek.com. Search engine results are directly related to Alexa rankings. You’ll notice that if a website ranks high on ExactSeek, it likely ranks high on Alexa.
7. Get listed on as many search engines as possible by placing a free listing on DMOZ. This is the largest human-edited directory on the web and is co-branded among hundreds of thousands of sites. Be patient though, it often takes up to 5 months before you see your website listed after submission. Although it takes more time than it should, you have little to say about it because it is widely used on the Internet.
These simple Alexa strategies are easy to implement and will make a world of difference to your Alexa ranking. Ultimately, you want visitors to do more than visit your home page, you want them to interact with your site. Be sure to optimize your homepage for SEO, usability, and interaction purposes. Creating a positive user experience will keep visitors coming back time and time again.
