Alexa Ranking - All You Need To Know
- Monday, May 15, 2017
Who, What, How and Why
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based company that provides commercial web traffic data and analytics. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com. Founded as an independent company in 1996, Alexa was acquired by Amazon in 1999. - Wikipedia
What is the Alexa Rank?
Alexa Rank is an estimate of how popular a site is relative to all other sites. The Alexa Rank answers the question: Compared to all other sites, how is a site doing. A site's rank is not only dependent on that site's traffic, but also on changes to traffic on other sites.
How is the Alexa Rank calculated?
Alexa estimates the average daily visitors and pageviews to every site over the past 3 months. The site with the highest combination of visitors and pageviews over the past 3 months is ranked #1.
Then how does Alexa measure my traffic?
How does Alexa get its data?
Alexa offers a free toolbar as an add-on for the MS Internet Explorer by which a user can gain access to traffic data about the site he is just visiting. Additional data provided are the whois information, the number of pages belonging to the website, how often it is updated and the number of backlinks.
On the other hand the Alexa toolbar includes some sort of a spyware which records the users surfing pattern and reports it to the Alexa database. This is the pool out of which Alexa gathers it�s traffic data on websites.
Alexa records visitors using the Alexa Toolbar. Amazon has taken steps to try to make this toolbar (Alexa Traffic Rank), a browser extension. Unfortunately, the age of toolbars has ended.
Alexa has a large traffic data panel consisting of millions of people all over the world. Based on the data from this sample, Alexa estimates the number of visitors to all sites on the Internet.
Factors that Affect Alexa Ranking?
Alexa the traffic estimator rank based looks into all factors like:
- Page views
- Bounce Rate
- Time on site
Does Alexa Rank matter in SEO?
Alexa Ranking doesn't matter in SEO. No need to be obsessed with Alexa Rank as its highly volatile with lot of factors that are out of a webmaster's control. There is no Alexa Tracking Code to put on your website.
It ranks the primary domain and not a page or sub-domain. A growing Alexa Rank does not necessarily mean that your website is doing bad, it might also be because of other websites out there doing well.
Conclusion
Alexa Ranking doesn't matter as no one buy's from a business/website by evaluating the website Alexa Rank. It is just another product of Amazon, and they want you to buy it. Basically they are selling you their SEO Tools and Services.
A growing Alexa Rank does not necessarily mean that business is doing good or bad. Factors involved in ranking are out of a webmaster's control and depends on external factors (Alexa Toolbar).
Google and other search engines don't relay on the Alexa Ranking to rank a website. Improving the quality of the content on your website and making the user experience better and by making the site sticky that will result in better site engagement times. This will eventually bring all the SEO goodies to your website and ultimately to you.
Joydeep Deb is a Senior Digital Marketer and Project Manager with strong experience in Digital Marketing, Lead Generation, Online Brand Management, Marketing Campaigns, Project Management, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), PPC, eMail Marketing, Web Analytics, Web Technologies, Web Design and Development.
With an MBA in Marketing. IIM Calcutta Alumini. Lives in Bangalore, Karnataka - India.