Don’t Worry About Your Alexa Rank
EDIT: My Alexa rank just updated again today and I now have a rank of 100,626. Only another drop of 626 to reach my Race for Rank goal!
EDIT 3/17/07: With another update, I’ve reached my Race for Rank goal and now have a rank of 96,034.
In my Race for Rank series, I have been addressing the methods that I’m using to improve my Technorati Authority and Rank, Alexa Rank, and PageRank.
The point of the series is not to add to the hype around rank but to bring tools and ideas to mind that may improve the ranks assigned to your site by these commonly respected ranking systems.
Recently, Alexa again updated their traffic rankings. With this last update I’m Blogging That now sits at an Alexa rank of 104,297. You may recall that when I started my Race for Rank series on January 28th, my Alexa rank was sitting at 168,322.
In just a short 5 weeks, my Alexa rank has dropped by 64,025. To reach my Race for Rank goal with Alexa by the end of April this means my rank needs to drop by another 4,297 to be in the top 100,000.
Can I do it?
Of course I can, but I’m no longer going to actively care about my Alexa rank and I believe that you shouldn’t either!
I would venture to guess that the majority of those using Alexa these days are webmasters. These webmasters may understand, like it or not, that there’s an importance placed on Alexa in direct relation to the amount of money that is paid to webmasters by advertisers.
In my last post about Alexa, Better Alexa Rank in 5 Days, I mentioned how my Alexa rank dropped in just 5 days because of the massive amount of StumbleUpon traffic that I had recently received.
Traffic has gone unchanged since I wrote that post. But I have stopped wondering what other methods I could employ to drop my Alexa rank below my goal.
Realizing that my rank was dropping in direct relation to the amount of StumbleUpon traffic that I was receiving, I took one action that has been beneficial to me in more ways than one.
Networking
I’ve asked friends to give my post a Stumble, I’ve suggest to my readers that if they enjoy the post, they bookmark, and I have actively begun networking in more areas than I would have to naturally encourage social bookmarking by my visitors.
The result of my networking efforts are now displayed in my Alexa rank.
Find Your Networking Niche
Every social networking site seems to cater to one particular niche or another. Register at a variety of sites, check out the posts that are making it to the front pages and the posts that are reaching the first page for the different categories.
If you see that food and health are the biggest categories of a social networking site and your blog isn’t about food and health, maybe it’s not the place for you.
Dig within social networking sites to find the source that could be a good flow of potential traffic and long-term visitors/readers of your blog. Give it some time before you give up on a social networking site and move on.
Pay attention to the newest sites popping up for bookmarking and networking. While traffic from the newest sites will come in small doses, you are given the opportunity to utilize these sites to the fullest while still on the ground floor level. This will lead to you becoming a power user at the site and having more influence of the content that is displayed and pushed to the top.
Don’t spend days upon days doing nothing but networking. It could become a little boring, tedious, and tiring. Instead, set yourself a time limit to network several days per week and commit to actually networking with others and promoting your posts during that time period.
The better you become at networking and bookmarking for the others, the more you will get noticed and traffic will increase. As you see results of your efforts, you’ll also find that networking isn’t so boring and that there’s a lot to learn from it. It’ll keep your interest longer but will also teach you the tricks of the trade to accomplish your goals faster!
What’s your result?
When using different methods and tools to improve the rankings on your site, what do you find works best? Can you pinpoint site accomplishments to a specific action that you have taken?
If you have any additional tips for the Race for Rank series, I’d love to know your thoughts.
Sarah Says:
With my blogs, since I’m a mom, and both involve moms, I’ve been getting more active at CafeMom. There are so many groups on there, for any walk of life, pretty much, and it makes networking an easy thing to do.
I don’t get a huge rush of folks visiting, but I do get about the same each day (between 5 and 10, according to stats). It works for me. :) That, and entrecard, but I’m not basing much on that, since most of those visits are for like 4 seconds, long enough to drop a card and then they’re gone.
I’ve been noticing my Alexa rank dropping at a steady rate. I’ve lost quite a lot since I installed Sparky (at your encouragement). It’s awesome. Now to get the same results from Google. I’m sitting at 0/10 with the last update, which means site is now actively being tracked, but I guess I wasn’t “forgiven” :(
Posted on March 12th, 2008
Laura Says:
I’m going to come back and read your posts about rank. I never remember what each number means. Some are good when high and some are good when low.
I have a personal blog, not monetized, not interested in making my blog another job. But it is a challenge to make it grow and watch the numbers change. Like a game really.
Posted on March 12th, 2008
Becky Says:
I just recently started noticing alexa rankings and I never really understood them till now. Thanks for the info!
Posted on March 12th, 2008
James Christensen Says:
Alexa is a strange duck. I agree with Laura in making it a game…
Posted on March 12th, 2008
Technology Slice Says:
Alexa rank is too unreliable to mean anything. A site could have a lot of traffic and still have a bad Alexa rank.
Posted on March 12th, 2008
Phil the Plumbing Expert Says:
I agree, Alexa rank is unreliable. It displays inaccurate result sometimes. :(
Posted on March 12th, 2008
Katy Says:
Laura » Sounds to me like you’re in the best position to not care about ranks. Turning it into a game could be fun as well and will make it much more enjoyable when you simply don’t have to care.
Becky » You’re quite welcome.
Technology Slice » While it’s possible that a site could have a lot of traffic and a high Alexa rank, it sure doesn’t seem like that’s a usual case. And regardless of what is felt about their system, their rank is still relevant when you one of the hundreds (maybe thousands) of webmasters attempting to monetize your website. Companies still use it as a measuring tool therefore when it comes to monetization, you should care.
Phil » While I get that it may be unreliable, I haven’t seen it display inaccurate numbers before.
Posted on March 13th, 2008
Craig Says:
Great post. Personally I like the social networking route. There’s so many to choose from now that are related to whatever your niche is. I’ve found lots by searching on http://findasocialnetwork.com
Posted on March 13th, 2008
Sarah Says:
Woo hoo, mine changed too:
was 524,529
now it’s 464,548
change 59,981
*passes out*
Posted on March 13th, 2008
Dani Says:
I just submitted my site to Alexa yesterday. At this time I don’t particularly care about the rankings and I hope I don’t become obsessed about them in the future.
Posted on March 13th, 2008
Michelle Says:
I have heard that Alexa bases their traffic on the toolbar installed on the visitor’s browser. So, if you receive a lot of traffic from technically inclined users, your traffic is better (thus explaining why tech sites have a better rank).
But, look at some of the celebrity gossip sites…Do you think those users have the web savvy (or even care) to download the Alexa toolbar to their browser? Probably not - so why do these celebrity oriented sites have such good ranking (DListed.com for example is in the 4,000 range) and they get 2 million hits per week.
I still value Alexa and can directly correlate my site statistics to their values. When my traffic is up for the week - my Alexa rank goes up (or shall I say down in number). And, if I place an ad on a site with good Alexa rank, my traffic usually increases, and if it’s the right niche, sales increase as well.
Sorry for the long post, but in conclusion, I think rank does matter for advertising, but you also have to consider the quality of traffic. You have to track your raw log data to see your true traffic and from where your clicks are coming. In today’s web market, it all matters. Good luck to us all - it’s a tough game!
Posted on March 14th, 2008
Manda Says:
I’ve never understood the rank, but I’m learning thanks to your posts.
Posted on March 14th, 2008
Katy Says:
Sarah » LOL WooHoo, congratulations on your drop. That’s a big one! :D
Michelle » When Alexa first rolled out, there were a lot of non-web savvy people using it. For that reason, there are all walks of people that will help boost your Alexa rank. However, more and more it seems that less everyday people are using Alexa and more tech savvy.
As far as celebrity blogs you have to figure… everyone has a different interest. I know a lot of power bloggers that have celebrity blogs.
And I have to agree with you, like the system or not, when it comes to advertising rank in all forms is something that the webmaster should consider as well as stay on top of!
Manda » Glad I could help! :D
Posted on March 14th, 2008
RandomThinker Says:
Thanks for the encouragement! I’ve been obsessed with my Alexa rank, and maybe I should just chill out!
You’re right about StumbleUpon traffic. After a few days of decent traffic, my rank dropped by over 1 Million! I don’t know if it’s a coincidence and it was on its way down or what, but I’m certainly happy with it. Only 404,00 to go until I make it in the top 100k! It’s been going down fast, so I’m wondering if I will go through a period where the it slows to a trickle. We’ll see…
Great post.
Posted on March 14th, 2008
Katy Says:
I decided that I wanted to set goals for my ranks and see how I could work different techniques from around the net to increase (or in some cases decrease) my rank. It’s been quite the experiment but very fun!
Good luck with lowering your Alexa rank and keep at it. StumbleUpon and other social networking traffic will help as well as reaching out to other bloggers in the many different blogger forums. They’re great readers and excellent for helping with the Alexa rank.
Posted on March 14th, 2008
beeker Says:
After reading your first goal article, I decided to go check out my ranking. It was in the 1.5 million range. I have been working on my networking and today my rank is 399,371. I get a lot of hits with Entrecard but for the most part that traffic is click and go. So I don’t place a lot of emphasis on the ranking. I signed up for Blog Catalog and I am going to do more with StumbleUpon. What other options should I consider for networking?
Posted on March 17th, 2008
Katy Says:
With more options, sounds like we were on the same page today and because of your comment I know you’ve seen the post. :o)
Posted on March 17th, 2008
Anca Says:
I have never even checked my Alexa ranking. I know it sucks, so I don’t want to get sad :) I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing, and network some more, and hope the traffic and ranks will follow!
Posted on March 18th, 2008
Katy Says:
In the long run, it’s really not about what your rank is. It’s how you can bring in visitors to your site that actually care about your content to stay long enough to read it and even better, come back.
Working to get those visitors naturally will always bring your rank down. :o)
Posted on March 18th, 2008
Anca Says:
Katy, my site is a few months old. I took the archives down and replaced it with Recent Posts, Recent Comments and Top Commentators. I just didn’t want to burden my sidebar too much, and I thought I can live without Archives while I have Categories and Recent Post. Thanks for stopping by there, I know I have much more to learn, but I’m trying :)
Posted on March 19th, 2008
Katy Says:
Finding archives on a website is a huge deal and no matter the space, you should always display them in some form. Check to see if your theme has an archives page template to display your archives on a page.
Typically, I don’t read a blog I can’t find archives for. They give your voice credibility and should absolutely be used. Also, from what you listed, I would say that archives is significantly more important than “recent comments.”
Posted on March 19th, 2008
Anca Says:
Katy, I’ve just reinstalled the Archives at your advice. Thank you so much, I guess I didn’t really realize the importance of it. I’ve had the blog for 6 months, but due to some health problems only been active, posting and promoting for about 3 months. I love it and hope to get better and better :)
Posted on March 19th, 2008
Katy Says:
Posted on March 20th, 2008
Anca Says:
Thanks again Katy, I did read your about page earlier today but had to go to work and didn’t have time to reply. That’s so cool you’re from Vegas, maybe we can keep in touch and, whenever you have time, you can “mentor” me about, any advice would be greatly appreciated. I’ve stumbled you and added you to de.ici.ous, and now I’m off to subscribe to your feed!
All the best
Posted on March 21st, 2008
buyers web Says:
yeah i find alexa ranking is like a box of chocalates yeah never know what your going to get lol…i always find more traffic equals better alexa ranking…:)
Posted on April 3rd, 2008
Katy Says:
Posted on April 3rd, 2008
Internet Age Says:
Since you made this post, just over 2 months ago you are now on 90,681, thats 10,000 down. You must be doing something very right.
Posted on May 17th, 2008
Katy Says:
Posted on May 18th, 2008
kristen Says:
I had a website that I improved from 10 million to 400,000 with lots of hard work and tons of time. I just checked my rank (in the toolbar) and my rank has completely disappeared to “no rank” literally, overnight….HOW does this happen? Is it a glitch or am I going to need to start from scratch? I’m panicking!
Posted on May 20th, 2008
Katy Says:
Posted on May 21st, 2008