How I improved my Alexa rank
I recently wrote about Alexa rankings, and told you I was going to experiment at improving the Alexa rank for this site. Here’s a little look at how my rank has improved.
Besides writing the Alexa article, all I did was install the search status extension for Firefox, therefore tracking my own internet browsing.
Before installation my Alexa rank was 66,405.
Alexa rank increase
- Day 1 = 62,854
- Day 2 = 62,854
- Day 5 = 61,400
- Day 8 = 60,430
- Day 13 = 60,595
- Day 17 = 56,945
Immediately after installing the widget (and publishing an article about it) I gained a considerable drop (increase) in rank, followed by a leveling-off period, then another sharp drop.
From what I’ve read, the fastest way to improve your rank is if your readers have the toolbar or search status extension installed so that other people have their viewing of your site tracked.
So when I’m reading your online articles it’s helping Alexa track your very own pages, doing a little to improve your rank.
Here’s what a few other people are saying.
Dan, at The Wrong Advices, writes how using post excerpts increases your Alexa rank, and says:
A quick and easy way of increasing your page views is to only show post excerpts on the homepage of your blog.
There are some interesting comments on Dan’s article. Using the “more” tag is something I discontinued soon after I began publishing blog posts. My preference is to show your full article on the homepage, unless you’re writing quite a few articles per day.
Update: 30 June 2009
My stance on this has long-since changed, and at the time of writing I show post excerpts on the homepage.
Maki, at Dosh Dosh, in his tips for improving Alexa rank, believes that the best way to increase Alexa ranks is to write about it.
Webmasters and bloggers love to hear about ways to increase their Alexa rank. They’ll link to you and send you targeted traffic (i.e. visitors with the toolbar already installed). This gradually has effects on your Alexa ranking.
He’s right. People do link to him. However, one tip Maki gives is to use Alexa redirects on your site, which doesn’t sit too well with some others.
Andy Beard discusses using Alexa redirects and had the following to say:
I am literally mourning the people who are using Alexa redirects in an attempt to increase their Alexa ratings.
Head on over to find out why.
Have you tried improving your Alexa rank?
If so, did you see any direct results?
Related posts on David Airey dot com
39 appreciated comments to “How I improved my Alexa rank”
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The Alexa widget and toolbar are definitely the two most effective methods of increasing your rank. I do think using excerpts can help as well but you have to consider how it will go down with your readership.
As far as redirects go I have to agree with Andy. You are doing your blog a disservice by sacrificing link juice for a marginal gain in rank. Unless you are pumping a lot of traffic through those redirects I can’t see how it can be particularly effective.
Plus it seems redundant to me. If you have the Alexa widget installed it should in theory be registering those redirected visitors anyway.
I don’t think Maki was suggesting people use the redirect link for internal linking on their own blog, and other places that pass link juice.
65% of my visitors use Firefox, so encouraging the use of Search Status for displaying nofollow links works a treat ;)
Interesting I had Installed for about 2 weeks never saw a difference so I removed it. Might give it another shot.
Andy, thats true but I see a lot of people using it on followable external links that would otherwise pass on some juice – for example MyBlogLog.
If the widget works the way everyone assumes then these redirects aren’t really necessary. I can’t help but think the guys over at Alexa have a good laugh when they see the things bloggers do to increase their rank. :)
Hi Daniel,
I’m in agreement with Andy too, and after reading Andy’s comment I must apologise if I misinterpreted Maki’s article.
Andy,
Around 43% of my visitors use Firefox, so whilst it’s not as high as yours it’s still the majority. Having the search status extension display nofollow links is definitely a handy tip. Thanks again.
Since installing it I notice your main header link is nofollow. Do you advise people change their own ‘home’ links to include the rel=nofollow code?
Arpit,
If you plan on monetizing your site I reckon you should give it another go. Also, try letting your readers know about it too. That way more visitors will be tracking your pages as Andy suggests.
I did update the article because there was one thing I didn’t make clear that I was aware of, andsomeone asked me a question by email.
The Alexa redirect is a 301 Redirect.
The biggest loss of juice will happen if Alexa decide to change their URL slightly.
Also there is no way in telling if a 301 redirect passes all the ranking factors.
Above all I wouldn’t trust it. In Mybloglog, all you can see is the redirect part of the link. With the lack of moderation of people who can join, I would be wary clicking a link.
As to the header on my blog, there is no point in ranking for “NDY BEARD” and I have a sirewide link with Niche Marketing in my sidebar.
One thing I do need to replace sometime is an H1 tag and play around with some other things.
I’m also a little wary when I see an Alexa redirect in MyBlogLog. Just an hour ago I saw one, and the only reason I clicked through was because the site author left a comment here on my site.
As to your “NDY BEARD” nofollow, ha, I should’ve realised that one myself.
I’ve been using the Alexa widget & Search Status extension since Maki blogged about it, and my rank has fallen in a similar way to yours.
Must be all the visits I pay to your blog ;-)
Your visits are very welcome, Chris!
Here’s hoping my visits to your site have helped boost your Alexa rank by one or two points.
David;
Perhaps I am missing the point.
Why does anyone want to improve their Alexa rank?
Who actually uses Alexa (other than site owners looking to see their own rankings)?
Mike
Hi Mike,
I explained on my previous post, Alexa ranking – what’s it all about? how advertisers will pay you more money if you have a lower Alexa rank.
If you don’t monetize your blog / website, then the ranking isn’t important.
David thanks for the informative post, definitely something I should look into.
*scampers off to read David’s other posts*
[...] was inspired by David Airey (Graphic Designer in Edinburgh) to try and improve my Alexa ranking, and have been learning about how to do that through his posts and the one at DoshDosh. I’ve [...]
Great post. Took some of the mystery out of the whole Alexa thing. I’m off to install that toolbar.Thanks.
Redirects are debatable. I’ve only used them on MBL before so I can’t verify if it actually contributes to any rank improvement. I’ve since removed a while ago because like Andy said, it seemed tacky. I also agree with Andy and Daniel that putting it on internal links and followable links is rather silly.
I know webmasters who claimed that it helped their rank and I’ve seen scores of Payperpost bloggers using the redirect links to directly improve their rank. Evidently, its rather difficult to verify their claims.
There doesn’t seem to be any official word from Alexa on the redirect and I really think even if it helps, it plays a very, very minimal role. I included it in the article because I’m a completist and wanted to put up everything I’ve heard/read about Alexa in one article. ^-^
The best way to promote any specific collective social behavior is to educate your audience on the topic in question, be it Alexa rankings (install the extension!), Stumble Upon (stumble articles you like!) or anchor text linking (use the right anchor text when linking!).
While the focus is on correcting specific behavior or introducing new websites/practices to an audience, it will without a doubt have an effect on how they interact with your site in the future.
I don’t understand one thing: Why is Alexa ranking important for someone?
I prefer to have good targeted traffic and a low Alexa ranking..
:D
Michael,
I hope you find something of interest among my other articles. Cheers for visiting.
Johno,
Let us know how the Alexa install works out for you. I hope it makes a difference.
Maki,
Solid advice there for promoting specific social behaviour. Thanks for dropping by with your take on it.
John,
If you monetize your website / blog using third parties such as ReviewMe.com or Text Link Ads you’ll find that Alexa ranks make a big difference on the amount of money you can make.
I agree with you though. Targetted traffic is more helpful in the long run.
I mentioned this over on Andy’s post, but didn’t get a rise so I thought I’d posit the notion here…
I wonder if Alexa ranking isn’t kinda like infomercials hawking “collectable” Nascar plates – that is, what makes them “collectable” is that someone declared them to be so.
In other words, how much good does Alexa ranking do you anyway – or is it just some kind of a self-propagating hoax where we believe Alexa rank scores to be important because, well, Alexa says they are? And since so many other bloggers have bought into the it, well, it must be true.
Hi Rob,
I read your thoughts on Andy’s site and wondered about it myself.
Alexa is where it is because, whilst not entirely accurate, they give a fairly decent representation of popularity amongst the top websites.
Advertisers need to gauge your site against something when making a decision, and rightly can’t go entirely on page rank. They look at a lot of factors, though Alexa is an important one.
To be honest, I don’t know too much about their history, like when they came on the scene or how they got to where they are. Just that it helps to have good Alexa stats when monetizing your site.
I dunno, David, I suspect that we could create a new site, say roblexa.com, spread the word among bloggers, and blamo! in a month or so, you’d have people touting their “roblexa scores” and the tactics they used to boost them to such great heights.
I’m not saying that Alexa is worthless, but I do think it is a self-propagating, almost viral, entity who importance has been largely enstablished by bloggers treating it as something important.
I geuss this is the same way that BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog work, but there’s seems a little easier to swallow since it is entirely social in nature, rather than commercial.
And since Alexa is subsidiary of Amazon.com, I also wonder how long it’ll be before a Buy.com variant springs up…
You’re right in wanting a better Alexa rank, because, of course, advertisers will pay better if they see a higher rank.
But how stupid of them, really. (Not that that’s not typical.)
Alexa misses out on tracking a lot of users. Any month/series of months where I have more users using Firefox or some other browser without the toolbar, my Alexa ranking may drop or stay the same. I could actually be having more people visit my site than usual, but it’ll drop/stay the same anyway, because the toolbar is not there to track it all. To me, that DOES make Alexa worthless in terms of its functionality. And you know, people need to make that clear to advertisers–since they’re apparently too brain dead to find it out for themselves–that this hinders their goals.
Next up is the fact that, thanks to RSS, which continues to grow in popularity as more people figure out how to use it, throws a wrench in the whole idea of tracking systems like Alexa. RSS makes it where even IE users, who have the toolbar, may not be visiting the site as often. Again, that fact, which isn’t spoken about widely enough to be well known, is a rip off to advertisers, and they should get with the times and realize that. Alexa doesn’t help anyone. It makes site owners insecure about a ranking that isn’t accurate. It helps advertisers feel falsely secure in their investments.
I can’t bring myself to support Alexa, because it dupes so many people by not making its workings very clear to the average user. (Their small print tactics that tell the truth have kept them going this long, I’d argue.) I really don’t want to support something that is backward. I’d rather continue to make people aware of the problem.
Just my two cents.
Very interesting article, David.
I installed the extension a week ago. I will try the widget and the article part too.
Lelia,
You’re absolutely right about the Alexa operation. It’s kind of backwards.
Whilst I don’t support how they assign their rankings, by publicising them through my site I am supporting them. I don’t mind doing this because of how I monetize my site via Text Link Ads (the featured sites section in my right column).
Thanks for your valuable two cents.
Dennis,
I’m glad you found the article interesting. My ranking is now 52,142 so I’ve shaved over 10k off my original stat. Ciao for now.
I just realised that my rank has fallen 60,000 to 532,913. Now 10 more those and it is looking really good.
Look out Google! ;)
Good luck with it buddy.
40,083 – good work, David! Don’t forget to adjust your TLA price once you’ve sold all your inventory so that the new price reflects your new Alexa rank.
Thanks Mike,
I’ve visited my TLA account recently to update it, but I appreciate the reminder.
I haven’t paid too much attention to Alexa rank recently, but thanks for the ideas. I do use excerpts on my blog, but I do it as much for visual reasons as for increasing pageviews.
Hi Steven,
To be honest I wouldn’t pay any attention to it if I didn’t monetize my website with Text Link Ads.
I have thought about using post excerpts, but because I only post once per day I prefer to limit the amount of clicks the reader needs to make.
I just started a blog i hope to moneytize in the future.
So by reading tips like this I can improve my rankings as well.
I just installed the toolbar, told my friends about it and I’ve seen my Alexa rank, come from 8million to 4 million in 1,5 weeks :-)
Going to promote this a bit further with some other friends and myebe friends, friends.
If traffic stagnates, I’ll install the widget then and keep you posted if it realy makes a difference.
Also rank on Alexa and Technorati is considered valuable to most publisher programs, so needed if you want to moneytize
Great post!
Thanks Eric.
You’ll see the biggest leaps in rank at the start. It’s really not difficult to get into the top 1M at least, and I notice you’re into the 3M numbers already.
Good of you to stop by.
That little tool is quite handy.
Especially when trying to check the quality of all the sites we are linking out to for our clients websites.
Knowing the value of a page without having to do the searching through the listing myself is a great timesaver.
Hi Nick,
I agree, the search status extension is very handy for getting a quick glimpse of a website’s age / authority.
Hi,
I currently testing on how to improve an Alexa Rank. Here is something funny. When I was in Brazil, my laptop caused a certain movement for the national alexa rank of brazil, yet when i went to Poland last week and installed Alexa on two Linux computers in my hostel and put my page as the Firefox’s second tab start page (to not bother anyone with it) NOTHING happened. I did not see an increase in the Alexa rank, much less see any rank for Poland. I have been to Poland from the 22-28th of November. It should have taken effect already. Any ideas on what could be the reason for both SPARKY (Firefox 2) and SearchStatus (Firefox 1.5) not to work?
Only thing I can think of is that I was not administrator of the LINUX PC. Yet I had no trouble installing the FF-Addon.
Actually I have no good explanation. Maybe anyone here made similar experiences?
I’ve installed the alexa toolbar on all my computers, I hope it helps.
Installing the toolbar definently helps, the best wau Ive found though is just good old traffic, posting regularly in a blog and using SBS has increased my rank monumentally over the past two months
That re-direct trick is on all the forums, but I think Alexa has shut it down.
A friend of mine has a really high Alexa rank, I have analyzed his site and the only thing I can pin down is that he has posted his site on over 100 web design galleries – these people will most probably have the toolbar installed.
Thanks for the great tip. I just downloaded the toolbar and use it, but I haven’t blogged about it or influenced my readers to download it in anyway. I’ve already noticed a huge drop in my Alexa ranking as well.
It sometimes makes me lose confidence in the validity of the Alexa rankings, but at least its something. A website with an 11 million Alexa ranking is obviously less popular than a 2 million ranking. However, the more I read about it the less I care of the difference between a 999,999 ranking and a 99,999 one.
Hi Kayla,
You’re right not to pay much attention. Focus on your blog content, attracting visitors with your useful / insightful articles (and therefore an improved Alexa rank). Good luck.