Just how important is Alexa Ranking? It depends on who you ask!

Personally, I never paid much attention to Alexa until I started my weblog www.yourpotential-info.com, so this hub relates to newbies in the race to get a better Alexa ranking.

Everywhere I turned I saw articles on How to Improve Your Alexa Rank. Like all ranking systems there is an inherent flaw. I have seen sites with Alexa rankings in the 1,000s where the content was not original, had no comments, no trackbacks, bad grammar, misspellings, use of wrong words (there when they meant their or they're), nothing but pictures and video, and had an exact word for word cut and paste from another website on the same subject (possible copywrite infringement?).

One simple click on a link to your site is all it takes to improve any site's rank, but what did that one click mean. Was someone truly looking for your site? Did they click on your site by accident? Did they have an Alexa toolbar installed on their web browser? Obviously, it doesn't take original content and pertinent information to improve an Alexa ranking.

Here's what I have witnessed. Before I installed Alexa's toolbar and widget, my site's rankings never moved - not one point. I have original content, provide trackbacks and comments. Once I installed the toolbar and widget, bingo! My rank started improving...immediately.

Why does anyone really care about all this Alexa ranking stuff anyway? It all has to do with making money. If you want to make good money you can advertise on your site, then an Alexa rank is important. The better the ranking the more advertisers will be interested in advertising on your site and you will make money.

Some people really do care about their Alexa Ranking, but for other reasons. They will do anything to improve their rank and make it into the 10,000s. It means everything to them. It's a means of proving their standing in their niche community. This intrigued me, so I set out on a mission. Could I improve my Alexa ranking with three simple suggestions?

During my research, I found three items that interested me about improving an Alexa rank and I am in the process of evaluating each.

1. Alexa Auto Surfs
2. Alexa Toolbar
3. Alexa Widget

The auto surf products for surfing to improve an Alexa rank are fair to say the least. One site was fairly professional in appearance while the others look amateurish. I looked at and tried to use the following:

• UpMyRank.com - professional looking, but requires downloading their software in order to surf plus the use of the Alexa toolbar in Internet Explorer. For some reason, I could not get the Alexa toolbar to install properly on IE and since I am not a fan of IE, I was actually glad this didn't work. I believe UpMyRank has potential, if the owners realize that Firefox is much more secure. If you've used UpMyRank, please post your review of it.
• AlexaAutoSurf.com - Website is very amateur. Inever did get it to work.
• RankRaise.com - So far this is the only Alexa auto surf that I could get to work properly. The website is the basic auto surf script and could use some vamping to make it look more professional. The Auto Surf tends to get "stuck" occasionally and will not load the next page. The manual surf works smoothly. RaiseRank.com provides detailed info on how credits are earned and how they are allocated. Both the manual and auto surf work very well in Firefox and the credits earned are automatically allocated.

I have installed the Alexa toolbar. Honestly, I have to assume that it has helped improve my rank, but only by the fact that people who read my blog must use Alexa's toolbar as well. I have installed the Alexa widget (lower right sidebar). Supposedly, according to other bloggers, it does help to improve an Alexa ranking. Again, I have to assume it has.

Before I installed Alexa's toolbar and widget, my rank for 3 solid weeks never moved from 4,822,970 even though my stats told me that I had visitors and many clicks on my weblog links. I think there is something to be said for the use of both the toolbar and widget. RaiseRank.com has only allocated a few credits to the link for my weblog, so I honestly feel that the Alexa widget and toolbar together are responsible for the improvement in my rank. My progressive improvement is listed below.

If you are interested in improving your Alexa rank, at the very least install the Alexa Toolbar for your browser and the widget for your website or weblog. Give it a try and have fun watching your Alexa rank improve!

Alexa Ranking Results for my weblog

Sept 6, 2007 - 4,822,970

Sept 10, 2007 - 4,822,520

Sept 13, 2007 - 4,813,228

Sept 19, 2007 - 1,678,526