This Is What You Need to Know Before You Use Alexa.Com [2020 Update]

By: | February 12, 2017 | Tags: , , , , , , , |

Alexa.om can help #Bloggers have more popular #blogsDo you know that as a blogger you need Alexa.com?

Are you aware of the site’s importance?

Do you know how to use the site to improve your blog’s popularity?

Alexa.com has many benefits for you as a blogger.

This article will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using the free version of the site.

By the time you are done reading this post, you will have the Alexa rank explained.

What Is Alexa.com?

Alexa.com will show you how popular your site is! The site provides data analysis of websites for the last three months.

For fifteen years, Alexa.com has been analyzing data from websites all over the world. Amazon acquired Alexa in 1999.

Does Using Alexa.com Matter?

While not everyone agrees your Klout score still matters, many people agree your Alexa score, also called the Alexa rank, matters a great deal. (Update: the Klout website folded.)

People like advertisers and readers might actually judge your blog based on the merit of your Alexa score.

Why Should You Use Alexa.com?

  • If you want to assess your blogging effectiveness, Alexa.com is the place for you.  Whatever goals you set for your blog, you can see if you’re meeting them at Alexa.
  • In addition to assessing your own website, Alexa allows you to assess your competition’s site. People have written me offering me opportunities. It was clear they had checked out my Alexa score. Some even referenced the score in their communication with me.

Online stalker? No. There are many reasons to check out other bloggers’ scores.

For example, if you are going to collaborate with other bloggers, you want to make sure they have a quality site.

Also, some people trade links. They should make sure the person’s site they are linking to is quality, so Google knows your site is quality. (Note: Mostly Blogging has a Link Exchange for this purpose since swapping links with similar sites improves your SEO.)

Other people want to guest post for sites with an Alexa score at least as good as their score is. Guest posting provides you with a link to your site. Links from blogs with better (lower) Alexa scores improve your SEO.

How to Use Alexa.com

When you get to Alexa.com, you will see various features.

Alexa.com helps #bloggers

Click “Competitive Intelligence Tools.”

Click “Website Traffic Statistics.”

Type in your website name.

Alexa.com helps #bloggers

Here you will find various metrics to help you assess your effectiveness as a blogger.

Alexa.com provides important information about your blog.

Global Rank:

Alexa.com is important for you as a blogger since Alexa’s metrics measure your blog’s success.

According to Kathleen Aherne, “If your Alexa ranking is 850,000 – that means for all the multi-millions of websites in the world there are only 849,000 more popular than yours. To have a ranking under 100,000 is kind of cool and more accurate data is available.”

Alexa.com provides important information about your readership.

Audience Geography:

If you scroll down, you will be able to see the percentage of people who come from your top five countries with the most readership.

You will even be able to see on a world map where those countries are located.

You might wonder why this information is important.

I once wrote a post asking whether bloggers should use idioms of their own culture. If you know your readers are from your country, and you tend to write with cultural idioms, you might be more inclined to let loose if you know your readers will understand your idioms.

If on the other hand, you see the majority of your readership is not from your country, you might choose to be more hesitant about using expressions they may not understand.

Alexa.com allows you to make an informed decision by giving you information.

Your readers’ location will also tell you what time zone they are in. You won’t be wondering why no one is responding to your latest post, for example, when you discover they are sleeping in that part of the world.

Scrolling down further, you will see Bounce Rate, Daily Page Views, and Daily Time on Site.

Bounce Rate: This metric tells you how quickly people are leaving, or bouncing off, your page.

You want this number to be low. If you would like suggestions for lowering your bounce rate, there are 15 Guaranteed Ways to Make Your Bounce Rate Look Amazing.

Daily Page Views: You want this number to be high. Backlinking to older, relevant posts will keep people on your site longer by having them view more than one of your posts or pages with each visit to your blog.

Daily Time on Site: You also want this number to be high. Spending a long time at your blog is a sign of high engagement. If you are looking for ways to increase the time your readers spend on your site, there are many ways to engage blog readers.

Alexa.com provides important SEO information.

By scrolling down further, you will see data relevant to search engines.

Search Visits:

Top Keywords from Search Engines:
By scrolling down further, you will see which keywords are getting you the most traffic. I recommend writing about these keywords again. Your articles about these keywords are getting you online attention. It’s true since these are your top five keywords.

Which sites did people visit immediately before this site?

Alexa shows you the Top 5 sites that send you traffic and the percentage of traffic your blog is getting from each referrer.

This is valuable information. Numbers don’t lie. You know without any shadow of a doubt your promotion methods at these sites are working. Continue to put your energies into those places. You are definitely getting good Return on Time Invested (ROI) if these are your Top 5 traffic referrers!

Scrolling further, you will see sites that are the most like yours. The benefit is you know who your competition is.

Do you want to hear something ironic? When I looked to see who my competitors are, I was surprised to see that three of the admin bloggers are good friends of mine!

(Note: If you look to see your competition, here is a friendly reminder to right click and open a new tab or window. If you leave my post, my bounce rate will worsen!)

Top 500 Sites on the web:

You can use these for blogging references, network with the admin bloggers and commenters (guest post and networking )

For me: Business, Marketing, and Advertising– over 4,000 choices. In the top 500, so I know they are quality sites.

Find Similar Sites:

You will be able to see the top 5 sites most like yours. Alexa.com even shows you the Alexa scores of the sites that share your audience. These are good sites to visit for networking purposes. Comment on their blog posts. They are like-minded bloggers who share your audience.

Of all the Competitive Intelligence Tools, only Audience Overlap is not available with the free plan.

Audience Demographics:

You will see the gender and educational level of your readers.

If advertisers like your Alexa score, they may wish to place ads on your site. If their ads appeal to one specific gender, advertisers may wish to know the percentage of each gender that read your blog.

Browsing Location:

Whether your audience reads your blog at their home, school, or work is reflected in this data.

Testimonials

According to the Blogwarn blog,

Yes, improving Alexa rank is very important for any blog. If you are a blogger, then it is very necessary for you to improve your Alexa rank. Because it proves better authority, makes a good impression on advertisers and readers, can increase your revenue, and much more.

Many readers first see your blog’s Alexa rank and if they find your Alexa rank good, then they start following your blog and also they start commenting on your blog to get the backlink, which in turn improves your blog comments and hence improves your page rank in Google.

Pros and Cons

These are the advantages of using Alexa.com

    1. You can learn about your blog’s success and your competitors’ success.
    1. You can learn about your readers and your competitors’ readers.
    1. You can learn which keywords are bringing you search engine traffic and which keywords bring your competitors search engine traffic.
    1. Alexa has a blog with quality articles.
    1. Advertisers may ask you to promote their product or service if you have a lower Alexa score.
    1. Tools are available like an Alexa widget, plugin, and a browser extension.
    1. Paid accounts are available if you want more detailed information about your site.
  1. Alexa takes rejection out of the equation. If an advertiser is considering offering you a financial proposition, they will go straight to Alexa.com to plug in your blog’s URL. If they aren’t impressed with your Alexa score, they won’t bother approaching you, and you will never know that you were passed up for a financial opportunity.

Disadvantages to using Alexa.com

Some bloggers like Yaro Starek and Harsh Agrawal insinuate that the Alexa score does not have the influence it once did. For example, if the Alexa browser extension detects traffic, and hardly anyone has the browser extension, how can the Alexa metrics be an accurate indicator of traffic?

The Mom$ Make Money blog agrees the accuracy of your Alexa score may be in question.

Alexa cannot possibly track all information for all websites.  So they have published a tool called the Alexa Toolbar which is free to download.  And the browsing activities of the toolbar users are tracked to provide their information on keywords, traffic and more.  

So the important thing to note is – the only traffic counted is that from Alexa Toolbar users.  So the more visitors you have who are using the toolbar, the more traffic is registered with Alexa and the lower your ranking will be.

You can get a better Alexa Ranking than a website with comparable traffic if a greater percentage of your visitors are using the toolbar than theirs.  So websites with very different traffic numbers may have a similar Alexa Ranking.

Also, a final disadvantage: If you don’t like your Alexa rating, your morale could be hurt.

Update: June 2020

Alexa revealed a keyword gap to me. When I went to the site, it said my competitors were writing about blog commenting sites, but I’m not.

Therefore, after conducting keyword research confirming I could rank for the keyword, I wrote a post about blog commenting sites.

This post outperformed expectations. The article has 67 comments, more comments on it than most I publish. Also, in the last year, the post about blog commenting sites is my 11th-best-performing post.

Conclusion: Alexa.com

Takeaways:

This post explained: Alexa rank meaning, answered, “What is Alexa rank?” and told you how you can check your Alexa website ranking and those of your competitors.

You should check your competitors’ Alexa rankings. You want to outrank them for keywords on Google.

In closing, although the accuracy of the Alexa site metrics may vary depending on whether you have the Alexa browser extension, Alexa.com is extremely valuable to you as a blogger or any website creator.

I visit Alexa.com often to check my Alexa web metrics. The red metrics motivate me to improve and give my goals direction. When the numbers turn green, my confidence soars.

Knowing the top five keywords that send visitors to my site give my editorial calendar focus.

Also, when an advertiser approached me and inquired about my demographic, the numbers were at my fingertips since Alexa provided them for me.

Even if Yaro and Harsh are correct, and the numbers aren’t spot-on accurate, the metrics still give me a benchmark to judge my progress.

The best part– in addition to finding out Alexa’s analysis of your audience, traffic, and SEO, you can discover the same information about your competitors. Alexa gives you all of this for free.

Have you checked your Alexa website ranking? If you are not pleased, the numbers change regularly. Check Alexa rank to ensure your site metrics are movingin the right direction.

2020 Update: I check my Alexa ranking once a month. I still consider the Alexa page rank an important metric.

Readers, please share so other bloggers and website creators know the Alexa rank meaning and the value of Alexa.com to their blog or business. If you share, other bloggers and search engine marketers will know the answer to the question, “What is Alexa ranking?” when they hear it.

Had you heard of the Alexa score before reading this article? The score is a measure of how popular your site is. Does your Alexa score matter to you? I look forward to your opinion in the comments section.

Related Posts:

Tutorials about more competitive intelligence tools:

How to use SpyFu to spy on your online competitors

How to Increase Your Blog Traffic Using Google Analytics

Source:

5 Cool Things You Can Do For Free On Alexa

  1. Kevin

    I had heard of alexa.com. I was, however unaware of what Alexa does. Thank you for this informative article. As regards idioms and other matters with which some readers may be unfamiliar, I do, on occasions link to a relevant explanatory article or (more rarely) provide a note of explanation. I, personally relish the challenge of looking up an unfamiliar word or term and I am sure I’m far from being alone in this regard. It is, I believe important not to merely write posts in language which one knows everyone will understand. Of course you should not make your writing deliberately obscure. It is, however equally important not to talk down to people. One should operate on the basis that one’s readers are intelligent and that if they dont comprehend something they will look it up online or in a good old-fashioned reference book. Kevin

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Kevin,
      Thank you for writing to comment on my Alexa article. Do you think it would slow down the reader to have to look up the meaning of an idiom? I know I am always rushing.
      Janice

      • Kevin

        It may slow down a reader. However, as a poet I do not wish to be constrained in my writing by concerns regarding whether someone will click away from a poem I have written. I write what I write, it is self-expression and I wont curtail my poetic flow by worrying about such matters. However, as I said previously, I dont deliberately write in an obscure manner. I do, of course appreciate that every blogger is different and poetry is very different to blogging about fashion or vegetables. What may be appropriate for a person who specialises in fashion wont (necessarily) be right for an individual who blogs on a different topic. Kevin

  2. Ryan Biddulph

    Hi Janice,

    I recall having a solid Alexa a few years back but like all metrics, I released on it 😉

    Of course, when I ceased caring about how I was doing my blog followed suit and blew up. In a good way.

    Checking your Alexa can give you a benchmark to work off of if it feels fun and fascinating. You dig checking your stats so it works for you. Some struggle horribly after checking their scores because they base their worth as a blogger and human on numbers from a screen. Not good. Just note scores, casually, in passing, and if it feels fun to tweak your blog, to drop your score, go for it. If it feels heavy, let it go and focus your energies – 99.99999% – on giving, not getting.

    Thanks Janice.

    Ryan

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Ryan,
      Thanks for commenting on my Alexa article.
      Alexa helps me make informed decisions. Case in point: My bounce rate is disappointing. However, I understand I encourage people to leave my blog by visiting other blogs. The beauty of Alexa is I can make an informed decision since Alexa gives me the information. Great to see you. Thanks for coming by.
      Janice

    • Julie Syl Kalungi

      Hey Janice,

      I totally agree with Ryan on the value of Alexa…or what it should not do for you. When we stopped blogging daily and dropped to 3 posts a week our alexa Standing held…then we dropped to one post per week, and guess what, it dropped by over 2k, then climbed right back up.

      WHY?

      Because we focused on serving our audience, clients and customers as opposed to worrying about stats! The Stats to focus one energies on are Analytics…are you reaching your intended audience? And is that reach increasing month on month?

      With that said, this post is informative on how to use Alexa to tweak your actions to serve your audience more and better. 🙂

      Julie syl

  3. John Doe

    It’s always nice when you have a post that gives clarity to Alexa or should I say the Alexa score

  4. Donna DeGuglielmo

    th for the post info is great when i get my new comp going for it wild with your suggestions and knowledge here ty bunches blessings

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Donna,
      Thanks for writing. When do you anticipate getting your new computer?
      Janice

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Jessica,
      Thanks for the compliments on my Alexa article. I believe thanks for following is also in order. Welcome!
      Janice

  5. Jeanine

    I just signed up for email..
    Haven’t received confirmation yet.
    Would like to see the information.
    And my site is a new family friendly dog blog
    http://www.wusuppups.com
    We may need future help with!
    Thanks

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Jeanine,
      Thank you for following my blog. I did get the notification.
      I would be happy to help you with your blog since I offer a blog coaching service. As a brand new VIP subscriber, you would be entitled to 25% off!
      Janice

  6. Robin Khokhar

    Hi Janice,
    Thanks for sharing this amazing post about the Alexa. I am going to share it.
    And i am also sure that this article will be a great article.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Robin,
      Thank you! I appreciate the compliments and the share! Thank you for coming by today.
      Janice

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Gilly!
      Great to see you. I hope you’ve been well. Thanks for sharing my article and commenting.
      Janice

  7. Sherina

    Wow, I have never heard of Alexa before! I will definitely look into it more; thanks for all the helpful info in this post! 🙂

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Sherina,
      Have fun checking out your Alexa score. Are you curious?
      Janice

  8. Rajkumar

    Hello,

    Nicely written, well few years back most of the people were so much concerned about alexa rank and hence they started building more links to improve their blogs rank. I thinks alexa is loosing its charm.

    Thanks

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Rajkumar,
      Thanks for your comments about my Alexa article. I agree with you. From what I’ve heard, Alexa IS losing its charm.
      Janice

  9. LaShon Renee

    Thank you for these awesome tips! I’ve heard of Alexa and I even have the toolbar but these tips will help me get more use out of it.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi LaShon,
      Thanks for writing. Would you recommend others get the toolbar?
      Janice

  10. klaudia

    Thanks for these tips, I am using Alexa and ranking on there pretty well, I believe. My current Alexa ranking Global Rank 713,778 United States 366,084. I think that is okay for a ‘hobby blogger’ who started only 15 months ago ??? I find it a bit difficult to get high-quality backlinks, tho. I receive loads of request from other websites to add their link to my posts, but asking if they would be willing to do the same mostly ends the whole email conversation and I don’t hear them anymore. Well, I must add, one blogger was more than happy to share my post with his link in with his ten thousands of followers on social media. I checked on his SM accounts ( as you mentioned above, no stalking just knowing who you are dealing with) On Twitter he’s got 32 followers altogether. That is just stupid to do, don’t you think?!

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Klaudia,
      I was thinking about your question. No I do not think it is necessarily stupid. Someone might be motivated to improve his search engine ranking but not his Twitter following.
      Janice

  11. Kathleen - Bloggers Lifestyle

    Nice post on Alexa, thanks for the link to my post.

  12. candy

    Very interesting on how the Alexa score works and why you should use it. Many conflicting ideas out there. Thanks for linking up with Blogging Grandmothers.

  13. Clearissa Coward

    Again, perfectly useful information and you have a way of explaining it in laymen’s terms. I have subscribed to your site. Your posts are just what I was looking for. You have the info and you are not afraid to share it. Thank you for sharing with #blogginggandmothers. I have shared on social media. Come again and bring a blogging friend. 🙂

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Clearissa,
      I received notice you subscribed. Thank you! Thank you for sharing my post on social media. Your comment made me smile– I have the knowledge and I’m not afraid to use it. Welcome!
      Janice

  14. Grammy Dee

    Lots of good info, you explained it well! Thanks Janice from Grammy Dee, #BloggingGrandmothers #LinkUp #BlogParty, social media shared.

  15. Leanna

    I have never heard of Alexa. I made a note in my daytimer to take a look at it. I am currently learning Google Analytics, emphasis on learning lol.

    Thanks for the knowledge.

  16. Cathy Lawdanski

    I have heard of Alexa and the Alexa score, but had no idea that it could provide so much great information. Thanks, Janice!

  17. GiGi Eats

    I have always been pretty proud of my Alexa ranking, ha ah! I remember early on, when I first started blogging, I learned about it, and since then have always actively tried to lower my numbers 🙂

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Gigi,
      I check my numbers often. I always backlink to older posts to make sure my bounce rate isn’t falling. However, because of my blog parties, I encourage people to leave my blog to visit other people’s blogs. That causes my bounce rate to fall, understandably. I don’t know how it can be helped, though. If you have any ideas, please let me know.
      Janice

      • GiGi Eats

        Hmmm – I never really have had a problem with bounce rate, mine is typically very low, but perhaps blog topics have something to do with bounce rates as well? I also heard TOO MUCH internal linking isn’t necessarily a good thing.

        • Janice Wald

          Hi Gigi,
          Well that could be it. I internal link a lot! Thanks for trying to help.
          Janice

  18. Techkhalifa

    I had never noticed before about Alexa. But by reading this, I’d probably try to learn it.
    Thanks Janice,

    • Janice Wald

      Hi,
      Thank you for writing me today. Have fun trying to improve your stats. I always challenge myself to get the number higher.
      Janice

      • Techkhalifa

        Hi Janice, did you ever review articles related to domain authority and page authority of Moz.com.
        Trust flow and citation flow of majestic.com
        if you’ve been reviewing them, can I read it?

  19. Alena Sham

    Great ways to improve alexa ranking. I am trying these already expect the last 3, i must say you hats off. thanks for sharing.

    • Janice Wald

      Hi Alena,
      Thanks for writing me. I write about digital tools as well (I can see your headline.) I’m glad you found my tips for improving our Alexa rank helpful. Thanks for writing to tell me.
      Janice

  20. Amihan Hsiung

    Thanks for sharing this post. it will really help me out to boost my Alexa rank.

  21. Arav Ramakan

    Hi Janice,

    Amazing article, presenting the knowledge of alexa . I have started using it for my site. but I have doubts regaring alexa that I need to clear –

    1. How can I increase the count of “Site Linking In” metric in alexa reports ?
    2. Does Improving Onpage seo also helps in improving the alexa rankings.

    Please guide me on tis..

    Thanks in advance!!

    • Janice Wald

      Hi,
      I am sorry for my delayed response. Your comments were in the Spam folder.
      1. How to increase sites linking in? Off-site can be improved by creating indepth resources people want to link to.
      2. Improving offpage SEO improves Alexa rankings. Onpage does as well. Page views is considered as part of your Alexa score.
      Janice

  22. fitoutconcepts

    Its an amazing post for anyone who want to know about alexa. Great job I must say.

  23. Darshan Nagekar

    Hi Janice!
    Thanks for sharing this amazing article !
    Loved the content !
    Bookmarked your site for more information in future

  24. Siddhesh Jain

    This is an interesting share very insightful i must say i have shared this article with my friends so all can benefit from it.

    • Janice Wald

      Glad you enjoyed Siddhesh. Thanks for writing to tell me and sharing my post.
      Janice

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