The Alexa Toolbar for Bloggers
Every blogger concerned about their traffic and looking for attract interest and investment from sponsors should know and track their Alexa Ranking. It’s simple to use, and I’ll explain why you should get it now. Read on for the Guide to the Alexa Toolbar for Bloggers.
Who are Alexa?
Alexa.com are owned by Amazon. They’ve been around since 1996 offering web traffic ranking and SEO services to large businesses. You can sign up for an account with them for some professional services, but today we are going to look at the free services and web analytics they offer.
What info do they track?
In their own words….
“Alexa is perhaps best known for the Alexa Rank – our website ranking system which tracks over 30 million websites worldwide. The Alexa Rank and other metrics allow site owners to benchmark their sites and give consumers, marketers and advertisers metrics to evaluate websites for media buying, partnerships, and other business opportunities. Alexa’s traffic estimates are based on a diverse sample of millions of worldwide internet users using thousands of different types of toolbars and add-ons for Google Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Our tools help web site owners benchmark their site’s performance against their competitors, generate more traffic, and optimize their websites.”
Basically this means that they track information on website traffic and statistics and provide it freely to those looking for this information either for their own site, other sites or looking to compare sites.
- How much time a person spends on a site
- How many pages visited during the visit
- How many people visit the site within a particular time
- From where the visitors come to the site
How do they track it?
Ah ha – this is where the magic for bloggers comes in. 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.
How to understand the Alexa Ranking
The ranking starts at 1 with the largest sites having the lowest numbers. You can see the current Alexa ranked Top 25 sites – these include biggies like Google, Amazon
Why is Alexa Ranking Important for Bloggers?
If you are looking to earn from your site by way of selling advertising, sponsored posts, product reviews etc, the Alexa Ranking is important data to include in your Media Pack or advertising page so brands and advertisers can get information on you easily. Potential advertisers and sponsors can get certain data on your site without even needing to contact you for details of your traffic – so they may decide to pass you up if you ranking isn’t in the number they are looking for.
So having a good Alexa Ranking, and seeking to improve it over time will help you in earning from your site.
Where can I see my Alexa Ranking?
You can see your own Alexa Ranking and statistics without installing the toolbar. Simply go to Alexa.com and enter your site address. Let’s take a look at some results – here is the page returned for Moms Make Money.
So you can see that my overall Global traffic ranking is 189,490. This represents the number of websites who are ranked higher than this site. So there are 189,490 websites in the world that get more visits from toolbar users than my site. Looking at my site in terms of US visitors, there are 41,844 sites that get more US visitors than this one. Those rankings are pretty good for a site that only started out this year – so thank you to all the visitors that make my site a success! You can also see your most popular keywords at the bottom.
What else can you learn from Alexa Ranking?
There are so many additional statistics. Just click on the yellow button that says Get Details and see the next page. There is information on:
- Alexa traffic rank – global and local
- Reputation – sites linking in – you can see which sites link to you
- Traffic stats and how it has changed over time
- Traffic data such as percentage of visits from search engines, bounce rate, time on site
- Top queries from search engine traffic
- Audience data
- Click streams – where you visitors came from and where they left to go to
This is all really interesting data and you can find it all right there for your site and for any site that you want to search for so you can compare your site to others – if you really feel the need to do so.
So after all that – why should I install the Alexa Toolbar on my computer?
Alexa primarily tracks visits from Toolbar users. So who do you think visits your site more than anyone else – well that’s you of course. So in order to add your own visits to the tracking for your site, you should install the Toolbar on your own computer. Doing so will give your own site ranking a boost by registering all those extra visits.
Plus it adds a little icon in your browser toolbar so when you come across a site you want to know more about, you can click the icon and get instant data on that site. If you like being nosy and see how your fellow bloggers are doing – this is the toolbar for you!
Join us in tracking and improving your ranking
So let’s carry out an experiment shall we. Go to Alexa now and search for your site and make a note of the current ranking. Then download the toolbar on any computer you use to browse or update your site.
Then leave a comment below with your current Alexa Ranking Global number and in a month I’ll do an update post reminding you to check it again and leave an update and we will see if any of the Moms Make Money readers have made any significant improvements to their rankings – should make for very interesting reading.
[Update 5 June – current Alexa ranking for Moms Make Money = 182,018]
Authored by: Deby at Moms Make Money
photo credit: Peter Gerdes via photopin cc
June 12, 2013 @ 11:20 pm
I’m still learning. http://www.equippingcatholicfamilies.com is my blog and 1107641 is my score. All I can go is up? 🙂
June 13, 2013 @ 6:52 am
I’m sure it will improves soon. Remember its not the only important metric to measure and your blog can be strong in other areas.
June 13, 2013 @ 12:08 am
Ok as of today my score is 221,173 worldwide
June 13, 2013 @ 6:47 am
Wow – that’s great. Good starting score. It will be hard to improve much on that one!
July 12, 2013 @ 1:15 pm
Ok so now my score is 178,509
July 12, 2013 @ 1:54 pm
You are rocking the rankings Marg! Congratulations.
June 14, 2013 @ 2:40 pm
As of today, my score is 598,687 global and 115,780 USA. This will be interesting!
June 14, 2013 @ 10:11 pm
Found you on the pin it party, my rank is 11,053,668 but I have only been blogging for 3 weeks 🙂
June 14, 2013 @ 10:23 pm
Thank you for the great info! I’m new to blogging and I need all the help I can get. My alexa traffic rank is 3,240,318 and the US traffic rank is 604,054. Is this super bad?
I’m hopping over from Say G’day Saturday. Hope you’re having a terrific week!
Ritchil
http://chengand3kids.blogspot.com/
June 15, 2013 @ 5:22 am
I’ve been blogging about 6 months. My Alexa traffic rank is 390,445 and 66,271 in the U.S.
June 15, 2013 @ 8:32 am
That’s pretty good Anna. I like your content – I read all about learning to spell – it was fascinating. Keep up the great work!
June 15, 2013 @ 8:57 am
Great post! Mine is 21,813,914.
Tania
June 15, 2013 @ 9:34 am
Wow Tania, that’s a big number. I’m sure that will come down soon. Alexa just tracked my visit for one! I love that entry table redo – I only wish there was access to cheap or free furniture here in the Caymans – I’d be all over it.
June 15, 2013 @ 9:07 am
I also think it’s important to note that once installed Alexa does collect your browsing history. Some consider this spyware, and there may be a few downloads that may be unwanted by those who have installed the bar. Just a head’s up to go in with eyes open.
June 15, 2013 @ 9:29 am
Thanks for the note Patti – you are right that this tracks our website viewing statistics but I don’t think we need to worry about it being too big brother and keeping files on us personally. These days with cookies on every site, each time you visit a site with advertising etc your visit is tracked including where you came from, and where you went afterwards. If you use any Google product then they track every little thing about you too. And I’m pleased to say that I’ve not noticed any issued with popups or downloads since using Alexa – but users should review their terms and conditions on the site if they have any concerns about the data that is collected. I consider the term spyware to mean something more malicious – where an unintended download is tracking your keystrokes or logins for suspicious reasons and I’m sure that Alexa doesn’t do this.
June 16, 2013 @ 12:06 am
Hi, here are my scores: Alexa Traffic Rank: 1,286,401 Traffic Rank in US: 443,323
June 16, 2013 @ 7:36 am
Thanks for submitting your numbers Darlene – it will be interesting to see if you can make a good improvement.
June 16, 2013 @ 2:26 pm
Let’s try, Deby!
I’m pretty new to blogging (started in March this year): my Rank is 987,269, US rank: 236,787, reputation 128!
MammaNene
SergerPepper.blogspot.it
June 16, 2013 @ 3:01 pm
I’m very familiar with your site, and thank you for the link, it sends a few visitors my way for the Pinterest patterns board. Your reputation figure is already great – lots of people linking into you which means you must have great content. I’m sure this ranking is going to improve quickly for you. I’m off to visit your page now, and give it a view from my toolbar!
June 25, 2013 @ 4:35 am
You’re always so nice, Deby!
You made my day with your kind words… Thank you so much!
Will see half July how my stats will be 😉
Hugs,
MammaNene
SergerPepper.blogspot.it
June 16, 2013 @ 8:30 pm
I have used Alexa for a long time, and with my old site, I made it to 108,000. Then google deleted my site as spam (I was on blogger). I started a new site, and it started out as 6 million. In about a month and a half, my current rank is 258,116. I have gotten back most of my old follwers and even some new ones. And now I’m on wordpress. I’m going to visit everyone so far and see how you’re doing!
http://mydevotionalthoughts.net
June 16, 2013 @ 9:22 pm
Yikes – another victim of Blogger and Google deleting your perfectly legitimate site as spam! Welcome over to WordPress and wow – you’ve done really well with your score in such a short period of time. I’m off to take a look at your site now, thats another viewer Alexa will register for you.
June 16, 2013 @ 9:10 pm
Deby, you are the BEST! Thank you for another great tool. I am still not up and running yet, but I looked anyway since I have the domain andiboni.com. Alexa listed it as “no data”. So much to look forward to 🙂
I shared this post on Facebook with an encouraging comment to check it out!
June 16, 2013 @ 9:20 pm
Thanks for the share Andi. The comments have been a little quieter than usual on this post – perhaps people are shy to share!
June 16, 2013 @ 10:42 pm
I have a long way to go. I have a worldwide ranking of 9,994,270. It doesn’t give me a US ranking. So much to learn. Tell me there’s hope.
June 17, 2013 @ 4:45 pm
Of course there is hope – I can see it all over your site! It seems you need to get yourself noticed a bit more – you have an interesting perspective, so shout about it and share. Check out the linky party directory and see where you can share your posts to draw in some new readers and hopefully subscribers too. And photos – the internet is becoming more and more visual – especially among women users who love pinterest. Include great pictures on your posts to make them pinable and shareable for even more readers. Thanks for reading Cheryl.
June 17, 2013 @ 1:21 pm
I just checked in again. I think my Alexa rating is now 1 042 772, in Canada: 22066 and sites linking in is 194.
Last week, it was 1 107 641 when I first checked. Can you give me any good news about these scores? =)
Any advice how to improve?
(Thanks to RuthHill74 for visiting!)
June 17, 2013 @ 4:36 pm
Hi Monica, good news that the overall ranking is going in the right direction. A lower number is better. It is not perfect, but it is a ranking system you can use to get an idea of how your traffic compares with other sites in your niche. But of course its only an idea. The only exact way to compare would be to use real visitor or page view numbers, and bloggers don’t usually publish this info – although you can often find it on their advertising pages. The only way to really make a big difference is to get more visitors, and visitors with the toolbar installed will count towards your ranking. In the end, it always comes down to the same thing – write epic content which readers keep coming back each week to read, and want to share. More visitors=more page views = more subscribers=better rankings = more opportunities = more clicks = more affiliate sales/views on your adverts = more money.
June 17, 2013 @ 5:02 pm
I just started paying attention to my rank a month ago. It’s amazing how quickly it improves with a little TLC. Not where I want to be yet…but I’m getting there.
June 18, 2013 @ 9:04 am
Thank you, http://DeDivahDeals.com is currently rated as 743,117 Globally and 165,192 in the US.
June 18, 2013 @ 3:32 pm
I’m off to visit your site now – thanks for leaving a comment and I hope we can see a nice improvement in that next time around.
June 18, 2013 @ 3:57 pm
Thank you, I need all the help I can get!
September 4, 2013 @ 11:07 am
Checked again today – 46,699 US
September 4, 2013 @ 8:11 pm
Great result Antoinette!
June 18, 2013 @ 7:52 pm
Thank you for coming by and sharing this very useful information on Fluster Buster’s Creative Muster. I’ve been blogging on this site for about 6 months and my current numbers are: Global Rank = 395,029 and the US Rank is 115,473.
June 19, 2013 @ 8:31 am
So my site is really new, and I found (and now follow your blog) when looking for ways to use my new blog in the best ways possible. In fact my blog is so new that when I checked it, Alexa just says no information. http://meanderingmotherhood.wordpress.com/
June 20, 2013 @ 5:08 pm
Oh dear – you have the highest possible rating – no rating at all. Look on the bright side – it can only get better from here and you are just starting out. It takes a while to get noticed and attract a loyal bunch of readers. I just visited your site so my toolbar counted a visit for you. I hope in a month you will be reporting a number.
June 19, 2013 @ 8:41 am
Awesome post! I am bookmarking it and for sure going to install the toolbar next time I’m on the computer. My world ranking is 914,285 and my US is 463,927
June 19, 2013 @ 9:50 am
Thanks for leaving your figures Myranda – I just visited and you have such a pretty site. And that recipe for Brussel Sprouts ALMOST made even me want to eat them!
June 20, 2013 @ 9:38 am
Mine is 4,042,708
June 20, 2013 @ 4:58 pm
Hi, and thanks for leaving your rating. I’ve visited your site and your Facebook page and although you have a lot of followers, you are struggling to get any interaction, comments or likes it seems. One thing I don’t see on the site is a newsletter sign up – this can be a great way to get readers to come back regularly and promote your offers directly to their inbox. I’ve got a mailing list series coming up very soon which could help you.
June 22, 2013 @ 11:30 am
Hi Deby! I left a comment here last June 14 (I don’t know if you noticed) and my Alexa rank was 3,240,318 and the US rank was 604,054. I checked again today and it was 2,694,478 and for the US is 372,736. I know I still have a long way to go, but I’m so happy that there’s been some improvements. Thanks again for this info!
June 22, 2013 @ 4:46 pm
Wow – that’s already a great improvement, especially in your US number. Congratulations – keep up the good work.
June 24, 2013 @ 8:18 am
Hi Deby! I just loaded the toolbar and have been blogging just over a six weeks. My score is 26,377,094! I’m writing this number down so when I move up & can look back and say remember when…. Thanks for all of the info you share 🙂
June 24, 2013 @ 8:41 am
Yikes – that’s a BIG number! But what you would expect for such a new site. I am sure you will see this tumbling head over heals into a lower number very soon. My toolbar just registered a visit to your site for one…
June 28, 2013 @ 9:57 am
Hi! I found you through your article on Sverve and I am following you now. You have some great advice for beginners! I checked my blog and it said I have no data, no rank. I guess I will check back in a bit – I’ve only been up a month and a half. http://alispetkitchen.blogspot.com Thanks for your help and insite!
June 28, 2013 @ 3:51 pm
Yes, very early days for you Ali. I’ll go check out the site and Alexa will count a visit from me.
July 12, 2013 @ 11:05 am
Hi! Found you from Diana’s pin party. I have been meaning to add the toolbar and finally did after reading your two posts. Mine is 514,697. I am following you on Twitter too!
July 16, 2013 @ 8:31 am
Deby, What a wonderful and helpful site you have! I can’t wait to read ALL of your articles b/c I do need help understanding all this. I am having so much fun blogging so far. I started in Mid-May of this year. I am with Blogger, even though my research leading up to opening my site was pointing me to WordPress. I was just scared of it. Anyway, My World # is 2,846,144 and US is 255,132. Sites linking in is 71. I’ve downloaded the toolbar, so I just need to restart my computer.
(I signed up to receive e-mails! Excited to be following you so I can keep on learning!)
Gina from Gina’s Craft Corner
http://ginascraftcorner.blgospot.com
July 16, 2013 @ 8:33 am
Also wanted to ask…Mine had ‘no data’ for key words. Is this a bad thing? Should I do something? Thanks,Gina
July 16, 2013 @ 9:51 am
It’s just because your site is so new Gina. It’s only been since mid-May, so about 8 weeks. But I can see you have built up a great following in that time and the site and projects look great. It will take a while for your keywords to settle and search traffic to come, but then you should see a steady increase in visitors.
August 28, 2013 @ 5:15 pm
Thanks for responding, Deby! Just got back to check this. My rank has went up a lot, so thanks for the tips! World= 356,124 and US is no 43,896 with 136 sites linking in. 🙂
August 28, 2013 @ 6:55 pm
Yay Gina, glad to hear about the big improvement. I’ve added your results to the table. Thanks for reporting back
July 22, 2013 @ 6:12 am
My site is also showing no data even though total 4000 visits are there…
July 22, 2013 @ 8:25 am
I’m sorry to say that 4000 views in 8 months is quite low, and although your data will be recorded by Alexa, it doesn’t put your site high enough up the list of sites that they produce a page of results for you yet. If you can continue to grow your traffic and start to register higher up the list of sites, then eventually you will get a starting score and you can grow from there.
August 27, 2013 @ 9:41 pm
Hi Deby. Just found this post. My global ranking is 198,841. Finally broke thru the 200,000 global rank. Now, working on breaking thru the 100,000. Will continue to work hard on improving my site. If you get a chance, pop over and let me know what you think. You have great rankings! Definitely becoming a follower of this site. Such an interesting one…..
August 28, 2013 @ 2:02 pm
Congratulations on the new breaktrhough. I felt pretty stoked when I got below 100,000 for the first time. I very much like the idea behind your site – we live on an island where a lot of things aren’t even available so make do and fix it can be a way of life here. Thanks for following along Sharon.
September 4, 2013 @ 8:31 pm
How am I going in the wrong direction? What do I need to do? Sigh.
October 2, 2013 @ 6:25 pm
Thank you for a great and helpful post! OK…here I go…my site is
http://www.musicteachingandparenting.com/
At the moment my global rank is 683,254 and US rank 88,025
Hope to improve it by the next time I post. Any tips or feedback will be greatly appreciated!
Maria
October 2, 2013 @ 7:21 pm
That’s already a pretty good place to start Maria – well done. It will be interesting to see you come back in a month for an update – put a note in your diary and I’ll add your before and after numbers to the table.
October 2, 2013 @ 7:23 pm
That’s already a pretty good place to start from Maria. It will be interesting to see what installing the toolbar does for your ranking. Put a note in your dairy to report back in a month and I’ll add your details to the table of results.
October 11, 2013 @ 3:13 pm
Thank you. I just saw a new post on it and I am about to enjoy reading it! It has only been less than a week since I posted a comment as I saw your article later. However, my stats have a curious change, my overall ranking has decreased a bit but my US ranking INCREASED. It went to 611,916 global and 91,254 US ranking. Hmmm…Could that mean that less people from the US visited the site?
October 11, 2013 @ 3:53 pm
Hi Maria, The rankings are averaged over time, but are updated daily and sometimes you will see wild fluctuations – and yes, sometimes the overall ranking can go down while the US can go up a little. It all depends on the mix of people who visit the site. It isn’t a really accurate way to rank your site, and you can see this if you compare your site to others with similar traffic that might have a wildly different Alexa rank. It’s just one of the ways to measure your site and should be used in conjunction with all of your other stats. Don’t worry too much about short term variations – its the long term trend of increasing traffic and improving ranking that you want to see!
October 17, 2013 @ 5:19 am
I love metrics and being able to compare to other similar sites…I had been using a browser add on…I am downloading now! Thanks!
January 24, 2015 @ 2:47 pm
The importance of alexa toolbar for blogger clearly describe here. Amazing. Thank you for share