25 Techniques to Increase Alexa Ranking
Alexa.com is a website that tracks the traffic of all websites in the world using their Alexa toolbar and Firefox extensions. The website generates charts ranking and comparing the traffic of many websites and even takes into account the location of its users. The site assigns a rank to each website, the lower the number, the better the traffic.
Alexa ranking has become the best way for advertisers to understand how popular your website is. The Alexa ranking helps you trust websites because if they are a popular website then you feel that more people have kept coming back to this site because they trust it.
Many website owners work relentlessly to increase their traffic and therefore increase their Alexa ranking, so that advertisers will trust them as good investments.
There's no shame in trying to increase your Alexa rank. However, there are some who have attempted to use trickery to cheat Alexa, but that can get you banned/blocked by Alexa.
In this article we will go over legitimate strategies, that are not cheating because any of these methods will quickly lose effect as soon as you lose traffic. The strategies are also encouraged by Alexa itself, as it helps Alexa better track the web.
Every year it gets harder and harder to get into the top 100,000 sites. Three years ago I had a site and it took having 200 unique visitors per day to get into 100,000 sites--nowadays it takes 2,000 unique visitors per day as a new site to get into the top 100,000. Don't give up too easily and keep writing good content. Don't try to game Alexa, try to work with it instead using our strategies.
Criticism Of Alexa Ranking
Some web developers argue that Alexa ranking can be inaccurate since not everyone installs the Alexa toolbar except those who are involved in web development. As a result, websites relating to web development seem to have much higher ranking.
However, when a website becomes popular enough (as in below 100,000 alexa rank) the accuracy increases since a large portion of the world is visiting these websites. While food network's website may not relate to web development, it still has an incredible Alexa rank due to its popularity.
The Alexa rank is very difficult to cheat once you achieve 100,000 ranking or lower. Once around 10,000 ranking, the accuracy is very credible. Don't think simply surfing your own site will achieve much ranking, IP addresses are looked at in Alexa.
Methods To Increase Alexa Ranking & Traffic
Many of these methods are important for Alexa Rank, but they are also quite useful for increasing your traffic as well.
1) Download Alexa Sparky extension for Firefox. This will show you the graph on your status bar and track your browsing and boost your website's ranking. If you use another browser, there are toolbars for alexa available, but the best way is to use Firefox.
2) Write better articles more frequently. Better articles with informative content written at higher frequencies will result in more traffic, as a result, increasing your Alexa ranking. Ideally this is the best method.
3) Ask friends, family, and visitors to use Alexa Toolbar or Alexa Sparky extension. Ask fellow webmaster buddies to start using Alexa tools while browsing your website. Obviously with visitors you'd only want to email your best fans to help you with this and not just make a blog post asking people to install it.
4) Showcase your website on webmaster forums such as digital point. Ask people to review your blog/site on webmaster forums, many of which have "Showcase" or "Reviews" forums where they allow you to talk about your site. InfernoDevelopment forums has its own Showcase forums that you can visit right now and instantly get a boost in Alexa Ranking.
Alexa Traffic Banner
5) Install an Alexa Traffic Rank banner on your blog. It's possible that Alexa will attempt to use this tool to track your visitors even if they don't have Alexa toolbar/extension installed. Install the various widgets on Alexa Site Widgets page. Although, many claim it doesn't work, some sites have seen a benefit from doing it (maybe it simply reminds people to install the toolbar again).
6) If you're blog is even remotely related to web development you're in luck. Buy links on webmaster blogs by directly contacting the owner. If you drive that kind of webmaster traffic your Alexa ranking will increase quickly.
7) Buy banner ads on high ranking Alexa sites. For example, you can purchase extremely cheap banner ads from Inferno Development. Or search BuySellAds for sites related to your niche. This is one of the best ways to quickly increase ranking.
8) Simplify your SEO. One website I worked on had a horrible ranking, because it had some flash and a very cluttered website that took many links to get the information. After simplifying the navigation and main website, the Alexa ranking increased dramatically.
9) Comment and post on threads and articles that are about Alexa. For example, commenting on this article (without spamming) can get you higher Alexa ranking as people will enjoy your comment and check out your website.
10) Install Alexa toolbar / sparky extension on office computers or school computers and set the homepage to your own site. Preferably, if it isn't your own computer, you should ask the owners, or perhaps make a custom page for them on your domain.
11) Submit your blog and articles to social networks like Mixx, reddit, StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, and Twitter. Our best Alexa ranking boosts came after we made some amazing and original articles that people submitted to Stumble and Digg.com that brought us a sharp increase in traffic. (Take a look on the sidebar Digg tool for ID showing up on Digg.com). Don't spam these social networks either, they will ban you; try to write quality content that their members will actually love.
12) Write Guest Posts on other blogs and websites. Even if you believe that a blog or website gets fewer visitors than you, writing a guest post, will establish credibility and drive more traffic and it starts adding up.
13) Redesign your blog / website. Sometimes even a redesign of your blog by a professional can increase traffic significantly. Readers trust our website because we have a high quality layout and our website was worked hard on. Other webmasters appreciate and respect hard-working webmasters.
14) Use Google Adwords to advertise your site on specific keywords relating to web development or even Alexa. This can really boost your ranking and drive traffic, your advertisers will appreciate it.
15) Help others on webmaster forums with signature link. Put your site on your signature and start helping others in forums.
16) Talk to people directly on twitter. Talk to people directly and show concern for what they're talking about and they will visit your site and may happen to have Alexa installed.
17) Develop link exchanges with other webmasters. Exchange links with other bloggers in your niche, traffic may trickle, but even that trickle can affect your Alexa rank.
18) Offer free services to others. Do you have good Photoshop skills? Instead of charging money, make them a logo in exchange for a link, guest post, or mention in an article.
19) Have programming skills? Develop apps or tools that webmasters can use and they will keep coming back to your site with their Alexa toolbar and boost your rank.
20) Appeal to other nationalities. For example, we have a great Alexa rank in India, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Philippines, and always strive to show our appreciation for our fans abroad. If you're a cooking blog, try writing about a favorite recipe from another country. If you're a tech blog, talk about a new innovation in that country.
21) Offer free products to visitors. If you're a photoshop blog, offer PSDs or brushes to visitors so they keep coming back. If you're an app blog, offer free app collections for download to visitors. If you're a history blog, offer e-books and history documents to visitors.
22) Write articles and submit to article directories. Useful advice is always appreciated by other websites and visitors will check out your site out of curiosity.
23) Submit links to search engines and directories related to your niche. If you submit links to various places, either bots or humans will click them and find your site. Everything adds up.
24) Do not use autosurfs and bots to game Alexa. This is the quickest way to black list your site and lose your traffic.
25) Develop plugins and code for various open source projects, you'll definitely meet people who have Alexa installed there, and quickly increase your Alexa Rank.
Alexa.com is a website that tracks the traffic of all websites in the world using their Alexa toolbar and Firefox extensions. The website generates charts ranking and comparing the traffic of many websites and even takes into account the location of its users. The site assigns a rank to each website, the lower the number, the better the traffic.
Alexa ranking has become the best way for advertisers to understand how popular your website is. The Alexa ranking helps you trust websites because if they are a popular website then you feel that more people have kept coming back to this site because they trust it.
Many website owners work relentlessly to increase their traffic and therefore increase their Alexa ranking, so that advertisers will trust them as good investments.
There's no shame in trying to increase your Alexa rank. However, there are some who have attempted to use trickery to cheat Alexa, but that can get you banned/blocked by Alexa.
In this article we will go over legitimate strategies, that are not cheating because any of these methods will quickly lose effect as soon as you lose traffic. The strategies are also encouraged by Alexa itself, as it helps Alexa better track the web.
Every year it gets harder and harder to get into the top 100,000 sites. Three years ago I had a site and it took having 200 unique visitors per day to get into 100,000 sites--nowadays it takes 2,000 unique visitors per day as a new site to get into the top 100,000. Don't give up too easily and keep writing good content. Don't try to game Alexa, try to work with it instead using our strategies.
Criticism Of Alexa Ranking
Some web developers argue that Alexa ranking can be inaccurate since not everyone installs the Alexa toolbar except those who are involved in web development. As a result, websites relating to web development seem to have much higher ranking.
However, when a website becomes popular enough (as in below 100,000 alexa rank) the accuracy increases since a large portion of the world is visiting these websites. While food network's website may not relate to web development, it still has an incredible Alexa rank due to its popularity.
The Alexa rank is very difficult to cheat once you achieve 100,000 ranking or lower. Once around 10,000 ranking, the accuracy is very credible. Don't think simply surfing your own site will achieve much ranking, IP addresses are looked at in Alexa.
Methods To Increase Alexa Ranking & Traffic
Many of these methods are important for Alexa Rank, but they are also quite useful for increasing your traffic as well.
1) Download Alexa Sparky extension for Firefox. This will show you the graph on your status bar and track your browsing and boost your website's ranking. If you use another browser, there are toolbars for alexa available, but the best way is to use Firefox.
2) Write better articles more frequently. Better articles with informative content written at higher frequencies will result in more traffic, as a result, increasing your Alexa ranking. Ideally this is the best method.
3) Ask friends, family, and visitors to use Alexa Toolbar or Alexa Sparky extension. Ask fellow webmaster buddies to start using Alexa tools while browsing your website. Obviously with visitors you'd only want to email your best fans to help you with this and not just make a blog post asking people to install it.
4) Showcase your website on webmaster forums such as digital point. Ask people to review your blog/site on webmaster forums, many of which have "Showcase" or "Reviews" forums where they allow you to talk about your site. InfernoDevelopment forums has its own Showcase forums that you can visit right now and instantly get a boost in Alexa Ranking.
Alexa Traffic Banner
5) Install an Alexa Traffic Rank banner on your blog. It's possible that Alexa will attempt to use this tool to track your visitors even if they don't have Alexa toolbar/extension installed. Install the various widgets on Alexa Site Widgets page. Although, many claim it doesn't work, some sites have seen a benefit from doing it (maybe it simply reminds people to install the toolbar again).
6) If you're blog is even remotely related to web development you're in luck. Buy links on webmaster blogs by directly contacting the owner. If you drive that kind of webmaster traffic your Alexa ranking will increase quickly.
7) Buy banner ads on high ranking Alexa sites. For example, you can purchase extremely cheap banner ads from Inferno Development. Or search BuySellAds for sites related to your niche. This is one of the best ways to quickly increase ranking.
8) Simplify your SEO. One website I worked on had a horrible ranking, because it had some flash and a very cluttered website that took many links to get the information. After simplifying the navigation and main website, the Alexa ranking increased dramatically.
9) Comment and post on threads and articles that are about Alexa. For example, commenting on this article (without spamming) can get you higher Alexa ranking as people will enjoy your comment and check out your website.
10) Install Alexa toolbar / sparky extension on office computers or school computers and set the homepage to your own site. Preferably, if it isn't your own computer, you should ask the owners, or perhaps make a custom page for them on your domain.
11) Submit your blog and articles to social networks like Mixx, reddit, StumbleUpon, Digg, Facebook, and Twitter. Our best Alexa ranking boosts came after we made some amazing and original articles that people submitted to Stumble and Digg.com that brought us a sharp increase in traffic. (Take a look on the sidebar Digg tool for ID showing up on Digg.com). Don't spam these social networks either, they will ban you; try to write quality content that their members will actually love.
12) Write Guest Posts on other blogs and websites. Even if you believe that a blog or website gets fewer visitors than you, writing a guest post, will establish credibility and drive more traffic and it starts adding up.
13) Redesign your blog / website. Sometimes even a redesign of your blog by a professional can increase traffic significantly. Readers trust our website because we have a high quality layout and our website was worked hard on. Other webmasters appreciate and respect hard-working webmasters.
14) Use Google Adwords to advertise your site on specific keywords relating to web development or even Alexa. This can really boost your ranking and drive traffic, your advertisers will appreciate it.
15) Help others on webmaster forums with signature link. Put your site on your signature and start helping others in forums.
16) Talk to people directly on twitter. Talk to people directly and show concern for what they're talking about and they will visit your site and may happen to have Alexa installed.
17) Develop link exchanges with other webmasters. Exchange links with other bloggers in your niche, traffic may trickle, but even that trickle can affect your Alexa rank.
18) Offer free services to others. Do you have good Photoshop skills? Instead of charging money, make them a logo in exchange for a link, guest post, or mention in an article.
19) Have programming skills? Develop apps or tools that webmasters can use and they will keep coming back to your site with their Alexa toolbar and boost your rank.
20) Appeal to other nationalities. For example, we have a great Alexa rank in India, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Philippines, and always strive to show our appreciation for our fans abroad. If you're a cooking blog, try writing about a favorite recipe from another country. If you're a tech blog, talk about a new innovation in that country.
21) Offer free products to visitors. If you're a photoshop blog, offer PSDs or brushes to visitors so they keep coming back. If you're an app blog, offer free app collections for download to visitors. If you're a history blog, offer e-books and history documents to visitors.
22) Write articles and submit to article directories. Useful advice is always appreciated by other websites and visitors will check out your site out of curiosity.
23) Submit links to search engines and directories related to your niche. If you submit links to various places, either bots or humans will click them and find your site. Everything adds up.
24) Do not use autosurfs and bots to game Alexa. This is the quickest way to black list your site and lose your traffic.
25) Develop plugins and code for various open source projects, you'll definitely meet people who have Alexa installed there, and quickly increase your Alexa Rank.
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