What is Alexa?
Alexa is a toolbar created by Alexa Internet. It is used as a FireFox and Chrome extension. It also works with Internet Explorer. The toolbar is meant to measure website analytics. More than 30 million websites are ranked with this program. It is similar to Google Pagerank analytics. The toolbar comes with a popup blocker, search engine box for searches, and a link to Amazon. The company designed their product to help with keyword, category and country searches. One can gain competitive analysis, market research, benchmarking data, and business development help from the toolbar.
As a website owner, you want to know if your site is getting the visitors you want to make sales. If you have poor sales, you need to know why. The toolbar is designed to show you what your numbers are compared to other websites. You can run a search to evaluate a business simply by going to the main website. If you enter a term such as Colorado it will tell you the highest ranked websites using the word “Colorado.” It provides listing based on a category like regional or art, then a subcategory is provided like North America or Television depending on the website. If you search for a keyword not entered into the Alexa database it will come back with no search results.
Alexa Ranking Details
The search offers details about the website you might want analytics for. At the top it will provide a summary including Alexa traffic. There will be a global rank. If no data is found for the website due to a lack of entry in the database it will say “no data.” The second part revealed at the beginning is the reputation.
A chart is viewed next with traffic rank, reach%, pageviews%, pageview/user, bounce%, time on site, and search%. The chart is based on a time frame like yesterday to a year. Further data includes the average load time, regional traffic rank, audience snapshot, where visitors go on the website, and top search queries.
From the Alexa ranking details you receive you can see where you need to improve your site for better analytics. It is not possible to get all the answers you need from analytics. Obviously if people are going to your site this is good; however, the information does not tell you why someone is not buying your products. If you post articles or blogs you can find out which blogs or articles were more interesting to your visitors and continue to post articles along those lines.
Alexa for the Average User
Alexa is helpful for website designers or administrators to provide better information and products for the user. The toolbar can also be important to the average user. Visitors to websites want to know some of the information you see about your website. The page rank is one item a visitor might wish to know. It tells the person about their competition to help design their website better. Secondly, the reputation of a site can be important to the average user.
Plenty of scams exist on the internet. An unknown site a user comes across can create mixed feelings. A person may avoid paying for a product on the site for fear of scams. Amazon, Wal-mart and other major retailers allow independent sellers on their sites. A visitor wishing to buy a product from this independent seller is more inclined to follow through on the purchase after using Alexa toolbar.
How to Get Alexa Toolbar
There are two ways to use Alexa. The toolbar is a free download. You can visit the website for the company and download the toolbar based on your browser. The toolbar extension comes with Alexa traffic rank, related links, wayback, search analytics, and website reviews. It takes a few seconds to download it. It will appear up in the Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer search bar. A user can hover over the icon to gain information about the site. Once the toolbar is downloaded it will keep track of information such as the sites you visit. In return it is able to give better analytics a webmaster can use.
The second option is to become a member of the company to gain access to the Pro version. Pro versions provide traffic metrics, SEO recommendations to improve your site, and automated site scans. Depending on the level of the pro package there are other attributes.
Basic is $10 per month in which you access certified site metrics, uptime monitor, site comparisons, and enhanced site listing data. This version is best for sites obtaining 10 million pageviews per month.
Insight is the next tier at $50 per month. This works best for sites with 50 million pageviews in one month. It has monthly SEO audits providing you recommendations for better traffic searches. Using the suggestions could increase your search traffic, growing your revenue.
The Advanced version is $150 per month and best for sites with more than 150 million pageviews per month. Along with all other basic options, you receive bi-weekly SEO audits and bio-weekly site audits. The site audits look at SEO performance, reputation, tags, and security.
How to use Alexa Toolbar
SEO is necessary for every search engine you intend on getting your site ranked in. Alexa provides the means to increase your SEO tactics for better website performance. It is simple enough to get the average user data. Paying for the service provides you more details about your own site and some areas you might need to tweak.
The suggestions it provides on SEO are something you do not want to overlook. Consider if you have tried the recommendations and implement them in a test phase.
Additionally, utilize the program to learn about your competition. What differences does the competition have in reputation, pagerank, and views? You can analyze the differences to see what works for your site and what is working best on the competition. You might combine both answers in order to obtain better profits for your site. |
