10 Free Ways to Improve your Alexa Ranking
Dec. 09, 2009 
85 Comments
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Many people have asked me how I’ve been able to improve my Alexa from 2,000,000 to 115,000 in about four months. I’d like to share with you ten simple and free ways to improve your Alexa ranking. For those of you who don’t know, Alexa is a tool that ranks website traffic. For example an Alexa ranking of 100,000 means that your site is the 100,000 most visited site on the web. Of course, this is not always accurate but it does give some estimation of a site popularity.
How does Alexa work?
Alexa measures your site’s ranking by gathering data from visitors with the Alexa toolbar installed. By the way this is the key to improving your ranking. (You do not have to install the toolbar to have a ranking though.)
Why would you want to improve you ranking?
- It makes you feel good and gives you bragging rights.
- More importantly it means that your site is popular, which creates a viral effect.
Some random Alexa rankings:
Google: 1
Facebook: 2
Twitter: 14
eBay: 25
CNN: 60
Digg: 104
Here are the top 500 sites.
Besides from driving more traffic to your site, here are 10 other ways to improve your Alexa ranking:
- Install the Alexa toolbar, and set your site as your homepage in your browsers.
- Add an Alexa widget, button or graph to your site.
- Get reviews and ratings on the Alexa site.
- Write or blog about Alexa (as I am doing now.)
- Share your site in webmaster forums, since many members have the toolbar installed.
- Write content related to “techish,” “web” people, so that they are attracted to your site.
- Make sure your site is active on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon.
- Join Asian social networks, the Alexa toolbar is very popular in the Asian tech community.
- Set up a freebie page, tool or resource list, free e-book that attracts other people who may have the Alexa toolbar installed.
- Don’t forget, more traffic = better!
If you have any questions or suggestions please let me know below.
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Author
Alex Ainsberg (17)
Ethan (8)
Dennis Edell (7)
Agent Deepak (5)
Shirley (4)
Great Tips, Ben. I would also love to add one.
Update your blog or website regularly because blogs or websites updated regularly tend to rank higher on Alexa.
Hope this helps
.
Shirley´s last blog post: Discussion: Does One’s Blogging Platform Determine The Success Of One’s Blog?
Your welcome, that’s a good point, thanks for sharing Shirley. Regards
You’re welcome, Ben
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Shirley´s last blog post: Discussion: Does One’s Blogging Platform Determine The Success Of One’s Blog?
Nice tips for today Ben, I am working on some of these during my free time, a little bit of work that bring benefits to my blogs!
Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog post: How to Make Money from ComLuv Social Network – MMO from here and there #2
Thanks, it should really benefit you. Good luck Hesham!
Hi Ben,
Can you recommend some Asian social networks to join? I’m not sure how to find that information.
I’m glad you shared these tips. I can put some of them to good use. I’m not sure about the toolbar though, since I am using Google Chrome. Do you think it’s available? Maybe soon.
I have so many toolbars (StumbleUpon, Norton, etc.) on my IE8 that pretty soon, I won’t be able to find the internet.
Great article, thank you for sharing.
@Ileane
ileane´s last blog post: Promote Your Blog With a Podcast
Hi,
Sure, here are some: Orkut, Hi5, and of course Facebook and Twitter are always good. Well on Firefox you could install the toolbar without even seeing it, that way it does its magic and doesn’t bother you. I’m sure now that Chrome Extensions are rolling out, Alexa’s toolbar may become available.
Your welcome of course.
Hi Man,
Awesome tips, very concise.
Great time saver.
To my disappointment, this is not available for Google Chrome…
Oh I don’t use Google Chrome so I didn’t know, but I’m sure it will come out soon…
As ironic as this sounds, I would like to see Chrome begin giving more of these types of options; albeit the appeal of Chrome to begin with was it’s clean look and extensive amount of real estate (ie lack of clutter with 50 toolbars).
Confusing, yes; however I am a consumer so I am right, right?
Does actually having the alexa toolbar increase your rankings or do you just mean so you can keep a track of how your site and other sites are tracking based on the alexa ranking?
It sounded to me like you HAD to have the alexa toolbar installed in order for Alexa to rank you at all, which I’m not sure is true.
Can you clarify?
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com´s last blog post: How To Apply A Google Analytics Filter For Quality Results
Sorry, I’ll definitely clarify. Having the toolbar installed improves your Alexa ranking, however you do NOT need to have it installed to be ranked. Hope that makes more sense.
Hi Ben,
Thanks for this useful tips. I’m planning to add Alexa button/badge as soon my blog rank is below 100,000.
steppinout´s last blog post: Download National Geographic’s Wallpapers For Free
Hi.
Well if you want to reach below 100,000 faster you should add the button/badge now. Sounds like a good plan though.
I just find it interesting from a viewers perspective what each website is rated. It is a good tool to which websites, or web tools are reliable and well known.
I agree, even if its an estimate, it’s a great way to tell if a site is popular. For Firefox there’s an addon to see each site’s Alexa. Here it is:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5362
I’ve installed the toolbar, add the widget in my blog, and get reviews for my Alexa profile. Then it brought my Alexa ranking to 50k+ right now. All the tips above are very useful and if I follow all of them, I believe that I hit higher.
Anyway, traffic is the key, as long as you have traffic and your Alexa ranking will be increased.
Cheers,
Lee
Wow, that’s very impressive! Yes I agree:
“Don’t forget, more traffic = better!”
Regards.
all the tips were usefull.. keep you blog updated and comment more on other blogs.. try to get more backlinks.. It helps you to rank better.. my blog is just an update away to 100k club and i reached it in less than 75 days…
Rajesh Kanuri @ TechCats´s last blog post: Download Beta Versions of Google Chrome for Linux & Mac
Sounds good to me, under 100k is really good, congratulations!
It is true, that you can improve your Alexa ranking a lot by using the tips you provided.
It is totally another question, why should you even worry about the Alexa ranking. You really can’t use it as any type of measure, because it is really easy to cheat and poof… There are even autosurf programs that you can use to cheat the ranking and make it jump high.
Just my 2 cents here. Thanks for the post.
Blog Guide´s last blog post: Staying Motivated with Blogging
I agree, Alexa is not accurate. I said above these are the reasons to work on your Alexa:
◦It makes you feel good and gives you bragging rights.
◦More importantly it means that your site is popular, which creates a viral effect.
Regards.
Besides these two reasons (the first one is great btw), there is another important reason. The Alexa rank is often used to value your website. In case you would want to sell your site, or sell ad-space, it is often the Alexa rank that is considered to see what your site is worth.
Bjorn | iCan’t Internet´s last blog post: Blogging: 8 Elements for Grabbing and Keeping Attention
nice tips, i personally do not like to keep the badge and the buttons, am just focusing on improving the traffic and expecting to see the alexa rank better by its own
Uttoran Sen´s last blog post: Tech Nascent Home Office
Well it only helps but its not absolutely neccessary, but as long as traffic goes up, your Alexa ranking should improve.
Hi Ben,
I am currently focusing on increasing the number of reviews done on my blog. If you want to do a review trade let me know. You write one for me and I write one for you. I even do a blog post about it as well.
http://www.freemanlegacyllc.com/2009/11/10-quick-alexa-reviews-for-my-blog-buddies/
Ms. Freeman´s last blog post: Don’t Get Stuck In the Quagmire of Thinking Small
Hi
That sounds like a great idea, I’ll check that out. Thanks for sharing
All really good tips Ben – and I plan to feature link to this post when writing about Alexa (and its relevance to my own website concept)in the not-so-distant future.
Cheers
Will
P.S. Hoping to post about your site in the next days ( and sending an email to you soon about this …)
Will´s last blog post: Brianstorming
Thanks, awesome, I love when people link to my site
I received your email and replied. Regards.
I guess it’s time to get that Alexa toolbar then. Then I could proceed with the other 9 tips. And, wow, Ms Freeman’s suggestions sounds cool too. Thanks for the tips Ben.
James Moralde´s last blog post: Capture Web page: My 3 Favorite Methods
Great to hear, it should really help you. Thanks again Ms Freeman!
I have also write one article on how to improve alexa rank, I really happy that my blog alexa rank is now approx 74000
chandan´s last blog post: New from google work at home affiliate network
Wow, thats very impessive. I’m sure you also provide some great tips and advice. Thanks!
Hi Ben,
You stated some good points above. I guess that is easier to get a better rank on Alexa for bloggers who write about blogging. My blog is on personal development and I can’t apply some of your ideas like writing an article about Alexa. But I liked your tip of joining some Asian social networks, great idea.
By the way, you have a great blog. Congrats
See you Ben.
David | ilcantone.com´s last blog post: HOW TO OVERCOME YOUR FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
Hi David,
Anyways, there are many other ways to improve your Alexa. Thanks for visiting my blog!
Well you could always incorporate some blogging into your blog
Thanks for the Alexa advice. I am starting a new blog, and have been trying to figure how to get my alexa rating up so I can have a game plan, ready when the site completely setup and running smoothly.
Your welcome, I hope you take this advice into hand when starting your blog. Regards
Thanks for a great article. My Alexa rank seems to go up and down like a jo-jo and I have no idea why…Alexa tool bar installed and all.
No problem, maybe now it will just go down after reading this article
These are some good tips. But I don’t think I’ll be installing the Alexa toolbar, because I already have a bookmarks toolbar, the StumbleUpon toolbar and the Web Developer Toolbar. I don’t really need another one
Thanks, I appreciate it. Well just some advice, you could install the toolbar and hide it, that way you get the benefits of it and yet don’t have to see it…
Sure, I could try that.
Eric B.´s last blog post: Qualities of a Good Website Design
I have been following your blog on and off for a couple months now and I checked your alexa a few days ago and was amazed. Then I come here and I see that you made a post about it. Good stuff man..I will be using some of these methods myself…I am going to try the comment software
Marc Augustine´s last blog post: Dealing with Debt Collectors for your personal debt
Thanks Marc! I hope that this post helps your Alexa out also
Good luck with your blog: http://www.creditrich.net/
Nice to meet the youngest famous blogger on the net. I will follow your tips. Thanks a lot
Netchunks – Web Magazine´s last blog post: Free Christmas Vectors
Haha, well not the youngest on the net, but the youngest so far in the “Famous Bloggers Club” Thanks!
Good post Ben,
I went from 8,000,000 to ranked top 100,000 in 7 weeks (although my current ranking is being dragged to 180,000 as my site is less than 3 months old)
As you said Alexa isn’t that accurate to websites above the 100,000 mark but a good enough indication of how you are doing and how many sites link in etc etc.
A very very good post and well worth a re-tweet.
Thanks, thats very impressive, almost what I did
Thanks so much for visiting and commenting on my blog. Nice to meet you.
Does it matter if the alexa badge or widget is on every page? Could I just place it on my blog page or just the homepage?
Aaron´s last blog post: The Biggest Loser Season 8 Finale: Just as I Predicted.
Hi Aaron,
That’s a great question, I’m not really sure, but I think that if its just on the homepage it should still help.
Thanks,
I’ll give it a try and see what impact it has.
Aaron´s last blog post: Organic food coupons
Good info on Alexa. I never really understood what that site was about, but thanks for the nice explanation. I’ll see if I can get higher in the ranks hopefully.
Jawaad Ahmad Khan´s last blog post: V2 – “Changes”
Thanks, well by higher in the ranks I hope you mean lower, because the lower your ranking is the better your Alexa is.
I initially read this when my website was ranked at about 550k and now its ranked at around 173k and all because of this post. Finally revisited the blog and just wanted to thank you for posting such detailed information.
The site I ranked for is not a blog but a static company page! Which in my opinion is harder due to the fact that blogs are more active. http://www.AutoMoversofNY.com
Wow, that’s incredible. I’m so happy that thanks to this post you were able to lower your Alexa so much! I’m sure it is harder for static company pages which is very impressive. Good luck!
That’s an insane change for just taking the advice on this page. Nice work mate. Now, I’ll see what effect it has on mine, heh.
Alex´s last blog post: Will Smith On What It Takes To Be Successful
hi, Thanks for the great tip on how to increase Alexa ranking. Most important is Toolbar and widget or button.
Free Vector Graphics´s last blog post: Visiting Card Wordpress Theme
Those two are very important but all of the efforts add up.
Hi ben,
Does it not sound a bit controversial? If alexa is a measure of traffic flow to a site, where comes the role of putting badge on blog? Moreover, by setting your own blog as home page for your alexa toolbar, how much would it contribute to ranking? Any blogger would hardly open his blog 100 times a day if indents to, does it count to improve in ranking. If it is true whatever you discussed on the post, don’t you think Alexa is bribing bloggers and webmasters to gain back-link and popularity of alexa itself?
Suresh Khanal´s last blog post: How can I decide what should be my next post?
Actually, you’d be opening your homepage and other pages a lot of times wouldn’t you?
I open the homepage and the page of the latest post to test that they look OK.
Generally, though, I think that Alexa also gets its data from sources other than the toolbar.
The Digital Life & Tools Blog´s last blog post: How to Claim Your Blog on Technorati
Will it add to website reputation and ranking if I opened my own website many times a day?
Suresh Khanal´s last blog post: Badge To Increase Alexa Ranking?
No it wouldn’t, that’s not the point of the Alexa system. It’s just a way to help a bit…
I like the Alexa info.. I’ve always wondered how it worked! thanks 4 the tips.
I blog about writing, best selling authors, book and movie reviews.
http://theideagirlsays.wordpress.com
Linda Randall ´s last blog post: Haitian Earthquake Relief: Brad & Angie, Clooney,Wyclef Jean – Deborah Pardes
No problem! Nice to meet you, I’ll be checking out your blog shortly
Very nice article, much appreciated!
I never really thought of how much Alexa could/would impact a website!
Shawn K.´s last blog post: Adsense and AJAX: A Solution
Your welcome Shawn.
Good article.My site is very new.Alexa rank is around 2800000.I want to see my site under 100k.
Lakhyajyoti´s last blog post: Kontera Out,Infolinks In
Great to hear, following these tips you’ll be able to do that in no time
I got my Alexa rank down to 192,000 and it just got stuck on this number for a while now. I’m try to find more ways to improve, if any one ave any ideas please post.
Well thats great, keep following the tips above and will continue to drop.
alexa has been shown to be very inaccurate. Noone takes it seriously anymore – at least I don’t!
tempo dulu´s last blog post: Obama Bar, Jakarta
It is very inaccurate, although some people do still use it to measure sites. Best regards.
thanks my alexa rank is going awesome
Glad to hear this post helped! Good luck
I think I just rise our traffic. I think we do not have to put widget or else. It is simple to raise our alexa rank
forlan´s last blog post: Do not work as an e-mail maker
Yes that’s key, putting a widget is just a little trick, raising traffic is the main part though.
Thanks for sharing this.I was not knowing the importance of Alexa tool bar.I will install it today.
Blogging Tips´s last blog post: How to increase Search Traffic
Your welcome, glad to help out
Great post on improving your alexa rank, even though the ranking is biased it still gives your website bragging rights as you said.
Thanks
Onibalusi Bamidele´s last blog post: 7 DAYS TO ONLINE SUCCESS 3
Thanks! Yeah it’s not very accurate but you could definitely brag about it.