Before writing the myths about Alexa traffic rank, I would like to tell you a little about Alexa.
So, What is Alexa?
Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based company that provides commercial web traffic data and analytics. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com. Founded as an independent company in 1996, Alexa was acquired by Amazon in 1999.
Why is Alexa rank Important?
The rank is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors to this site and pageviews on this site over the past 3 months. The site with the highest combination of visitors and pageviews is ranked #1. It is updated daily.
Alexa rank is the major factor determined by the advertisers. Advertisers check Alexa rank of any website before buying spaces from the websites.
Alexa rank is very important you are webmaster and;
1. If you want to sell space on your blog to advertisers.
2. If you want to make your blog popular.
3. If you want to grow your brand.
4. If you want to win the trust of your blog readers or product users.
5. If you want to increase the worth of your website.
Myths about the Alexa traffic rank
It is said that Alexa counts traffic only from the people who have installed Alexa toolbar in their browsers. It is also said that by claiming the site and installing the Alexa widget on your websites, you can improve the Alexa rank of your site. But all these points and beliefs are a just myth.
In my honest reply, I was also one of them who think and say like this. I also wrote some posts on Tips2secure and highlighted the above-given points to improve Alexa rank. Even I saw somewhere on the Alexa site that they use their toolbar to count the traffic. But I saw that a long ago. Now the things are totally changed.
Last week I went through one of the posts by Alexa blog, where they mentioned that Alexa ranking algorithm has been changed a lot now and the people saying like above is now just a myth. There, I decided to post that useful information with my readers too and that is why you are reading this post today on Tips2secure.
1. Alexa counts traffic only from the people who have installed Alexa toolbar.
This belief is not true. What they said there,
"Not true! Alexa’s measurement panel is based on a very large and diverse set of browser extensions and plug-ins. The Alexa Toolbar is just one of many browser extensions that include Alexa data. And, for sites that have installed the Alexa Certify code, Alexa directly measures traffic from all visitors to the website whether or not they have a browser extension installed."
Now it is quite clear the way we were thinking is now just a myth.
2. Claiming the website Improves the Alexa rank
Again It is not true. They said that Claiming your site has no effect on rank and you don’t need to claim your site to get measured by Alexa. Claiming your site (which is a free service) and keeping your site description and contact information up-to-date ensures you won’t miss out on any potential business opportunities from the millions of people who visit Alexa every month.
We all know that the sites who have not claimed their sites are also shown their stats. We can check the Alexa rank of that sites also.
In short, If you have a new website and you don't claim then it will take some more time in showing your site in Alexa but if you do claim then it will start showing fast. But it won't change the rank of your website.
You can compare it with Google indexing and 'Fetch as google bot' tool. Without using 'Fetch as google bot' tool, Google takes a bit longer time in indexing your new website or new blog posts but if we use the tool then it will index our sites and posts almost instantly.
3. Alexa measures only Tech and Internet marketers websites
This myth is also so funny and not true. Alexa’s traffic panel is based on millions of people using over 25,000 different browser extensions that appeal to a wide audience.
4. Installing an Alexa widget will improve my rank.
Guys, it is not true. I also thought in the same way. I read many articles from successful bloggers that how they have improved their Alexa rank by installing the Alexa widget on their sites. But in reality that points and claims have no value.
Installing widget just helps you to show the status of your website to your readers and advertisers. You can use this widget in your website promotion. I am not saying installing this widget is not a good idea. You should install this widget for sure, I have also installed on tips2secure.
But here I just want to make you clear that the way in we think and perceive is wrong.
The Latest interface has no option to install this widget for their free users. But you can still install this widget for free, here is the guide to install alexa widget on your site for free.
5. If my site’s traffic goes up on a particular day, my rank will automatically get better.
I was also thinking the same but I was wrong. Read what Alexa said on this myth, "Not necessarily. The global Alexa Rank is updated daily, but it is based on visitors to your website over the trailing 3 months. So, a day’s worth of traffic is about 1/90th of all the traffic used to rank your site. Also, a site’s rank is relative to other sites. So, changes in traffic to other sites affects your site’s rank as well."
6. I should pay Alexa and buy their pro plan to get better rank
These days webmasters are thinking like this. Specially the web owners who have fed up with doing lots of efforts to improve their Alexa rank but did not succeed. They think that it's a trick of Alexa to sell their pro plans. Alexa is intentionally not giving them good rank but it is not true. Their pro product offers the service to certify your website metrics only.
According to Alexa, if you install the Alexa Certify Code on your website Alexa can directly measure your site’s traffic instead of estimating it. Direct measurement will give your site a more accurate rank, but more accurate does not necessarily mean a better rank.
Disclaimer:
All the above-given points are verified and true. I have just explained the points said by Alexa on their blog.
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