Does Alexa Rank Really Matter?

Up until recently I never gave a rat's butt about my blog's Alexa rank. I always believed it was useless because of the flaws in how Alexa web rankings are calculated.

If you've never heard of it, Alexa.com is a site that ranks websites based on traffic levels. The problem is that they only count traffic from visitors that have the Alexa toolbar installed in their browser. That's a pretty serious limitation since the average web surfer has probably never even heard of Alexa rankings, much less installed the toolbar.

Most people who use the toolbar are webmasters themselves so it's not surprising that sites related to blogging, internet marketing, and other webmaster-related topics are often ranked unusually high. Blogs with relatively low traffic can outrank sites that receive much greater traffic, so in reality the ranking themselves are useless.

So if Alexa rankings don't really mean anything, why should you pay any attention to them at all?

Because they do mean something to some people.

Advertisers often use Alexa rank as one of the criteria for determining where to allocate their budgets. They may seek you out specifically because you have one of the top ranked blogs in their niche.

Plus you can brag about your high ranking on your Advertising page and use that as justification to charge higher rates.

Another benefit of having a high Alexa rank is that it opens doors for you. In some niches the top bloggers won't even pay any attention to newcomers. Having an impressive Alexa and Google Page Rank can make them take note of you. Suddenly they'll start responding to your emails. They may begin linking to you and introducing you to other big rollers in the niche. You may even have the opportunity to join exclusive networks that are closed to everyone else.

In other words while Alexa's ranking system has major flaws and can be manipulated, a high rank can help you build credibility with influential bloggers and increase your advertising income.

Want to learn how to improve your Alexa ranking? Check out my blog where you'll discover 7 easy ways to quickly improve Alexa ranking.

Written by Mike Collins of http://SavingMoneyToday.net