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While not as compelling as
fact that Google is now tied to Alexa, it's no small issue that other webmasters are beginning to show interest in Alexa.com again. Now that Alexa is being positioned to have a closer integration with Amazon, has improved their toolbar to include a free pop-up blocker and Google search results, as well as given webmasters incentive to install Alexa toolbar, many site owners either offer toolbar or display their Alexa ranking proudly on their sites.
So, no matter what your personal feelings about Alexa toolbar are, it may be a good idea to gain advantages it offers, before your rivals do.
4. Client awareness is rising
Even if you're not a commercial website, and don't really compete with other sites for anything other than traffic, you still have to deal with fact that your visitors are becoming more aware of Alexa toolbar again. Alexa allows you to customize a version of their toolbar and allow you to offer it as a free download from your site. Not only can you profit from their amazon.com purchases, but when regular visitors return to your site with toolbar installed, it can help maintain your ranking.
The way things are going, situation of having clients checking your Alexa reviews and ratings before they buy from you to one day be routine. Do you want to be ahead of that possible trend, or wait, and push it when everyone else finally catches on?
5. Alexa's Perceived Importance
The whole reason for this article is that in answer to last article I wrote about Alexa, I got a lot of feedback questioning whether Alexa Internet and its toolbar were still important to webmasters. So far, at minimum, for last two reasons I stated, Perception of Alexa being an important webmaster tool is increasing.
So even if you don't think it is important, if your visitors feel it is, then it may be time for you to at least pay attention to recent changes.
6. Alexa's Actual Importance
As Alexa's perceived importance is growing, it's actual importance seems to be moving at same rate. Here's why.
It would be one thing if all hoopla about Alexa took place and everyone installed or re-installed toolbar, and everyone found out that both site and toolbar were useless. Remember when auto-surf exchanges first became popular? Everyone jumped on bandwagon for about a month, then several articles came out about six weeks later, stating that they were ineffectual because real humans weren't viewing sites anymore.
Look around Net for about an hour and see if you can find any new negative press about Alexa from webmasters since November. All I've seen are same questions there were before- is my Alexa rating important, and why? Are Alexa's traffic stats accurate?
And I still have same answers. Your Alexa rating is important to you if you have a commercial website because it is important to Google and to your competition. And whether your site is commercial or not, it is becoming important to your visitors, which is why your site exists- to cater to them, you should make your site's relationship with Alexa.com a priority.
As to Alexa's statistical accuracy, I can't say for sure. It's a much debated topic. But it's pretty much indisputable that getting into top 100,000 sites is a significant achievement, though perhaps not as difficult as some think. And having a top 50,000 site is not something that can really be cheated or faked. So perhaps it is not perfectly exact as a comparison of your site to another unrelated site.
But it is closest thing to a universal, impartial 3rd party measure of traffic we have. And more importantly, it can give your clients yet another reason to trust you enough to buy from your site. Testimonials in form of reviews on their site, as well as fast access to your contact information from outside your site can mean difference between a browser and a buyer.
If you haven't had chance to download Alexa toolbar, you can get it from http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com/alexatoolbar - or you can get Alexa Snapshot from www.alexa.com if you have Netscape or if you're not on a PC. It's a free resource, and all you have to lose- or gain- is more free traffic.
For more free traffic secrets, subscribe to the Free Traffic Secrets Ezine by sending any blank email to ftdsecrets-subscribe@topica.com - bonuses for subscribers include free access to a resource that gets you free advertising for life in 9 minutes a day. Or, get Tinu's free Google optimization guide at http://www.freetrafficdirectory.com
