Summary

Alexa (http://www.alexa.com) is a search engine system, combined with traffic monitoring, site ranking, and link mixing services, all provided as multiple services through and for their parent company, Amazon.com. 

We also provide a few brief step-by-step explanations of how to get listed, and how to correct your listing on Alexa.

What exactly is Alexa?

Alexa is one of the largest database repositories on the internet, containing historical snapshots of the internet.  These snapshots not only show what the websites looked) like, but also how they interconnected), and the general surfing activity over time.  It is the only major public database larger than Google.

The Alexa database takes in information from two primary sources.  Those sources are:

1. Toolbar users.  Alexa started in 1996, providing a "toolbar" for web-surfers.  [Terminology: a "toolbar" is an extra program that plugs in to a browser, adding extra information about sites being surfed.]  This toolbar serves two distinct purposes: To the web-surfer, the toolbar gives information about the site being surfed, like relative rating, contact information, and so on; To Alexa, the toolbar sends back information about what sites are being surfed, and for how long, and how many pages were viewed.

2. A huge web crawler (as in robot/spider).  Around the same time, they started a web crawler program that goes out and digs up information on the internet.  This crawler is so large, it currently pulls about a Terabyte (1,000 Gigabytes / 1 Trillion bytes) every day.  The crawler pulls site appearance, and categorizes what sites are linked together to help determine relative importance of sites on their respective topics.

How does this relate to web site promotion?

There are a couple side effects to Alexa's information.  One of the main values in an Alexa listing is legitimacy.  If a web-savvy surfer has the Alexa toolbar installed, they can tell if your site gets much traffic, look at its ratings on Alexa, and even see your contact information.  If you don't list with Alexa, your site ends up looking pretty lame.

Once you're listed, you can put up a 'brag icon' that shows your certified Alexa rating to any surfer, again, legitimizing your site.

1. If they go to amazon from the toolbar and buy something, you get a commission (real money)
2. The toolbar has a quick link back to your homepage (lest they forget your web address)
3. Whenever they surf your site, it adds 'hits' to your Alexa count, which can boost your rating, further improving your legitimacy.

This is a tool that can earn you money while improving your site's legitimacy, with no associated cost of entry!

How much will this listing cost?

Getting listed is also free.  Alexa's main business is gathering data, and you actually help them out by telling them your site is on the internet.  If you get a lot of inbound links, they'll find your site... eventually.  With a little work, though, you can make your site show up very quickly, and work on your Alexa rating as another tool towards legitimacy.

Getting listed is free, but darn slow

After putting in several websites into Alexa, we've come to a couple conclusions that you should be aware of:

• If you use their 'add my site' manual entry system on the web, your site will get listed... in about 5 weeks to 4 months, depending on their workload
• If, instead, you use their 'info.txt' automated system, your site will get listed in about 2-3 days

To use their info.txt system:

1. Go to http://www.alexa.com
2. Enter your website (domain only) into their "Search the web" feature
3. You'll probably get an empty page image.  Scroll down to "contact info" and click on "Contact Information Editor"
4. Fill out the information and hit "continue"
5. Now you're given a choice to either enter an email, or download info.txt, (edit it) and upload it to your site.  If at all possible, do the info.txt route... it takes a few minutes, but will save you weeks in waiting for your contact information to show up.

Once you're contact information has been listed...

Once you've been listed, get a copy of the "site stats" button.  This can be found at Webmaster Services/Site Stats.  Until your ranking rises up, just keep a copy on your local computer, so you can check the value.  Better yet, download the Alexa toolbar from your own site, and your rank will appear every time you visit your site.  (This is also better because then your surfing also adds to your Alexa score).

Again, if you're an Amazon.com associate, that button can be a money source as well.  Users who click to find out more get directed to an Amazon.com copy of the traffic information.  If they buy something, you get a commission on that sale.

Do NOT forget to recheck your listing in the first few weeks!

A few times, we've seen typos creep in, which are easy to fix.  The big pain is the "disappearing homepage image".  Early on, it may come and go, or never show up.  If you've been listed for 3 weeks and it hasn't shown up, do the following:

1. Go back to alexa.com and 'search' for your site... verify the home page image is missing
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on "correct errors or omissions"
3. This takes you to "site information editor", and there's a link to the right of your missing ("coming soon") homepage image that says "Update Thumbnail image..."
4. Click it, and your image should show up in about 3-4 days

While you list quickly, your rank will change slowly

Your overall site rank is based on a 3-month sliding average.  That means, regardless of your day-to-day traffic ratings, your site ranking will be abysmally low for the first 6-8 weeks.  As your rank increases, your information updates and ranking changes will occur more frequently.  The key issue is to work on developing traffic to the point where your ranking is in the top 100,000 sites.

Your 'links in' count will change even more slowly

Links in is determined by the crawler, so it is not tabulated until the crawl AFTER your site has been listed.  So, don't be surprised by 'no data' in the links field for up to 2-3 months.  Most surfers don't really count links in, because they change so slowly... site ratings and Alexa site rankings are their main interest. 

Conclusion

Getting listed on Alexa, putting up a statistics button, making sure your page logo is displayed, all ultimately add to legitimacy.  Legitimacy is what can help turn a 'web-surfer' into a prospective customer.  Prospective customers generally feel more confident when someone they trust, such as Alexa or Amazon, knows who you are, and has your contact information.