What Does Your Alexa Rank Mean?

Alexa is a funny little ranking engine. Your fluctuations in rank can be pretty dramatic until Alexa gets a handle on your site.

They have changed their algorithm to, supposedly, better reflect and predict all your traffic. This means they no longer depend on simply guestimating your rank based on Alexa toolbar users who visit your site.

After the update I went from 32,000 to 60,000+ and now I believe they rank me well over 100,000. Yet, my traffic continues to grow.

The important thing to remember is that Alexa is one of several indicators of your site’s traffic health. Of course, you know the exact number of uniques you get each day from your own stats. That’s the main indicator, above all else, you should use to gauge how you’re doing.

It is quite possible Alexa doesn’t know enough about the traffic that is hitting your site because it is too low at this point to estimate more accurately in their rankings.

With the traffic level you have now, my focus would be on more marketing, deeply important and interesting posts (linkbait) for your niche, more commenting and networking on other blogs and social sites, and link building.

Regardless of the quirks in Alexa’s particular ranking system, you want to set a benchmark of a solid 100 visitors per day and then shoot for 500, 1000 and beyond.

Eventually Alexa should reflect this progress in their rankings.