Google PageRank and Alexa Ranking Facts

Okay I’ve been blogging for what, 2 months and 1 week now? And for those 2 months I’ve been learning a lot what Google PageRank and Alexa Rank means and does to a website. I’ve been meaning to write about these two but just can’t find the time and I’ve been sick for 5 days now too. But after the last PageRank update on October 30, 2009 and my 2 month old blog (yes this same blog) got a PageRank 3, I’ve decided it’s about time to write something about it. So let’s start with Google PageRank first and talk about the basics.

Google PageRank – PageRank is named after Larry Page, a co-founder of Google. Some people thought PageRank is named after ranking pages of websites, though that’s what it does but it isn’t. PageRank is Google’s way of telling what page or website is important and which one is not. It has a point system from 0 to 10 which 0 being not important and 10 the most important. PageRank is all about links and it doesn’t have anything to do with content. To get a PageRank or to improve your PageRank, you need quality links pointing to your website which also known as backlinks. If you can get backlinks from websites with high PageRank, then your site will get some of those PageRank which what we bloggers call link juice.

So let say you have a brand new website with no content at all but you can get good quality backlinks from websites with high PageRank, then on the next PageRank update, expect that your website will get a PageRank too. Just make sure those backlinks are Dofollow links because if it is a Nofollow then you don’t get the link juice hence no PageRank is being pass to your site.

So what does PageRank good for?

Very good question. Having a good PageRank is enough for most bloggers to have bragging rights to fellow bloggers. It is like my blog is better than your blog because Google thinks mine is more important than yours. Well aside from that, the most important aspect of having a good PageRank is you also get a good position in Google Search Results. Usually, Google put those websites with PageRank on their first page of their search results. I said usually because it also happen from time to time that you can get a first page position in Google Search Results even without a PageRank. To prove this, just do a search in Google for these keywords “alexa ranking tips” and you should be able to see my blog article about “5 Proven ways to improve your Alexa ranking” in third position out of 1.4 million results and yes that article has a PageRank 0 as of this writing.

Getting a good PageRank also helps your authority on the internet. If you are selling something then people will most likely shop on your website than your competitors with 0 or lower PageRank than yours. For bloggers, people will most likely read your blogs or follow your advice than other blogs with 0 or lower PageRank articles. With that all cleared up, let’s go to Alexa.

Nothing But Random Alexa Stats

Alexa Ranking – is a collection of browsing behavior data on the internet among its users. It collects data from computers that has the Alexa toolbar installed. Some people say that Alexa also uses other medium for the their ranking but there is no proof that they really do. I heard from some SEO expert that Alexa only ranks the top 20 million websites worldwide. I know this isn’t true because I saw a friends blog ranked 26 million when he first installed the Alexa toolbar. Also just yesterday, someone left a comment and I’ve visited his url and saw an Alexa Ranking of 28,944,420. That’s almost 29 million and Alexa might be ranking the top 30 million and not 20.

If Google PageRank is about inbound links then Alexa Ranking is about web traffic. Every visit of users or computers with Alexa toolbar installed to a website within a specific amount of time count towards its ranking. There is no information on how long a user can visit a specific website again that will count as another visit to that website. This is the reason why webmasters or blog owners love Alexa toolbars. Their own visit to their own website or blog helps their ranking in one way or the other. It also helps to check other blogs or websites current Alexa ranking without having to go to Alexa website and type in the domain name.

So what gives with high Alexa ranking?

Another good question. Again aside from bragging rights, websites or blogs with very good Alexa ranking carries some authority with its contents. Advertisers usually look for websites and Blogs with high Alexa ranking and will most likely to put their ads their as compared with websites with not so good Alexa ranking. That’s why most bloggers constantly trying to improve their Alexa rank to attract advertisers. Again if you get lots of traffic, Alexa ranking will follows. If for some reason your traffic decreases then rest assured you will lose some Alexa ranking too.

This blog which just turned 2 months old last week has a Google PageRank 3 and Alexa Ranking of 237,858 , some sort of achievement considering I am not doing this full time and I usually find myself not knowing what to post. I initially created this blog to know the ins and outs of blogging to know more about internet marketing and maybe a little SEO knowledge too. This blog helps me getting some facts straight about SEO, PageRank and Alexa and I can see my blog growing from scratch and improving day by day.

On a side note, I’d like to see how this article about PageRank and Alexa ranks on Google Search Results in a few days and in a few weeks for keywords “Google PageRank”, “Alexa Ranking” and “Google PageRank Alexa Ranking Tips”