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”
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After having personally proved that a site (without PR) can soar to the top with proper SEO work (in one of my other sites), I am personally not very interested on the PR thingy. But it sure is good to have a high PR though. And you are right, if I get high PR, I’d certainly be bragging about it.
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You are right James. Like what I’ve said in this article, I was able to get to Google’s first page of their search result with a PageRank 0 and I guess keywords and other SEO contributed to that. Still having a nice PR is nice and sure helpful for getting a high SERP.
ZXT´s last blog ..My blog is 2 months old!
I would agree with Google PR. However, for me, alexa have no value what so ever regards to eveluating the site’s quality and popularity. Because, you can easily manupulate those ranking with purchasing very low quality traffic (such as traffic exchange sites). However, that doesn’t mean Alexa provides inaccurate information. And i use it regularly to analyse the progress of my blog, as i know where i should get the traffic. But, I don’t use it to analyse other blogs.
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Alexa is useful because there is no other medium that tracks traffic more accurately without having to install scripts to our websites. It makes possible too to see other blogs or websites traffic. Thanks for the visit by the way.
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Hope you back to full health, I was feeling sick yesterday as well.
Some good facts you pointed out about pagerank. I know you can get pagerank other ways as well. Besides getting
inbound links, you can get pagerank with outbound links to authoritative sites and lots of new fresh content on your site.
With a higher PR and alexa ranking, you can also charge advertisers more money if they want to put ads on your blog.
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Thank you Blaine, I’m still sick though but I need to get to work tomorrow.
Yes, a good PageRank and a good Alexa ranking can help monetize blogs and websites. Because these two are easily accessible to anyone and advertisers are in the look for good PageRank and good Alexa rank to put their products in.
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It’s nice to see your blog taking off so quickly thats awesome! This is probably one of the most detailed posts I have seen about Google Page Rank and Alexa Ranking in a while, nice work Z.
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Thank you John. I had to admit, your blog gave my blog some juices to get that PageRank 3. And again, those traffic you’ve sent my way contributed to my Alexa ranking too.
ZXT´s last blog ..My blog is 2 months old!
You surely have great achievement with PR and alexa for this blog.In my opinion, PR and alexa tell us how our blog doing in internet.
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Yes Dana you are right, its like a basis in how well our blog or site doing. Plus its accessible to everyone else including advertisers so that gives us some kind of a bonus too to do well.
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
Bragging rights is about all PR is good for, that and the fact that advertisers will pay a lot more to advertise on sites with a high PR. The reason being they will in turn get a better rank themselves.
Personally I prefer good SERP’s more than anything else, as this is what is going to get you traffic, not PR.
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Yes Sire, completely agree with everything you said. But having a good PR will help in some way for you to get good SERP don’t you agree?
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I’m not sure that is true. I could be wrong but I’ve always thought SERP has more to do with choosing the right keywords than PR. I’ve been in the top 10 search term several times on my PR0 blog.
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Yes I think keywords play a major role in SERP but maybe if two articles or blogs has the same amount of keywords then the article or blog with better PageRank will stay on top of the other.
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I have a PR of 3 and alexa rank of 99k but I still don’t know how to utilize them to earn more. Perhaps you could suggest some advertisers that seek high PR and alexa rank?
I only use adsense, chitika and infolinks and I don’t think PR and alexa matter for them.
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Hi Ark, thanks for the visit. As you can see, I only have adsense ads here in my blog as I really don’t have any experience with other sort of advertisement yet. Maybe I need to put 125×125 box here on my blog and ask for advertisers to put their ads their. But that would be months from now I guess. You could ask other bloggers with those kind of advertisement.
ZXT´s last blog ..My blog is 2 months old!
Yeaah…everyone need this….nice article..thank’s
Yeah I agree this is some great info what is weird when I started bloggers were obsessed with PR unless they had none and Google was more liberal with the PR4 etc now Alexa doesn’t make much sense because I have a lower Alexa then I should to be honest.
Thanks for the RT also appreciate it that’s another thing I noticed bloggers aren’t RTing and Stumbling each other like they did and should
Keep up the great work to your success
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Thank you for leaving your comment John. Yes I agree with you we bloggers should help each other so we can grow together. BTW, I think I’ll encash that Google check
ZXT´s last blog ..Nice little story about a UFC fighter
Okay just an update. Remember on the last part of my article I’ve said
Now for this long tail keywords “Google PageRank Alexa Ranking Tips” I am in 3rd position already. If you ad the word “and” to make it “Google PageRank and Alexa Ranking Tips” then I’m in first position
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
Well, congrats on scoring high for “Google PageRank Alexa Ranking Tip”. well done! Obviously, it’s a bit more competitive when you try ranking for “Google PageRank”
You mention how a high Pagerank could make some surfers trust your site more. I highly doubt that regular surfers who are not webmasters/bloggers even know about PageRank. They sure can’t tell what your PageRank is unless you put it in front of their face (in which case, I highly doubt the average surfer will be impressed by seeing PageRank 3 out of 10).
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Hi Anne, thank you for leaving a comment. Yes its very competitive for the keywords Google PageRank as it has 28 million results.
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thanks for infomation, this article so useful for blogger who needs to increase Pagerank.
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i think page rank and Alexa rank matter on many factors of website ,i think on domain age and also in seo aspects
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Domain age also helps in SEO but not in PageRank.
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Great Post, i believe in Alexa Rank.
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Thank you Anish.
Hi, zee! thanks for the tips. ^^ that’s a great achievement yeah!! I hope I can write like you.
Thank you Fedhz for dropping by. You are too kind…as I really don’t know how to write
Having a high PR doesn’t mean having a huge traffic.. But PR is about authority.. I got your point. Thanks.
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Yes PR is for your backlink on how well you are doing and how other sites are linking to you. Alexa on the other hand is all about traffic. So having good ranks on both means your blog/site is doing good.
yes i think pr depends on the domain age and inbound links and back links and Alexa ranking depends on the lots of traffic.
Hi Jim, thank you for leaving your comment here. PageRank though is all about backlinks and nothing else. Domain age got nothing to do with PageRank. As I’ve said, I got my PageRank 3 while my blog and domain is just 2 months old.
Great eye opener about the PR. But its not going to help much in traffic, it mainly helps only in reputation
Yes PageRank don’t help traffic directly but in some way because it helps a little when Google rank your site in their search results. But you are right, PageRank is mostly for site reputation.
ZXT´s last blog ..Sunday’s Babe of the Week
hi.. ZXT, i want to know that how did you get page rank 3 in just 2 month ,i am really curious to know about it. just give me some tips.
Jim, like what I’ve said in this article. PageRank is all about inbound links. If you can get high ranking (PR) blogs or websites to link your own website then they will pass their PageRank to you (these websites should be Dofollow) Even PageRank 1 sites will help you but it will take more sites than PageRank 4 or PAgeRank 5 sites.
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I’m not convinced the Alexa data is reliable enough to be useful. I recently compared Alexa’s data against other data sources for the same blog, and Alexa doesn’t seem to come out well at all: http://www.markpack.org.uk/can-you-trust-alexa-and-google-trends/.
Have other people got evidence of Alexa being any more accurate than my experience?
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Hi Mark, thank you for leaving your comment here. I also use Google analytics and WordPress stats plug in in my blog and I can see a steady rise in my traffic for both while my Alexa ranking improves too.
I got to admit, Alexa isn’t perfect because it only based (mostly if not entirely) its data with those using the tool bar. So no tool bars meaning visits probably won’t count. I’ll probably post a screenshot of my Google analytics and WordPress stats on my blogs 3rd month annivarsarry.
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