I am sure nearly everyone has heard of the Nielsen ratings for television. It is a rating system that allows advertisers to know approximately how many people are viewing a television show and how many people will see their ad. The internet has a ranking system very much like the Nielsen Ratings called ALEXA.
Alexa.com is an Amazon.com creation that offers statistics of traffic to websites. The Alexa ranking is based on the amount of users that have visited the site with an Alexa toolbar installed in their own browsers. This is similar to the Nielsen Rakings that have boxes on televisions that record television usage. Alexa rankings are very important to sites that offer advertising on their site. The lower the Alexa ranking the more visitors a site has. Google is number 1 and Bob’s underwater basket weaving is 1,254,546.
Traffic rank is based on historical data aggregated over three months from the millions of Alexa users. This number is a combined measurement of page views and the number of users. A daily computation of reach and page views is taken. The main number for traffic rank is derived at by using these two numbers averaged over time.
The actual Alexa ranking of a site is considered important because advertisers pay attention to it. This number is used to help determine pricing. Text Link Ads, ReviewMe and Sponsored Reviews are examples of sales programs that rely on Alexa to figure out a site’s advertising value.
If you would like to check the ALEXA ranking of your website or a site you would like to advertise on visit www.alexa.com and enter your website address www.yourwebsitename.com.
