Marketing Tip: Yahoo! Answers

One good marketing tips is the use of Yahoo! Answers. This is a great place to find answers to some of your most commonly asked questions as well as those that are more difficult to answer. I spend a few minutes each day at Yahoo! Answers responding to questions related to marketing, Internet marketing and SEO. Here is one such question that I recently responded to:

Q: Is the Alexa Page Rank a reliable indicator of a site's popularity?

A: There are a number of resources you can use to determine a site's popularity. Although Alexa has been around for some time, it only provides a small piece of the overall puzzle. When looking for a site's popularity, I recommend looking at a number of sources.

First, start with Google. What is the Google PR of the page you're reviewing? Download the Google toolbar to get a look. Additionally, type "link: www.sitename.com" in the Google search bar and this will tell you how many sites are linking in which can also serve as a point of reference.

Now that you have those data points, look at the same data in Alexa. This will tell you how accurate it may be. Alexa offers an Alexa ranking as well as the number of in-bound linking web sites. A picture should be starting to form in your mind in terms of the site you're reviewing. Finally, check out one other resource: Quantcast.com.

I started using Quantcast about a year ago and it seems to be the most accurate with regard to my own internal stats (Google Analytics). Quantcast will give you much of the same information, but is usually more accurate. That said, Alexa Page Rank is a decent measure, but shouldn't be your only source of comparison.

I hope you found this question and answer series helpful. As I answer additional question that I think may be of value to all those looking to succeed with their online marketing, I'll be posting here. Check back often as one of these questions may be exactly what you have on your mind.

Posted in: Yahoo