5 Marketing Tips for Improving Alexa Ranking

Many people have asked me how they can improve their Alexa rankings - a measure of traffic and site popularity. Here are my top five marketing tips.

Marketing Tips #1
Download the Alexa toolbar and use it every day to visit your own website. Alexa even gives you the ability to co-brand the toolbar with your own logo and give it away. You can download the toolbar here: http://pages.alexa.com/prod_serv/associatetoolbar.html

Marketing Tips #2
Use Alexa redirection whenever you can. No matter when or where you provide a link to your website, be sure to use the equivalent Alexa redirect URL. For example, when providing a link to my website, I use http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com. If you copy this URL into your browser, it will take you to MarketingScoop.com. To use this technique, simply replace the name of my website (marketingscoop) with yours.

Marketing Tips #3
Encourage your website visitors to add their positive testimonials on Alexa's detailed listings page for your website. This can be done by placing a link to the appropriate Alexa page on your website and asking visitors to "Click here to rate this website". You can find your detailed Alexa page here: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=marketingscoop.com.

Marketing Tips #4
Write your own site reviews on the top 100 rated Alexa sites and include your redirect URL. The top 500 domains, according to Alexa can be found at www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500. When you write a review, be sure to use the redirection URL we discussed in number 2 above specifically for your website http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?marketingscoop.com

Marketing Tips #5
Download the Alexa ranking button, traffic history graph, info links, and other traffic counters onto the page of your website that receives the most traffic. For example, at the bottom of my home page http://www.marketingscoop.com, I've added the Alexa ranking box. You can do the same for your own site by visiting http://www.alexa.com/site/site_stats/signup. You'll notice that I haven't added the traffic history graph. This is because it wouldn't look appropriate on my home page and because Alexa is only providing detailed history on the top 100,000 sites. So if you're not in the top 100,000, site stats would not be available.

These simple Alexa strategies are easy to implement and will make a huge difference in your Alexa ranking. Ultimately you want visitors to do more than visit your home page, you want them to interact with your site. Be sure to optimize your home page for SEO purposes, ease of use, and interaction. Creating a positive user experience will get visitors to return again and again.

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Posted in: alexa

Today's Marketing Tips: 7 Reasons To Start Blogging

Today's marketing tips are all about blogging. Blogs are a great way to promote your products, services, and communicate with current and future customers. Maintaining or posting to a blog is very rewarding a carries a variety of benefits. Let's cover some basic marketing tips and corresponding benefits:

Marketing Tips #1.

Blogs are easy to create. Unlike starting your own website, weblogs can be created in just a few minutes. Sites like Blogger allow you to register and start your own blog for free. All you need is an email and a topic to start blogging about.

Marketing Tips #2.
Blogs provide a dialogue with prospects, customers, and friends. Blogs are now being used as a communication vehicle to share important information with customers. Because blogs can be updated in real time, businesses are finding weblogs to be one of the quickest and most accurate ways to distribute their message.

Marketing Tips #3.
Blogs are here to stay. Blogging gives you the ability to publish your thoughts in real time, whenever and where they like. If you enjoy writing, want to share your ideas, or even learn more about a particular subject, contribute to a blog on a regular basis. Now that blogs have become popular, you can find blog directories that can help you locate weblogs by category. Find one aligned to your interests and post your comments.

Marketing Tips #4
Blogs can drive traffic to your website. Using a blog, associated with a particular topic, can drive additional traffic to your website. This is essential for anyone seeking new leads for their business or interested in generating online sales.

The benefit of using a blog to generate traffic is that weblogs attract a different type of user - one that is very focused on a particular subject. These users are more prone to take interest in what you have to offer and convert into customers.

Marketing Tips #5.
Blogs give you the flexibility to post whenever, wherever, 24/7. When authoring a blog, all you need is an Internet enabled PC to post an entry. This level of flexibility removes many of the barriers associated with traditional forms of communication. Some blogs even allow you to make a post via email. Simply construct an email and send it to the blog address and the result is an instant post to your blog.

Marketing Tips #6.
Establish yourself as an expert. By keeping a blog up-to-date, and contributing in an area where you have experience, you can quickly build your reputation as an expert. Once you've establish yourself as having knowledge in a particular subject area, you can begin contributing to other web sources such as news articles and interviews.

Marketing Tips #7
Generate Ad Revenue. The beauty of a blog is that you can attract those interested in a very specific subject area. This is an ideal market for online pay-per-click advertising like Google Adsense. You can easily integrate Google Adsense into your blog - many blog hosts provide it as a built in option- and generate ad revenue. This is a great way to provide value to your readers while generating revenue for your business.

These are just some of the benefits of creating and contributing to blogs. You will find that weblogs are a great way to share information with others who share similar interests. Its also a great opportunity to learn from others who comment on posts. This is one of the most rewarding aspects of creating your very own blog. So what are you waiting for, start blogging!

Check back daily for more helpful marketing tips. If you have any marketing tips you'd like to share, please comment on this post.

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Posted in: blogging

How Are You Creating Your Links?

Are search engines devaluing your links because they consider them spam? One of my most frequently used Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies is keyword focused link text. What I mean by keyword focused is simply that I make sure that links pointing to my website include my keywords. Including keywords in your anchor text (also know as link text) ensures that the search engines know what type of content can be found once the link is followed.

Many search engines - including Google - are starting to evaluate this link text strategy in greater detail. Websites that have thousands of incoming links, all with the same link text, may signal something amiss. Therefore, it's best to vary your link text when engaging in any type of link building campaign.

I recommend that you use keyword variations or add additional phrases to your link text. As an example, see how the link text is modified below:

Webmasters Book of Secrets

The Webmasters Book of Secrets

Improve Search Engine Rankings

All three links point to the same website but with varying link text. As a result, search engines will treat each of these links as unique, improving link popularity and organic search results. Vary your link text on a regular basis but be sure to always include your keywords or keyword phrase.

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Posted in: links