» January 4, 2007 in
After seeing Yaro and Burt post that adding an Alexa button (or widget) to your website could possibly improve your Alexa rankings, I thought i would give it a try.I have a couple websites that have "No Data" for an Alexa rank when both average over 50 visitors a day.
So I added an Alexa button to each of these sites and waited a week. The results; nothing happened. Both sites still show "No Data", even though they are calling the Alexa widget at least 50 timers per day, per site.
I had my suspicions at that time that the Alexa buttons do not help your Alexa rankings, but to make absolute sure I wasn't doing something wrong I thought, let's just email Alexa and ask them.
Here's what I wrote to Alexa:
I've seen a few bloggers mention that installing an Alexa button on your website can increase your Alexa rank.
(like found here: http://www.alexa.com/site/site_stats/signup))
Is this true? I thought Alexa rank was only affected by toolbar installs?
Thanks much,
Mark
And roughly a week later they sent this response, which should put to bed the myth that Alexa buttons improve Alexa ranking:
Dear Mark,
Thank you for contacting Alexa Internet.
You're right. Our Site Widgets merely display the traffic ranking details that are available at Alexa.com. Our Toolbar is the way we gather traffic data.
We appreciate your interest in Alexa.
Best regards,
Alexa Internet Customer Service
Super! Thanks Alexa team for the response. There answer is also echoed in the Alexa FAQ:
Alexa's traffic rankings are based on the usage patterns of Alexa Toolbar users over a rolling 3 month period.
If you ever wondered if that Alexa button in your navigation was doing your Alexa rankings any good, the answer is no, at least for now, at least according to Alexa ;-)
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Vlad says on January 4, 2007
Great Alexa rank Mark! ;)
I absolutely agree. Presume it helps then what? Even if I get any traffic from alex just be cause my site have made "movers and shakers" list, that traffic will not convert anyway.
Ray Dotson says on January 5, 2007
Thanks for the clarification, Mark. I've included a link to this post on my blog. Right now, I'm shaking my fist at the sky and cursing Alexa, Google, and our own frail, pathetic humanity...
45n5 says on January 5, 2007
Thanks for stopping by Vlad and Ray!
sarahG says on January 5, 2007
Interesting post. I added a button to my main blog last year (removed it during the last template change) just to see what would happen and from adding it my rank jumped from 150,000 ish to peak at 90,000 ish. This stayed for the whole time I kept the button. Since removing it a few months ago my rank dropped and it's back to 142,000.
I added one to another site to see if it would bump my TLA price and the rank went from 600,000 to 300,000 without a major change in visitors (in fact visitors have dropped off a little).
I guess now it was just a major coincidences!
However ignoring the reply you had, I wouldn't have said a week was long enough as it usually takes a few weeks to a month to really see any change, or at least that's what I experienced with it.
gary says on January 6, 2007
I believe that both myself and Yaro came up with "inconclusive".
It's strange that _every_ site I add a widget to goes up in the rankings - it cannot be all co-incidence, surely - particularly when said sites have been languishing for ages near 1,000,000 and go to 200,000 or such within a month or two of adding the widget ;)
Try putting a proper widget on this blgo and leave it for 3 months.
gary says on January 6, 2007
In addition to the last post, you are now at 183,000 on Alexa - try adding the widget for just 1 month. See where you end up.
45n5 says on January 6, 2007
Gary,
I changed the text from "can improve" to "could possibly improve" the Alexa rankings in reference to you and Yaro's posts. I never meant to imply any conclusion by either of your sites. I simply wanted to link to where I got the idea from, hopefully that correction clears it up.
"It's strange that _every_ site I add a widget to goes up in the rankings"
I wish mine did too! However, I'll pass on anymore testing, at least for now.
(Btw, my 3 month Alexa stats are "183,000", however my one week stats are "70,921". My short term trend is already improving by more than 125%, _without_ a proper button. Adding one would be irrelevant at this time (because I'm already trending heavily in favor of increased popularity)).
45n5 says on January 6, 2007
Sarah,
"I wouldn't have said a week was long enough"
If you install a tool bar and repeatedly hit a site you can make the Alexa rank jump by the next update. The "today" Alexa stats that is.
Give it a whirl.
Thanks for the comment.
Dan says on January 12, 2007
If your site visitors download the Alexa toolbar and keep visiting your site then your ranking will increase. So advertising the toolbar will have an affect in raising your ranking, just not the way everyone assumed it would.
Ryan says on January 16, 2007
After reading everything here, I'm undecided as to what the end result of placing the widget on our site will be. I too wish to boost my alexa ranking. However, my alexa rank has improved from a rank of over 6 million down to about 1,300,000 or so in less than two months. The way I did this was by using a FREE service that I've posted a link to on my site. Go to my home page at www.mookhunter.com and click on boost your alexa rating if you wish to try it out. Oh, and by the way, I just installed the alexa widget on my home page, and wanted to see if that helps any.
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