Free Download: Alexa Toolbar
The Alexa Toolbar offers users several free features to gauge the standing of any website they visit.
From one simple download, you can click a button to view:
- Alexa Traffic Rank
- Related Links
- Wayback
- Search Analytics
- Website Reviews
Now, some of these might not provide small business owners with much information, but others can be incredibly useful.
The Alexa Traffic Rank gives you a sense of where you or your competitors sit in the larger scale of things.
This is great when you want to figure out if certain bloggers are as successful as they say they are! It ranks all of the websites in the world, so the numbers it provides are really good for getting a global perspective.
Basically, you download this extension for whichever web browser you use (we recommend Google Chrome), and it adds a small icon to the top right corner. Click the button, and you'll see the screen image posted above.
But, I also really like the Traffic Rank USportion of the toolbar's features because it shows how you fit on a more national scale. For many of us, we're trying to fit into a local, regional, or national niche, so this can be very helpful.
My number one favorite Alexa service is the Sites Linking In category. Want to know who's linking back to you? Here's a place to check. There are so many services out there that supposedly offer this information, but they don't really work. The Alexa Toolbar gives you a chance to see what this highly acclaimed tool sees when people visit your website.
For smaller websites and blogs, Sites Linking In gives you a number and complete list of links to calculate backlinks. This is where you can your blog commenting and backlinking efforts come to fruition. The more you get engaged elsewhere, the higher this number will go.
Plus, it will show you whether or not those pings or comments you've approved were legitimate. Time and time again, I thought I hit "Publish" to real comments only to see on Alexa that they are spam sites for a whole slew of inappropriate products and services.
Related Links is good if you want to see who else shows up in a similar search, but it doesn't necessarily do much for smaller scale bloggers. I also like to know the Average Load Time since the version we website builders see on our screens is often different from what the standard searcher sees.
But really, the Alexa Toolbar is great for two things: 1) Double-checking your site, and 2) Researching your competitors.
If you sell Hand Crafted Whistles and your biggest competitor is Wooden Whistles by Hand, you can visit their website, view this information, and use it to your advantage.
In this way and many others, Alexa is an asset for those trying to keep an eye on their web stats! Download it today.
Have you ever used this service? What'd you think?