January 26, 2009 at 1:33 am · Filed under SEO, The Way of SEO
We’ve been talking about how to increase your Alexa Rank in the past two posts. What I didn’t realize is that some people do not understand all the hullabaloo about Alexa. My apologies to those who feel this way and thanks to Adam, one of our readers, who brought this to my attention.
So, indeed, why should we bother with Alexa Rank? Is it really important? More so, what is Alexa Rank?
Simply put, Alexa collects data regarding the traffic that goes through your site or your blog. This was explained in the previous post where I quoted the text from Alexa itself. So it is much like a system which measures your site’s popularity.
So how is this important? Ask yourself, why are you maintaining your blog or your web site? If it is fully for your own pleasure and no one else’s, then Alexa Rank may not be important to you at all. However, if you want to let the rest of the world know about your site, then Alexa could work for you.
Another important thing is that Alexa is being used by a lot of advertisers and publishers. If you are working on monetizing your blog, then you definitely need these people. And how do you attract them? By getting a high ranking in the eyes of the people at Alexa. Of course, there are other factors that could come into play, it is not always that simple. However, this is the basic premise behind the importance of Alexa.
I hope that helps.
January 26, 2009 at 12:26 am · Filed under SEO Awareness
Search engine optimization has reached new heights in the past year. Suddenly, everybody and their mom are interested in engaging in SEO in order to make their web sites more visible. Not everyone knows even the basic SEO practices and not everyone wants to spend some time on them. That is why there are many SEO companies making a killing in this niche. However, you should know that not everyone who claims to be an SEO expert is for real. In fact, I just read the results of a research conducted by an SEO firm, Increase Visibility, which shed light on some of the common SEO scams being run today.
I am hoping that you have not been victimized by any of these but to be on the safe side, here are some of the major warning signs that they have pinpointed:
• Emails guaranteeing number #1 Google rankings.
• Offering guaranteed rankings for a very small fee.
• Achieving a #1 ranking for a unique, very long search term. The very long search term has no search volume. This practice is a scam.
• Guaranteeing a #1 search engine ranking by purchasing it with Google Adwords or pay per click advertising. The Adwords might show up on the top of the search page or in the sponsored link section in the right column. However, the majority of searchers use the organic search results located in the left column.
• Offering to submit a website to a vast number of search engines for a small payment (this strategy simply fails).
• Not having a legitimate website or they own an amateurish site.
• Offering to submit a website to over a thousand important directories, however there are only a small number of directories that bring traffic to websites.
My suggestion is for you to start learning about the basics of SEO yourself. You can build on this in the future and actually be your own SEO person OR you can use your basic knowledge to hire legitimate and knowledgeable SEO professionals.
