- Image via Wikipedia
Alexa is undoubtedly one of the most important Web-based ranking tools for small-business owners, advertisers and bloggers all over the world. It is therefore not surprising that a lot of importance is placed on Alexa elements such as the Alexa Toolbar, Webmasters Forum and Alexa search results in general. The Alexa toolbar collects information about user-browsing behaviour which is then stored and analysed for Alexa’s regular Web traffic reports. Although the accuracy of Alexa ranking is sometimes contentious and controversial, this article will only focus on the area of reporting.
Usually, when a person searches for the Alexa traffic rank of a Website, the site’s description is displayed just above tables that show a host of data which are often difficult to interpret by people who are not familiar with SEO-data analysis. However, during a recent visit to the Alexa Website, I noticed an interesting feature, that is currently being tested by Alexa (See image below), which showed a simple summary of traffic data in 3-4 short sentences just below my Website’s description. This led me to contact Alexa through their Webmaster forum so as to find out what this new feature was all about and their response was:
We’re rolling out a new feature that gives a “plain English” description of what we know about a site. We’re still working on it, and just trying it out. Thank you for your kind words on it; we really appreciate the feedback.
In summary, the new feature will summarise the following information in simple and easy-to-understand detail.
- World Ranking
- Percentage and Description of Page Views
- Website’s Bounce Rate
- Average Duration of Visitors
- Average Unique Page Views/day
- Percentage of Search Engine Traffic
Once fully implemented, non-tech savvy Web users and Website owners can be a little bit more relaxed the next time they view their Alexa ranking. No matter what anyone says about Alexa, its popularity is growing steadily and the sooner you start taking your Website’s Alexa ranking more seriously, the better.
Talking Point
Which online services do you use to rank your Website? How useful do you think this new feature will be to Alexa users?