I’ve always been interested in television and the Nielsen ratings. But keeping track of a large populations television viewing habits can be a difficult and non-precise. Nielsen ratings rely polling and user feedback amongst other reporting tools.  

The internet, on the other hand, is much easier to track. That’s why Google and other search engines use Alexa. Anyone can download the add-on to a browser and it tracks which sites you visit. Thus, Google uses this data as part of its algorithm when determining natural search rankings.

Now think about it…who goes to your website more than you do? No one…

Download Alexa and you are bound to increase your page’s ranking! 

Another cool tool by Google is Page Rank. This works similarly to Alexa and tracks traffic to the site and the number of links. To quickly get a Google Page Rank on any website just install the Google toolbar. Page Rank is one of the original core features of Google, one of the reasons why Google search results contained more relevant information. Page Rank ranks web pages based on inbound links weighs but not all inbound links are equal. And inbound link from a small website such as the Marietta Journal does not contribute as much to a Page Rank as a link coming from a large site such as CNN or the New York Times. Therefore, pay attention to this number, any number greater than four is awesome, when joining sites and directories. Remember: quality NOT quantity! 

By using tools such as Alexa’s tool bar and the Google Toolbar you can gauge the quality of your inbound links and work to build a stronger network of websites that link to your store. But there is one caveat to this Page Rank is not the sole tool Google uses to place sites in search results, relevant content is also important. A link from the New York Times may give your site a large boost but if someone is searching locally for restaurants in Marietta a link from the Marietta Journal, a local newspaper, could be just as important.