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.
