There are many powerful tools available on the internet to increase your website’s traffic that range from simple traffic counters to in-depth analytics telling exactly what’s going on with your site and why. The problem with some of these more advanced tools is that they often require a bit more advanced knowledge in order to use them, but with Alexa’s user-friendly format and even just a beginner’s knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO), you could be well on your way to exponentially higher levels of traffic.
What is Alexa?
Alexa is a tool that keeps you tuned in with what’s going on all over the internet and on your own site. You can check what’s hot right now in a number of categories, as well as use their site tools to get in-depth insight into how your website is doing, if your efforts are having the desired effect, and which direction you need to go to improve. Perhaps the most indispensable tool Alexa offers is traffic analysis, which tells you not only how many people have visited your site, but who they are in demographic terms. The following are just a few ways you can increase traffic using Alexa.
Site Analysis
First things first, you need to know where you stand now before you can begin to improve. By using Alexa’s Site Info search, you can get information on what traffic you’re getting now, what your rank is within Alexa, what that rank is inside your country of residence, and the number of sites linking in. By clicking on “Get Details” you can get traffic ranks for countries all over the world. You can use this information to determine whether you need to focus on placing more backlinks to your site, or whether you need to work more on targeting where the people who see those backlinks are. This will also show you which search queries are most often used when visitors come to your site, so you’ll know whether you need to brush up on keyword research and optimization for your site.
Demographics
Now let’s go a little bit more in-depth and see just who it is that’s coming to your site. On the lower left-hand corner of the details screen you’ll have an audience snapshot that shows you what the largest percentage of your traffic is. For instance, an analysis of Helium.com shows that the majority of their audience is females accessing the site from home. If you then click on “Get all audience demographics” and you’ll see the average age, education level, distribution of gender, whether or not they have children, and browsing locations. In addition, by downloading the Alexa toolbar you can get access to addition demographic information including income and ethnicity. Let’s say your site sells supplements specially formulated for people 60 and over; if your demographics say that most of your audience is in the 18-24 and 35-44 range, you may not be targeting your marketing campaigns accurately and will need to fine-tune them to be better directed at your desired market.
Competitor Analysis
Alright, so now you know what you’re doing – what seems to be working and what needs some updating – but you don’t yet know what your competitors are doing. Wouldn’t it be helpful to know where your target market is going when they’re not coming to you? Back in the Site Info tool, you can enter the websites of your top competitors and compare them to your own. Is their traffic better? Are their demographics better targeted? By clicking on Clickstream, you can first determine where this traffic went to before it came to your competitor’s site, and then look at Search Analytics for information on the search queries used to get there. If your similar site doesn’t have these keywords, or isn’t well-optimized, this is yet another insight as to where you might be losing traffic.
Visitor Interactivity
Finally, Alexa allows you to add widgets to your site that will give you insight about how you can improve your site and attract more traffic – from the visitors themselves. By offering ways to integrate Alexa data into your website itself, including adding in a review platform that allows customers to individually rate and comment on your site, you will receive valuable feedback that can help you improve your site as a whole. People tend to trust a site more when they can hear from real people who have used your services, and so are much more likely to do business with a website that has positive reviews than one that has never been heard of before. In addition, many people who write opinions about websites tend to share those opinions with their friends through social media or word-of-mouth, giving you free advertising and pre-interested traffic.