A very easy and convenient way to keep track of how well your website is doing against others is by checking its Alexa ranking. Alexa.com offers an easy to install and very powerful tool used to rank website traffic. Through Alexa, webmasters can keep track of how well a site is doing and can actually use it to improve ranking.

Begin by downloading the toolbar. Alexa gives its users an edge by allowing them to customize the toolbar with their own website logo. After personalizing, users can refer this crafty tool to other people to download. Not only does this help to spread the word about Alexa, but it also helps create buzz about their own.

Passing your custom designed Alexa toolbar onto others is important because although Alexa is one of the largest and most commonly used ranking systems, it only includes those in the ranks that utilize the toolbar. The more web users that have the Alexa toolbar and visit your website the better!

After downloading the toolbar be sure to also download the additional tools offered, especially the Alexa ranking box. It is a good idea to include this ranking box on your personal webpage to allow visitors to search rankings that do not wish to install Alexa. You’ll be surprised how many of your visitors will search your ranking to see how you rate. Each search means more traffic being driven to your site through Alexa.

Some of the various other features Alexa offers include the ability to search for other websites similar to your own. The Alexa traffic trend guideline will aid you by disclosing the traffic trends for the last four months that you can follow up on with the traffic reach meter. All of this information can then be used in conjunction with your site.

By paying close attention to the trends in internet traffic you will be able to see exactly what web surfers are linking and clicking on. Visiting those sites can help you gain some very helpful insight into what sites are generating the most traffic, why they are, and how they are. The traffic reach meter will show you just how far the reach of the website traffic is getting, which is another valuable asset.

Alexa also offers a novel tool in their redirect URL. This is a simple copy and paste URL that can be attached to any site URL that will search the site through Alexa. The more people you redirect to your website with the Alexa URL, the more hits your site is taking in via Alexa.

Now that you have familiarized yourself with Alexa, you should also get to know your competitor sites. You can do this by visiting the main traffic section which lists the top 500 ranked websites and is updated daily. Remember, anything that webmasters can do to gather hits to their website through Alexa will up their ranking.

All in all, Alexa is a tool that every webmaster should come to utilize if serious about increasing traffic rank. Any successful webmaster knows in order to compete with all the thousands of other websites they must stay up to speed on their competition. With all of the various tools and methods of tracking, Alexa is one of the most essential and has the ability to launch your website to the top.