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What is Alexa

Alexa Internet Inc is a company that is owned by Amazon.Com. It is most known as the website where you can go and find out some information on any website that is indexed. The job of Alexa is to gather information from webmaster's sites that have the Alexa toolbar installed. This allows Alexa to display their information on Alexa's pages. Alexa was first created in 1996, the company provided the toolbar that was designed to steer the user on the site they were on.

In 1999, Alexa was purchased by Amazon.com for only $ 250 million in Amazon stock. Then in 2002, Alexa joined forces with Google but then in 2006, Windows Live Search was providing results for Alexa but in September 2006, Alexa began using their own way to search to get results. The Alexa Toolbar is an method that was created by Alexa Internet. It works with the browser for Internet Explorer for Windows and it gives Alexa it's statistics . As early as 2005, there were already 10 million downloads of the toolbar which is absolutely free.

Check Traffic Stats with Alexa

Of course what kind of Internet site would it be without controversy. There are some concerns over exactly how long Alexa actually stores your site information. Another concern is that Alexa's toolbar has to be downloaded with the users knowledge , but others can pass it along to other users and if that person does not have anti Spyware so there is always a chance of letting in a virus and passing it along to another computer.

Alexa has it's own traffic rank system, they base their rankings on certain traffic patterns that the toolbars gather over a period of about 3 months. They also determine traffic by how many numbers of Alexa users visit a site a day. They count page views as well. Alexa gets their search results by using their information that is given them when their bot crawls your site. The same way Google determines their page ranks.

Alexa rank is just as important as a Google rank, they each acquire search results but the only way to get Alexa results is to install the toolbar. Simply log onto Alexa.com and download the software. Make sure you follow the instructions . Alexa toolbar only works on systems with Explorer 5 or higher on Windows machines.

Once you download the tool bar, Alexa will start recording your information. They will also send a bot to crawl your site . If you don't have the toolbar and you want Alexa to crawl your site , then log onto to their site and fill out the form titled Get Archived Form, you can find it at the Webmaster's help section.

If you decide that you do not wish the site be crawled then just notify them by using the robots.txt file located in the Webmaster's Help.

Not only does Alexa record traffic results but they do offer other services. One such service is called the AWIS. This stands for Alexa Web Information Service, they create the data on sites and even some developments of software that they site makes available to site owners. You can use Web Search, Browser Categories, Web Map and Crawl Meta Data . This service does not come free but there are millions of unauthorized attempts that are used for Alexa data, it is important to use the AWIS in an attempt to avoid being banned by the network.

Alexa has other great services and for true webmasters who want to have the best sites on the web often buy these products though they are not necessary in order to get a good rank from Alexa.

 

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