Alexa – Web Analytics With The Power Of Amazon

Alexa has been around for a while and is well-known for its web traffic and analytics platform that enables digital marketers to find useful data about their own site, or their competitors site and how they are performing.

When you are putting together your digital marketing strategy you are going to need services like those offered by Alexa. The problem is, there are so many to choose from and why would you choose one and not another?

If it’s a long and well-established pedigree you’re after, then Alexa certainly fits the bill. Originally formed in 1996 and acquired by Amazon in 1999, Alexa has both the experience and the financial clout to do a great job of what it does. So what’s included in the Alexa box? Let’s take a look.

You would expect there to be keyword research and site audit tools in a suite like this, and there are, but where Alexa really scores is in its competitor analysis and traffic comparison capability. You can select one or more, (up to 10 at a time) websites and see which keywords are driving traffic to them and how much traffic they drive, i.e. you can harvest your competitor’s most valuable keywords – and that’s just the beginning!

If you are really serious about building campaigns that are accurately focused on placing you above your competitors in search results then Alexa is the tool for you.

Another gem that Alexa is known for is its Site Ranking Metrics – every website is, (eventually) assigned an Alexa rank which is used by many as a substitute for Google’s now defunct, (or at least, no longer updated publicly), PageRank metric. You can get a global rank and a local, (country) rank for most sites although new sites do take a while to get indexed.

All-in-all, Alexa is a top quality tool that gives reliable, if not totally accurate, results and has to be on the shortlist of any professional SEO pratitioner or in-house marketing team. All of that, plus the sheer clout that Alexa has by virtue or being owned, and funded, by Amazon, makes it a safe choice, as well as a wise one.

Price wise, Alexa isn’t cheap. Yes they do have an entry level account at $9.99/month but it doesn’t really get you very much. If you want access to all of the tools mentioned above then it’s going to be $149/month.

They do say, “you get what you pay for” and in this case they’re absolutely right. Alexa is a top quality set of tools for marketing professionals or site owners who take their online presence seriously. There’s a 7 day free trial so why not give it a test drive – I guarantee that you want want to take it back to the showroom afterwards!

You may also be interested to know that Alexa offers a free browser extension giving access to some of its features directly from your browser. You can find out more here.

https://www.alexa.com/toolbar