Alexa Search Engine Optimization

Founded in April 1996, Alexa is not your typical search engine/directory. Rather, it is a web service whose directory is based on the DMOZ Directory structure, and a search engine which pulls data from Google. In June of 1999, Alexa was purchased by Amazon.com.

Alexa’s directory ranks its related links based on popularity, so if your website is popular (many people link to your site, or visit it from Alexa) or if you’re listed in a major web directory (Yahoo, DMOZ, or LookSmart), chances are, your site will be well placed in Alexa.

An interesting difference from all other search engines is Alexa’s toolbar; it doesn’t just allow searches, it also supplies web site statistics, and list of related web sites. While Google has a toolbar, it’s purely for searching. Alexa’s toolbar was first released in September of 1997. Today, the toolbar is version 6.5, and features information about the web site being viewed, a list of related links, and a link to Alexa’s information about that web site. Within that page, there are web site or company reviews and a Traffic Details section.

Alexa provides users with beneficial tools that cut down on information filtering time, which enhances the decision making process.  The Alexa Search and Browse function grants users quick access to information by supplying thumbnail snap shots and information balloons about websites. Alexa also offers a Web Information Service, which allows users to access a web information database.  This service is broken down into five categories, which include: URL information, Web Search, Browse Category, Web Map and Crawl Meta Data. See the following page at Alexa  for details.

How Alexa Works

Even though Alexa uses DMOZ’s structure, and Google’s search technology, it is continually crawling all publicly available web sites to create a series of snapshots of the Web. The data it collects isused to create the features and services that are integrated parts of the free Alexa service:

  • Site Data: Provides information, news, and statistics about web sites.
  • Related Links: Sites that are similar to the one you are currently viewing.

Additional Information about Related Links

Whenever an Alexa user visits a web page, the Alexa service retrieves information from the Alexa servers to suggest other pages that might be of interest to the user. To find Related Links, Alexa uses several techniques, including:

  • The usage trends of the Alexa community – these paths show us which web sites Alexa users believe are important and interesting.
  • Clustering – the billions of links on the Internet can be used to find clusters of sites that are similar and relevant to one another. Alexa mines and analyzes this link data to find and identify these clusters.

Having good quality, and subject specific reciprocal links will help your web site perform well in this search engines.

If there is a search engine or technology that you feel has been overlooked, please feel free to send us a note, or feedback.