The first question that may come to mind for a lot of readers is "What is an Alexa Rank?" The answer is simple. Alexa is a ranking based on gathered browser data. This information is taken and used to calculate your rank amongst other websites. Any time you approach advertisers online looking for someone to pay for ad space on your website, you will need to prove that it is worth their money and Alexa Ranking is an industry standard. When your Alexa Rank gets within the top 100,000 it is almost an accurate representation of the quality of your traffic.

Whether you put a lot of importance on Alexa or not, I am sure that having a higher Alexa Rank will benefit you. Websites with high Alexa Ranks have a tendency of keeping their audience and building it. This means that if you have a low Alexa Rank and a Webmaster visits your site, he may not think you are a credible source of information (especially in this Niche) and may decide not to come back; however, if you have a good rank and provide top notch information then you are almost guaranteed a returning visitor!

Here are 5 Great Ways to Increase Your Alexa Rank:

1. Install the Alexa Toolbar.

This is the first step that will increase your Alexa Rank. Installing the Toolbar on your own personal computer and setting your website as the browser's homepage is the easiest thing you could do to improve your rank. This won't do much when you look at the big picture, but if you want a quick confidence boost then this will do the trick. This gives you the impression that you are getting somewhere! You can also install the Alexa Toolbar on all of your computers and it will multiply the effect.

2. Get Others to Install the Alexa Toolbar.

Try to convince your friends and family to install the toolbar and set your site to the homepage on their own computers. You could potentially raise your rank significantly if a couple dozen people start doing this. Nag your friends every day if you have to until they do it. It takes only a minute and it is completely free!

3. Put the Alexa Widget on Your Website.

Putting the Alexa Widget on your website doesn't only show people your Alexa Rank, but it also summons curiosity. Those who aren't using Alexa will wonder what it is, they will ultimately click on it to find out and install the toolbar. This will turn many of your returning visitors into Alexa Rank Builders!

4. Drive Webmaster Traffic to Your Website.

It is a known fact that when you step into a Web Development Niche that a lot of your visitors are going to be Webmasters and other Bloggers. Alexa Rank doesn't weight non-Alexa Toolbar traffic very highly; therefore, you will not see a dramatic increase in your rank if your readers don't install the toolbar. If your website can catch a lot of traffic from webmasters then you know that a good percentage of them will have the toolbar installed for their own gains and purposes. This is probably the best thing you can do to Increase Your Alexa Rank! If you aren't too sure about how to get webmasters to visit your site or you think your niche is wrong for it then you could always visit Webmaster Forums and ask opinions on your website and drop your link.

5. Write a Post about Alexa Ranking.

This is something that not many people think about, but I believe that writing the post is a sure way to Increase Alexa Rank. The main reason is because it will put into perspective the value of Alexa and people who are already visiting the website will Install the Alexa Toolbar. Those who don't believe in the power of Alexa may start to believe and those who have not been enlightened will have seen.