How to get an Alexa website ranking in the top 3% worldwide

Posted by Sarah Mitchell on 18 July 2011 | 7 Comments

Tags: content marketing, SEO

How concerned are you about the performance of your website? Dumb question, right? If you’ve missed the cacophony on the internet about SEO and unique user traffic, it’s because you’re not using the internet for business. Regardless of your reasons for having a website, we put them out there so people will visit us. Improving your search rankings can be an expensive and mysterious undertaking. It doesn’t have to be that way.

[Note to reader: Grab a cuppa, it’s a long post with a lot of information.]

Sorry, I’m sold out
I’ve been pondering this since receiving a note via my website from someone insisting I help with their webcopy. I put a “sold out” notice on my contact form because my workload is such I’m not accepting any new projects. Not taking “No” for an answer, I received this reply:

Your website has a global Alexa.com ranking of 830,142 and a US ranking of 432,897, with 62 sites linking in which is brilliant. That rank is not easy to achieve, and most websites have a rank that is down in the millions, plus they have either few or no inbound links.

I honestly hadn’t realised my website was doing so well. I confirmed the figures with Alexa this morning. My ranking puts www.globalcopywriting.com in the top 2.56% of all websites in the world. In. The. World. The figures are even better for Australian websites. Needless to say I’m chuffed. But I take issue with the conclusions in the rest of the letter.

Domain names though are a key factor in websites achieving success, and without detracting from the work that you have evidently put into your website, your domain name has without doubt contributed to the success of the site. What copywriter could possibly have a more keyword rich domain name than globalcopywriting.com? It states exactly what the site is about, plus your on-page optimisation is near perfect.
Other websites by comparison often have domain names which mean little or nothing to the search engines.

I’m not a copywriter
The current issue of Chief Content Officer has a brilliant article from Glenn Murray of Divine Write titled, You think you’re a copywriter? What a joke!. Glenn, a competitor and colleague, argues none of us are copywriters. I agree completely. My business name and domain name don’t represent my work as a Content Marketing Consultant. So how did my website get ranked so high? How can you do the same?

I'm a cheapskate
Despite plenty of offers and lots of advice to do so, I have not monetised my site in any way. I have never:

• Paid a single cent for my rankings
• Used adwords to drive traffic to my site
  
• Enlisted help from SEO marketing consultants
• Sold anything on my website
• Participated in affiliate programs
• Run advertisements
• Accepted sponsorship

Sweat equity
So what have I done to push my rankings up AND keep my work schedule loaded? I’ve implemented a classic content marketing strategy. The recent changes to Google reward businesses employing content marketing techniques. Since I launched my website, I’ve diligently focused on producing original content on my blog. I’ll be the first to admit it’s a demanding activity, even for someone who likes to write. The benefits are undeniable and within reach of any business.

The Perfect Storm
Content marketing isn’t just about creating content. It’s also about getting your content distributed by having healthy networks. My distribution strategy involves

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Leaving comments on other blogs and articles
• LinkedIn
• MailChimp
• Putting an RSS feed on my blog
• Registering my blog at aggregator sites
• Guest posting on other blogs
• Public speaking
• Volunteer work

I consider each of these activities integral to boosting the rankings of my website either by direct traffic or enhancing the coveted Word of Mouth reputation critical to continued traffic flows. None of it is difficult although I do concede public speaking isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. All of it takes dedication and persistence.

Final thoughts
Regardless of your budget or the size of your company, it’s completely within your power to positively influence your website rankings without spending gobs of money. Frequently producing original content – blog posts, videos, infographics, photographs – is key to improving your search engine rankings. The proverbial silver bullet does not exist. Trying to buy your way to better rankings only puts you in a cycle of spending money without enhancing your authority. While a great domain is a bonus, you can still be wildly successful if your URL name doesn’t have any obvious correlation to your work. Forget trying to game the system. Invest in content marketing. The time and money spent create long-lasting and pervasive assets for your company.

What do you do to increase your website rankings?

Some of the Global Copywriting articles related to this post:

• Do-it-yourself SEO
• Blog Logistics: A key insight for your content marketing strategy
• BRIEF: One fantastic technique to generate new business
• Why original content is vital to your business
• Content Marketing: Are you expecting love at first site?
• 6 Ways your content is letting you down

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