Alexa Toolbar- How to Add it to Your Browser and Why You Want to Do It

A web browser toolbar is of great help for people who frequently surf the Internet for information.  Toolbars do not eliminate the work of searching. Instead, they assists in cutting your browsing time significantly so that you can devote more time to do what you want to with the information you gather.

There are numerous tools available on the Internet to help online surfers with web searching. One of the most valuable and useful tools is the Alexa Toolbar. Alexa was founded in April 1996 and was designed to provide an interactive web navigation system.

Did you know that Alexa is owned by Amazon.com? It is also possible to make your own personalized Alexa toolbar with your Amazon.com affiliate code. The valuable information about a webpage, and of course a complete website, provided by Alexa is truly amazing.

So, how do you add an Alexa toolbar to your browser?

It’s very simple. First, go to Alexa.com, then click Download Alexa Toolbar at the top right hand corner of the page. Next click on the install option provided on the following page. After you've finished installing, the toolbar will appear across the top of your browser.

There are two main features offered by Alexa toolbar:

1. Traffic Ranking: One of the most helpful features provided by the Alexa toolbar is traffic ranking of any website. Alexa toolbar tracks how people use the Internet and turns this information into ranking statistics for each site on the Internet. By now, most web marketers know that the Alexa.com ranking of their site is important. It gives an independent measure of your monthly unique visitors. Ranking 1 has the most traffic and so on. For example on the basis of most visited site in the world, Yahoo is currently ranked one by Alexa.
   

This information helps you determine how well your advertising campaigns are going, how your rivals are doing and how to keep your website one step ahead of them.

The Alexa information is also used by other search engines so you benefit from an increase in you search engine results page (SERPS) rankings as your site progresses up the rankings.


2. Related Links: Another vital feature of Alexa toolbar is it provides links to additional websites that are similar to the one that is being viewed.
   
   When you start searching the term on your favorite search engine, it gives a list of urls’ closely matching your search term in the search engine result page. This feature allows you to view a list of similar website without much of an effort – great for competition analysis. Also, you will be able to see a new set of related links on the toolbar that may be the same or different from the earlier ones, which allows you to save time you would have otherwise spent for searching.

There are additional features that come with Alexa toolbar like a popup blocker, search engine entry box, a link to Amazon & Alexa website, and additional information about the current Alexa ranking of the website that you are visiting.

In conclusion, the Alexa toolbar is a valuable tool for determining a website's placement or position in the Internet world. It is interesting to note that Google also uses Alexa's information for ranking and indexing websites. Whether you just want to use the Alexa Toolbar's features for general web browsing or for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) analysis, I recommend going to http://www.alexa.com and installing the Alexa Toolbar in your favorite web browser.

Steve Kozyk
CEO/Founder ITegrity SEO Web Development
http://www.itegritygroup.com