tracking the first 30 days from zero to top-ranking site
2 minute read
We decided that, with this being a new website, an interesting case study would be to track the site's Alexa ranking from launch through its first 30 days online.
First off, for anyone not up on Alexa rankings, here is Alexa's definition...
ALEXA rank is a measure of website popularity. It ranks millions of websites in order of popularity, with an Alexa Rank of 1 being the most popular. Alexa rank is calculated using a proprietary methodology that combines a site’s estimated traffic and visitor engagement over the past three months. (source: Alexa)
VegasDesignSEO.com went live on June 16, 2020 as a replacement site for ADCookDesign.com, which was created as a WordPress site created in Elementor Pro. I share that mostly because VegasDesignSEO.com is created in WebFlow. I am not sure that that makes any difference at all, except in that a WordPress site would include SEO plugins that may influence SERPs (Search Engine Page Results. A Webflow website doesn't use any added plugins for SEO.
Also, to clarify, the URL (vegasdesignseo.com) did not exist prior to June 16 so this site is representational of a cold-start soft-launch. There was no advantage of any backlinks, keywords, or anything like that, aside from meta tags and great content.
I get asked a lot why Alexa ranking matters, mostly by people with a poor (or no) Alexa rank. With Alexa's free service you get to know “how well a website is doing relative to all other sites on the web over the last three months.” They provide a global ranking and country ranking (in my case, US). To me, and millions of other site owners, that has value. If you question that even for a minute, check out ALEXA's list of the top 500 sites on the web, and you'll get a sense of who's who on the internet, starting at the top. So, while Alexa is only one measure of a website's growth, it's an important in my metrics.
"As a public metric, potential advertisers, investors, and partners will look up your Alexa Rank and use it as a way to evaluate the value of your business. For this reason, improvements in your rank can make a real dollars and cents impact on your bottom line."
Source: Guide to improving your Alexa rank > https://blog.alexa.com/improving-your-alexa-rank
I look at this website's Alexa ranking every day and have been keeping a running list on this site of each day's progress to illustrate how Alexa ranks (this site at least). You can view VegasDesignSEO.com's Alexa Ranking History and follow as we move forward in our ranking. It's my hope that it inspires you to improve your site's ranking as well for a better internet for all of us.
Tracking the Alexa ranking of any website is easy, especially if you use a chrome web browser. You can download a free extension from the Google Chrome Web Store. Alexa Traffic Rank is Alexa Internet's free extension for Chrome. Alexa Traffic Rank accompanies you as you surf, providing you with Alexa.com data about the sites you visit without interrupting your browsing experience.
Once you install the Chrome extension a small blue "a" icon wii appear in the top-right section of your browser. You can click that button at any time while visiting any website and it will reveal that site's ranking.
If you prefer Firefox as your browser, you can install the Alexa.com Toolbar Add-On from here > https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/alexa-com-toolbar/
At this time Alexa does not have any toolbars that are compatible with Opera or Safari.
Alternatively, you could just visit the Alexa website and enter any URL for a quick view of any domain.
The follow is a short summary of this site's ranking from day 01 through day 30. View the Alexa Ranking History page for an ongoing daily update of global and US rankings.
VegasDesignSEO.com went live* on June 16, 2020 as a replacement site for ADCookDesign.com
The new website immediately ranked on day one with a global ranking. Following are a few highlights on its progress as a top-ranking authority site.
View VegasDesignSEO.com's Daily Alexa Ranking History from Day 001 to current
This level of Alexa performance is not typical. It comes though a methodical approach to designing and developing a website with optimal search engine performance, along with a lot of focussed energy.
In the end, If Google can't find you, nobody will find, not even Alexa.
Learn more about Search Engine Optimization and how I can help improve yours.
Article post date: July 16, 2020 (updated as needed)
Hi, I'm A.D. Cook, co-creator and site designer/manager/admin for DreamToLaunch.com. I'm also an artist, writer, and speaker. I've been designing for the Internet since 1995. Visit me at ADCookDesign.com for more information and check out my new book, DREAM TO LAUNCH, with co-creator Beti Kristof.