After your first few weeks or months of blogging, you probably started hearing people talk about their PageRank or Alexa Ranking or Klout Score. It can seem a bit overwhelming trying to figure out what they all mean, if low or high numbers are good, if you REALLY need to worry about the numbers and what if anything you can do to improve them.
This post will cover the basics of each so you can figure out if its a statistic you need to worry about or not.
Google PageRank (aka PageRank, PR or Google PR)
What Is it?
Google uses mathematical algorithms to determine how to rank different websites in the search results. PageRank or the score given to websites to show the value or importance of the website. Google does not publish the specific rankings of each site which may have decimal points or use a larger scale but they do allow us to see a round number between 0-10 which lets us see how we are doing. Google changes how it ranks sites regularly so your PR will not always be the same. The point of it is to try to return more accurate and trustworthy sites when you search for something instead of a bunch of spammy, low-quality sites.
How Do I Find It? Is it Important?
You can check your PageRank at . Enter your main url and the security code and submit. New websites and blogs are given no ranking at first. Once it's been around long enough to determine a ranking, a ranking between 0-10 will be given. The higher your PR, the better. Most blogs tend to be between 2-4 from what I've seen. It's very hard to get a ranking higher than 4.
How important PR is to you depends on what your blog is for. If it's an online diary meant for friends and family, then it doesn't matter how well you rank in the search engines. However if you want to reach a larger crowd, have new visitors to your site and/or monetize, it's pretty important. You can still rank in other search engines regardless of your PageRank but Google is the most widely used search engine in the world.
How Can I Improve It?
The main consideration that goes into your ranking is the number of sites linking in. However it's more complex than that as the quality of the sites linking in is looked at as well as how well you link to yourself through your pages. For example a link to your site from a site with a PR 4 looks better than a link from a site PR 1.
A good start would be to guest post on other people's blogs as they usually let you include an author bio with a link to your blog. Some bloggers do round up posts or other posts where they ask the bloggers they know a question or if they have a post on a certain topic. Then in their post they post your answer with a link to your blog, or a link to your related post. Participating in blogger groups will up your chances of seeing when requests for these come in. What you don't want to do is mass email bloggers asking if they will put a link to your blog in their blog roll or leaving a link to your blog in every comment you make.
Dofollow VS. Nofollow
Okay I have to cover this with a talk about Google PageRank. A link that is set to dofollow counts towards PageRank. If I link to your blog and it's a dofollow link, I pass a little bit of my PageRank to you and it counts as a link to your site for PageRank. If I make it nofollow (by adding a little code to the html) it will not count towards your PageRank. Google does not want people to pay others money to link to their sites so they can up their PageRank as this defeats the purpose of it. So if you receive money for a post (sponsored post) or get a review item in return for a post, when you link to the company it should be nofollow so you are not passing your PageRank to their site when they sent you money or a product. You can find out more in this past mini challenge from Life as Leels.
Understanding Alexa
What Is It?
Alexa gives a ranking to sites compared to other sites over a 3 month period. The rank is calculated from estimated average daily unique visitors and estimated number of pageviews over the past 3 months. The site with the highest combo is #1. Alexa rankings change daily. In the case of Alexa, lower is better. Alexa tracks this information from users who use the Alexa toolbar. Using the toolbar allows Alexa to give "points" to each site you visit, helping to lower their Alexa.
What Is My Alexa Ranking?
You can check your Alexa ranking by visiting Alexa and typing in your url. You will notice you are given a global rating (the first number) followed by a country specific rating (the country the website resides in.) In the case of this website, as of the day I checked, my Alexa ranking was 84,947 and in Canada it was 5,936
For most blogs, it's generally considered than anything below 500,000 is good and anything below 100,000 is GREAT! Of course not everyone can have a low ranking because it's all relative to all the other websites and blogs. So every time someone gets below 100,000, someone else had to go above it.
Note that if you are on Blogger and don't have your own domain, because of the way they change the end of the url depending on the country you are in, you have more than on Alexa ranking. For example If I visit myblog.blogspot.com here in Canada, it shows myblog.blogspot.ca If someone in Australia visits it, it would look like myblog.blogspot.com.au. Each ending has a different Alexa ranking.
Should I Care About My Alexa?
That depends. For bloggers who work with companies on reviews and giveaways or sponsored posts and advertising, SOME of the companies and PR care about your Alexa. However many do not. Most people are realizing that while it can give you a basic idea of a site's traffic rating, it's not a truly accurate representation as it only measures those who HAVE a toolbar installed.
I would take note of it every once in a while and if it's high, work on promoting your blog to bring in new readers but I wouldn't worry about it too much. If you install the toolbar on all your computers, you can help yours and any other blogger's site you visit without any extra work on your part. Don't obsess on the number though. If a company asks for a specific Alexa and you don't meet that minimum, contact them back anyways and stress your other stats and what you can do for the company. If they choose to stick by their rules, don't worry about it. More and more companies are figuring out that Alexa isn't everything.
To find out more on Alexa, see this past mini challenge from Rachel Cotterill.
What the Klout?
I'll cover just the basics here.
What IS Klout?
Klout was designed as a way to measure influence of a specific person, as opposed to a specific website. It looks at the number of followers you have on some of your social media platforms as well as the interaction you get (retweets, likes, shares etc.) The result is a score from 0-100 that is supposed to show how influential you are.
The average of all Klout profiles is 20 while most bloggers seem to be between 30-60. It is much harder to move from a 50 to a 60 than it is to move from a 20 to a 30. (It's not just increments of 10, your score can be 42 or 23 or 55 for example.) Your Klout score is actually a number with 2 decimal points (like 42.80) and that number changes daily. Klout takes that number and gives you a rounded number with no decimal points for your score.
What is My Klout Score?
Unlike with Alexa and PageRank, to find our Klout Score you will need to signup or login to Klout. You can signup/login with Facebook or Twitter so you must have one of those accounts to have a Klout score. It is possible to see your Klout score without signing up. You would have to download a plugin for your browser that allows you to see Klout scores when you visit Twitter. Then you could look at your own tweets to see the score. But if you want to see more than just the number, you will have to sign in to Klout.
Is My Klout Score Important?
It depends on who you ask but no, not really. A few companies have asked for my Klout score but not many. If your score is below 40, you may want to work on increasing engagement on Twitter and Facebook at least but don't obsessively check your score or spend all of your time trying to increase it. If you don't work with companies, then it matters even less.
The MAIN perk of your Klout score is called just that, Perks. Whether you have a blog or not, if you have a good Klout score, you can be eligible for perks. Klout will send you an email when one is available to you (unless you have notifications for them turned off.) It might say for example that Canadians with a score over 30 can get a free bottle of shampoo. Or US users with a score over 50 can get some other new product. If you are interested, they send you the product in the hopes that you will try it out and talk about what you think on Facebook and Twitter. You don't HAVE to but that's the hope. I enjoy my Klout Perks.
Create With Joy says
Hi Kathleen,
I track all three scores and I pay more attention to the overall trend of things than the exact score itself (that would tend to drive one crazy!) All of my scores are decent - I'm most pleased with my Alexa score and I'd like to get my Klout score back up - it tends to fluctuates based on how active I am on Twitter and my attention has been focused elsewhere this past month.
Kathleen Garber says
Absolutely the trend is more important than the actual number, good point!
idratherbechangingdiapers says
I'm going to work on my Klout score. I want to get more perks! 🙂 It's 51 right now. I'm okay with my page rank. I'm happy with my Alexa rating.
Brandy says
I lost my pagerank when I got a new domain in March and really hope that it comes back with the next update. I have been working on changing out links to no-follow (oh the things I have learned). I am also working on my alexa score and monitoring it often to see that it is decreasing.
Kathleen Garber says
I'm sure it will. I had PR 3s and 4s before changing to my own domain from blogspot and at the next update, they were back at 3 and 4.
Retha Groenewald says
My blog is new and no page ranking on Google yet (yikes) - so I am going to focus on the Alexa score. My Klout score has gone down - so it is sensitive to social media activity
Ashley Pomykala says
I am currently working on my Alexa Rating because I had been inactive for a few weeks and I went from 102,000 all the way up to 220,000 and now I am down to 202,700 which is a great improvement.
Meghan says
Definitely Alexa! I'm at 362,834 - I think I have some room for improvement!
Rachel Dominique says
I aim /will be working on maintaining or lowering my alexa rating and increasing my klout score.
Alaia says
I'm an early adopter of Klout, I understand it, and have a high score. Since I'm transitioning to a new site and building a new brand, I want to focus on my Google Page Rank
shaismith says
I actually had a PR 5 blog...then I swapped over to WordPress from Blogger and started over as a zero. 🙁 I do keep up with my Alexa Ranking, moreso the US Alexa rank than anything, and try to keep below six digits. So far, it's worked! I had an Alexa of 26,000 once, so I know it's possible with hard work! And, I don't mess with Klout. I check it every once in awhile to see if I need to focus more on social media, but that's about it.
Love this post!
Kathleen Garber says
How long ago did you make the switch? I jumped back up in my PR right after the next update after I moved over.
Gillian Pearce says
i'm not really bothered about PR or Alexa anymore but it was fun to check them. The blog I use now is 0 PR and has a high Alexa score. My old blog, which I haven't written on for 3 or 4 years still has a PR4 but Alexa says it's only got 29 in bound links. It's Alexa rank used to be in the top 100,000 but has now dropped to more than 10 million. The stats aren't very meaningful to me. What matters is getting the right people engaged in my site. I'd rather have a few really interested of followers that great stats!
I've just signed into Klout for the first time and have a score of 37. Not surprising since I don't use social media. however, my score has increased by day in the last day. That's what taking part in the Blogathon does for you! 🙂
Tanya says
Well I'm a fly by the seat of my pants blogger so I haven't posted much in the past couple weeks and am now a little depressed after reading and finding out my Google Page Rank and Alexa scores. My Klout score is 52 so it's not too bad but they could all use improving. I think I'm most interested in the Alexa rating right now as it gave more description on how long people are visiting and my bounce rate. I know I should get Google analytics working properly for this data too but at least Alexa gives me a snapshot.
Thanks for offering this mini-challenge. I had been working on Klout but never checked the others. I got my work cut out for me.
Kathleen Garber says
Definitely get Google Analytics working!
Kim says
I'm going to be working on all 3! I hadn't heard of Klout before joined there an had a 39.
@juliejordanscot says
I did the Page Rank test. I want to increase my score there. I was cringing thinking it would be awful. It wasn't.
I also wrote more of a carefully crafted response, but the intense debate people ate it up! Argh!
Way back when before blog days I was totally into Alexa. Not so much but I'm ready for a brush up.
Klout, I have focused almost nothing upon it and don't think I will, now that I see what you have to say Kathleen. Thanks for this minichallenge!
carolinebrown716 says
Never really understood Alexa but now I might pay it a bit more attention 🙂
I usually check my Klout monthly and my pagerank every couple of months
The one i usually pay the most attention to is Google analytics. I can be a bit of a numbers junkie lol
Kelly Stilwell says
My Alexa & Klout are fine, but my PR is still a 1. I just can't seem to rise above it. I did move to WP in March, and I know I still need to go through no-index things that are under 300 words and giveaways/not evergreen. It is just so much work. I must put aside the time to do it!
cydlee61 says
I'm really happy with my Alexa and Klout numbers but I cannot seem to get above a PR2 so that's the one I want to concentrate on.
MadeByJessBlog says
I have a PR3, 66 Klout and 132,065 (worldwide) & 13,592 (U.S.) I am trying to get my Alexa under 100,000 and maybe a PR4
Sarah K. says
I'm going to focus on Google Page Rank. My blog is a personal one right now, but I'd like to someday make it a little more with a sponsor or two and giveaways. 🙂
Meg says
I feel like Klout isn't all that important but I find it kind of fun to watch it change.
I will be focusing on my Google Page Rank over the next few months!
@PixieDustSaving says
I just started with klout a couple weeks ago but didn't really understand it. I got an email this morning saying my klout score went up. Kind of cool. I just connected my FB page and twitter to it and will be connecting some other networks as well. I have checked out my PR and Alexa score and added them to my Media kit page as well as my klout score.
I want to focus on all 3.
Jackie says
I'm focussing on Page Rank. I went from an N/A to a whopping 0. so I'd like to actually have a number. I have some work to do, as well, going back on my old posts to make sure all is no follow, fix any broken links etc. All on the to do list, that's for sure.
mysassitude says
I need to systematically work on all three. Here's my scores:
Google Page Rank = 1 (at least I'm not a question mark anymore)
Alexa = 4,352,186 (global - ouch) and 540,555 (US - still ouch)
Klout = 50
meaganpaullin says
Honestly - I dont' worry too much about any of them. I DO like to monitor my Klout, since I can see that the more active I am on Twitter, it changes. It seems like that's all it really looks at - but it is interesting to me to watch it change.
Alexa I have NEVER paid attention to, at all.
PR I do care a lot about - but I'm not able to do much about it, except try to make awesome content that people want to link to 🙂 But man oh man, when I went from a 2 to a 3 I SCREAMED out loud in our hotel room at BlogHer last year, lol 🙂
aerynlynnegws says
I've been actively following my PR and Klout. I've tried the premium version of Alexa, but even then, this score drives me nuts 'cause its only based on readers who have their toolbar installed.
v12m says
I have no idea about Page Rank and Alexa. Thank you so much for this information! I am going to focus on PR and my Klout. My Klout is the only one who looks decent right now! LOL
Misfit Momma aka Missy says
I've been focusing a lot on my Alexa, and I'm happy with where it's at right now but would like to get it down just a bit more.
Silviva says
that`s relly great article, though I was looking for how much days does it takes to refresh your site statistics in alexa, as I understand, it take 3 month, as now I have new link in google, and alexa does not show them, even though a week has past.
Kathleen Garber says
Your alexa ranking changes daily but as for showing backlinks, I'm not sure how that is calculated or how often. I don't necessarily think the number of backlinks it shows are correct.
Kent Y says
Hello Kathleen,
Thanks for the info. My website has been started for almost half and year and its Alexa ranking is around 160K. However, it still haven't has PR. do you know approximately how long it takes to get PR?
Thanks,
Kent.
Kathleen Garber says
PR is usually updated 4 times a year (about every 3 months) but not necessarily exactly that. Google doesn't want us to know exactly when it will update. If an update has happened and you are still at 0, then you need to work on getting more genuine backlinks and having good SEO.
Clifford says
Spot on with this write-up, I honestly believe this amazing site
needs a lot more attention. I'll probably be back again to read
through more, thanks for the advice!
Jolly says
Great points... YEAH Google sees no of backlinks and rank a page..
Armitage says
I dont think PageRank is given much importance now these days. Good blogs can have bad pr. But what they need is good alexa rank. dont you think.
Your post for improving alexa rank has completely nailed all things.quite informative.
Pushkar Kathayat
My recent post Top ways to Improve Alexa Rank of your Blog[Guaranteed]