SBI! and traffic ranks

myfirstwebsite · #1 (**permalink**) 04-25-2007, 10:00 PM

So I've been reading these threads and I went to one page and it mentioned something about most sbi sites ranking high in Alexa. I'm a little confused as to what the numbers all mean. Can someone explain why that is versus other hosts? I get that they (sbi) submits your site to the major engines, but do they do anything else to help you get that kind of traffic? It is pretty amazing that so many customers end up ranking so well. What do they do that the cheap hosts don't (other than submitting)?

lisa · #2 (**permalink**) 04-26-2007, 10:19 AM

Hey myfirstwebsite,

Alexa is a site that provides website traffic ranking data. They estimate that there are roughly 56 million sites on the web and assigns a traffic rank to websites.

So if your traffic rank is 10,000 that means there are only 9,999 sites that get more traffic than you on the web. You'd be in the top 1%. So the lower your number the better.

SBI!'s claim to fame is that over 60% of their customers have sites that rank in the top 3% in terms of Internet traffic. And I'd like to point out there are no tricks that SBI! uses to help customers rank high, they just teach the basic principles of building search engine friendly websites, and as a result their customers tend to have higher trafficked sites.

If you think about it, there is no other web host (not GoDaddy, not anyone) who can claim over 60% of their customers get that kind of traffic. That's because other hosts don't help with search engine optimization. They just give you the space to build your site and you're on your own.

But I want to make it clear that SBI! is not some automatic guarantee to the top of the search engines, BUT it arms you with the knowledge and help so you structure your pages in a way that the search engines favor.

amybiddle · #3 (**permalink**) 04-26-2007, 04:30 PM

Hi myfirstwebsite - and everyone else (look at all the people! wow!)

What Lisa is saying is correct - SBI sites do not rely on what most people refer to as search engine optimization (SEO). The tools and the system offer so much more than that.

SEO relys on making the search engines happy to bring traffic and to rank highly. Like a fickle lover, the search engines change their ideas of what brings happiness from time to time - they change their algorithms. When that happens, people who were using the system of "x# of keywords per page" (or other number-based formulas), or "black hat" or "white hat" (tricks or other inducements for traffic) methods - those people start losing.

Last year (and it's going to happen again soon) Google made a major change in their algorithm. Sites were ranked lower overnight. Some sites (not just pages - entire sites) were no longer indexed (meaning that search engines were no longer providing those sites as search results - even if the sites were listed highly before the change).

I watched on the forums at SBI as this happened. SBI sites were impacted as well. No one was exempt.

Know what happened next?

A lot of the SBI sites were stronger than ever.

We were ranked higher (my site went up a whole Google PR without ANY effort on my part - at least effort put forth during this time. I didn't create any new pages for a few months around this time.)

Ok- so what does all this have to do with Alexa?

In a sense, Alexa is a search engine (of sorts). It's a very specific engine used for judging value to humans. I don't know this for certain, but I'd hazard a guess that there aren't very many Alexa sites with good (low 6-figure or less) rankings that are spammy. Most good Alexa rankings are on sites that offer good, high value content to readers.

That's the secret sauce!

Additionally, Alexa does its ranking based on who uses its toolbar. It's like having a Neilsen tv rating box installed on a site - only there are a bizillion of them, not just a few tens of thousands.

My Alexa ranking goes up and down- just like individual page rankings at my site. This is natural. My visitor numbers fluctuate, so these other numbers do as well.

I've thought for a long time about these numbers in terms of the stock market. My site's value is improving over time (as I add content) - just as any publicly traded company's value should (let's not get into a huge debate on this point - I realize some companies don't add value, they just abuse stock holders). Separate from my site's value is the perceived value assigned by my stockholders - people who visit my site. Those numbers will go up and down independently of what my site is doing. I've actually seen this happen in relation to day of the week, time of day, season changes, holiday times... etc. Stock markets have cycles - so do web site rankings and visitor numbers.

Ok- again - a too-long answer here. Wrapping up:

I guess my "short" (as if I could do that!) answer is - think independently of Google, Yahoo, Live, Alexa and other ranking tools. They are fun to track when you're up - crazy-making when you're down.

If you'll concentrate on taking the actions that you can control (SBI calls this CTPM for Content, Traffic, PreSelling, Monetization - in that order) you can be assured that, over time and through all cycles, you'll create a site that "works".

You'll be the long-term investing Warren Buffet of ecommerce!

lisa · #4 (**permalink**) 04-26-2007, 08:14 PM

Excellent advice, Amy. I love the stock analogy. So true!

myfirstwebsite · #5 (**permalink**) 04-28-2007, 05:10 PM

I get it now. So really YOU, the sbi owner, are the one that's responsible for getting the traffic by writing good content, but sbi is sort of like does the behind the scene stuff that I would have to do manually if I didn't buy sbi right?

amybiddle · #6 (**permalink**) 04-28-2007, 05:22 PM

Right on, myfirstwebsite - you've got it!

Since there are only 24 hours in a day, SBI offers powerful time leveraging by allowing us, SBIers, to focus on the important stuff (creating great content) and (mostly) ignore the stuff that doesn't directly put the money in the bank (site maps, search engine submissions, etc.)

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