What if you were able to have access to your competitor's web statistics? What if you knew how much traffic they had, the average number of page views, what other sites their visitors went to? What if you could tell how successful a campaign was or if their recent press release had any impact? Would that be a strategic advantage?

The Nielsen Ratings of the Internet

There is an incredible marketing research tool called the Alexa Toolbar that you can find at www.Alexa.com. Alexa is owned by Amazon and is essentially the Nielsen Ratings for the Internet.

Relative Traffic Rankings

When you install the Alexa Toolbar you will be able to see a ranking of every important website on the Internet. It's a relative ranking and biased towards the US but it's incredibly useful information. A traffic ranking of 10,000 means that there are 9,999 websites more popular and every other website on the Internet is less popular. So if your competitor is claiming they are the most popular website of their kind on the Internet you'll be able to judge for yourself. No Data means that although the website may have some visitors, none of them use the toolbar or it's not significant enough to measure.

Historical Traffic Trends Shown Graphically

As a consumer you'll be able to determine how popular a website is and if "they're real". Alexa shows historical trends graphically for the top 100,000 websites on the Internet so you can see if a website is getting more or less popular. You can even do a graphical comparison between two websites, like you and your competitor, to see how you're doing. The site also details reach per million surfers and average number of page views per visitor in both table form and graphically (An example can be seen at http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=vmmg.net).

Other Statistics

Alexa also has a variety of other useful statistics about websites. It lists the number of important links to the website which is a factor when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. This would not include most "link farms" and relatively less important website links. It also shows where the visitors are spending their time on a website and what other websites the visitors are surfing.

Top Website Listings

There is also top website listings and top category listings for a number of vertical markets. Want to find out the top sports sites, business sites or even photography, it's all here. This is really useful when you're looking at the dominant players in your market and trying to emulate the best in your category.

Install the Toolbar Now

Although anyone can get the great information on Alexa just by going to the website, you'll want to install the toolbar for real-time analysis of every website you visit. Not only will you be able to determine the relative ranking of every website you visit, but you'll instantly see related websites that may aid in finding whatever you're looking for. You can download the toolbar now at www.alexa.com.