Where do I find traffic ratings to site?

Searching for knowledge, finding acronyms

[Vellum]

I am new to the search ranking circus. Reading through the many informative forum threads leads me to enquire about some very basic knowledge that most of you have.

Where does one find traffic ratings to a site? What does the PR0 -4, 5, 6 mean & how can it be accessed? What is a SERP?

With a little bit of help I will be able to follow the threads, and in time contribute something in return.

[Bobby]

Hi Vellum, and welcome to Webmaster World.

I don't quite understand your first question about finding traffic ratings, but as for the others:

PR means "page rank" and is Google's way of determining how "important" a page is in relationship to inbound links to that page. If your page has a lot of inbound links (from other sites) you will have a higher PR, especially if those other sites have high PR themselves.

A "SERP" simply means "search engine results page", the page returned when you perform a query on a search engine.

hope this helps...

[PatrickDeese]

This section of the site might be helpful:

[webmasterworld.com...]

[oldskool79]

If you want information on how much traffic a website recieves go to www.alexa.com and type the URL in the box, or install the alexa toolbar.

This method of measuring traffic is not perfect (it's skewed towards english sites aimed at web savvy people) it's still a good indicator. The lower the number, the more traffic a site recieves.

[JonR28]

Don't trust the evil Alexa! "Skewed" is quite an understatement.

[nickg]

I have to agree!

Alexa is ok or hte top few thousand sites, but further down the results get very messy.

The problem lies in the way alexa collects information. It only collects from those who use thier toolbar

forinstance if you are a webmaster who is constantly updating your site and you use an alexa tool bar, you will show a large volume of traffic onto your site.

I have got one of my sites to rank in and around 150,000 th overall just by updating it frequently. (using an alexa toolbar)

Guessing your overall rank is very hit and miss. I would focus on your log files...

[chrisnrae]

"What does the PR0 -4, 5, 6 mean & how can it be accessed"

[toolbar.google.com...] is how you get the toolbar to see the PR of sites. I wouldn't put too much stock in it though - it isn't anywhere near as important as it used to be IMHO.

[JohnieWalker]

>it isn't anywhere near as important as it used to be

but it gives you sort of idea if the site is high (msn) or low (spammed ffa).

[martinibuster]

...but it gives you sort of idea if the site is high (msn) or low (spammed ffa).

MSN has nothing to do with the Google Toolbar.

The Google Toolbar seems to have been offline for the last three or four months, so in my opinion it's useless.

The site you believe is a PR zero may be a six. The directory you believe is still a PR 7 may have been banned.

Blue Alert
Proceed with caution.

[chrisnrae]

Yep, you should be linking to sites after doing a manual review. Don't let the toolbar be your guide. Learn how to manually spot a good site and a "bad" one.