It is well known that the more visitors with Alexa Toolbar loaded web browsers visit your site, the higher is your Alexa ranking. But Alexa Toolbar installs on Internet Explorer only. Firefox users can get the SearchStatus Firefox extension which is a useful alternative to increase your Alexa ranking.
For every site you visit, SearchStatus sits in the browser status bar and neatly displays the site Google PageRank, Alexa popularity ranking, and Compete.com ranking. You can also check the Alexa incoming links, Alexa related links and backward links from Google, Yahoo! and MSN. You can get a quick overview about the site’s ranking in one go.
But does the SearchStatus Extension affect Alexa Pagerank?
If you check the download page, it is revealed that SearchStatus users form part of the panel of toolbar users that contribute towards Alexa statistics. Similarly the download page on Firefox Add Ons reveals a similar privacy policy
“For every web page you visit while using SearchStatus (excluding secure domains and those you have configured as private), certain information, including your ip address, the url of the web page you visit, and general information about your browser and computer’s operating system will be transmitted from your computer to Alexa. Some of the url’s you visit, which are transmitted to Alexa, will contain information that is personally identifiable.”
Strangely there is no mention about this tool on the Alexa options for Firefox browser page. Though they do not have immediate plans to develop an Alexa Toolbar for the Firefox, they do point to some developer built FireFox extensions incorporating Alexa (like About this site and RankQuest SEO Toolbar), but there is no mention that they improve Alexa ranking.
So it seems SearchStatus Firefox Extension is the best alternative to the Alexa toolbar to increase Alexa rank for Firefox users at present. Here are many more ways to increase your Alexa rank. Check out more popular toolbars to power your browser.