Upon cutting the ribbon for any new site creation of mine I’ll add SEO (search engine optimization) for Alexa (just behind Google, Bing (MSN Search in new clothes), and Yahoo) to my short list of things to do – Now !

1. As in the proverbial Search Engine Optimization 101 – Make sure your site is already complete with your intended site TITLE, META META description, META keywords, and META robots tags as well as having a valid ROBOTS.TXT file present in your web root.
2. Check to see if your site has already been indexed by Alexa by inputting the URL (minus the http and www) into the Alexa “Find sites about” (top center) search box (if not, Alexa will automatically create a page for the site upon your search prompt.)
3. Update your listing by entering your site URL and inputting your desired data in the “Site Information Editor”.  Note that Site Title and Site Description fields appear to be able to hold a rather large amount of text (another opportunity to add juicy keywords to your descriptive text.)  Yes, it may take days to weeks for your listing to finally be updated but I find the wait worth the while.  When given the choice, I’ll prefer to opt for adding the INFO.TXT file to my web root rather than the email validation method as it seems to be the more permanent option while implicit in serving both Alexa and the DMOZ Open Directory Project search as well (two birds, one stone.)

4. Get your site an Alexa site widget to add to your sidebar or footer.  One note, I would highly recommend NOT going for the Alexa Traffic Graph selection as I’ve found that it tends to gobble up a large amount of site bandwidth (not to mention the valuable pixel space wasted.)  Though not specifically mentioned anywhere that I can find, I highly suspect that adding and Alexa Site Stats Button or Alexa Traffic Rank Button widget to your site will tend to improve your Alexa rank (I’ve seen excellent results so far.)
5. Though it’s unclear if it’s entirely necessary nowadays I still feel compelled to Ask Alexa to Crawl My Site just to be on the safe side (this URL is also cited specifically as the point to ask the Internet Archive to notice and index your site via Alexa as well.)  I’ll also use this URL upon the completion of a major update to any site.
6. Invite your site guests to add reviews to your Alexa listing page by adding a handy link.  Guests can log in using their FaceBook account or register with Alexa anew.
7. If you are not squeamish about software most anti-malware packages will call spyware and you visit your own sites often then feel free to download the Alexa Toolbar (as I have.)  It has been proven to  increase the Alexa rank for those sites you visit on a regular basis (at the expense of Alexa via this questionable toolbar looking over your shoulder while browsing.)  So far I’ve found the toolbar handy and harmless though it really doesn’t give you any indication as to what exactly it is doing or thinking at any one point.
8. If you are so inclined, I’ve heard (and experienced first-hand) that the Alexa Rank Enhancer (software tool) can significantly increase your Alexa rank over time if used continuously (the link points to the lowest advertised price I’ve seen online yet.)