The Technorati Taskmaster: Is it Worth Appeasing?
November 29th 2007 19:40
Blogging to Please Our Technorati Taskmaster: Is It Worth It?
Lately, I've noticed an interesting phenomenon with Technorati authority and ranking: If you don't happen to be getting enough backlinks to your blog quickly enough--or if the Technorati search bot just doesn't happen to be finding them for some reason--the more often you update, the faster your blog authority and ranking decrease! Isn't that strange? Wouldn't you expect your authority and ranking to increase the more often you update? I would--and it certainly used to--before I hit the 50 K mark, that is. (But, more on that later.) My authority has dropped, of late, from a high of 135 to its present 127--and my ranking has taken a similar dive--despite the fact that I've been updating more frequently than ever.
Well, apparently frequent updates aren't enough to keep the Technorati taskmaster happy. Along with those updates, you need a steady influx of new links to appease the powers that be at the Big T! The funny thing is that I've been visiting quite a few blogs and leaving a lot of comments lately, but most aren't found by the Technorati search bot and those that are, don't seem to count for much, if anything!
I've come to the (perhaps obvious) conclusion that comment links don't carry as much "authority" (or "link juice") as links that are organically integrated into blog posts. This makes sense, of course, since having your link written into a blog post is much more a vote of confidence from the blogger than is the fact that you decided to leave a comment on someone's blog along with the link that's always included. However, you would expect these comment links to count for something, since they are listed among our Technorati Blog Reactions (aka backlinks to our blogs). And you would also expect Technorati to find more of them.
Disillusioned With Technorati: The 50 K Hurdle
I must admit, though, that I'm becoming more than a little disillusioned with Technorati these days. My ranking has lost its luster! My blog authority has left me flat! Twice I have broken the Technorati 50,000 ranking, and when this post goes live, I'll no doubt end up above 50 K once again. I'm seriously considering removing the Technorati authority widget from my blog, because it's so depressing--not to mention embarrassing--to watch my authority steadily declining rather than improving each time I update!
Up to--or rather down to the 50 K point in my Technorati ranking, things went quite smoothly. Whenever I updated, both my authority and my ranking improved. But something happened at about the 50 K point (which I didn't even realize was happening until I'd gotten as low as 43 K + and didn't update for about five days: my ranking shot up (which isn't good) to over 54 K in a single day, requiring me to break 50 K all over again--a slow and painstaking process! (During that period, the same busy-ness that had caused me not to update for five days had also kept me from visiting and leaving many comments on other blogs, so of course my backlink growth-rate stagnated, as well, which contributed to the problem.)
Irony: When Blog Traffic Belies Technorati's Valuation
All this is very ironic, because, during this period, my blog's traffic had been steadily growing--and still is. Though by no means huge, it's basically doubled over the past several months. But, I suppose it only goes to show that no algorithm is perfect. It's virtually impossible to create an algorithm that addresses all components of a blog's value--or at least, no one's doing it.
Alexa addresses the issue of traffic--but only among the users of its own toolbar, which couldn't be much of a reflection of overall blog traffic from all sources and which thus makes the value of Alexa ranking questionable, in my view. Alexa, of course, totally ignores backlinks and frequency of updates, which isn't a problem in itself, but becomes more important because its traffic stats are already skewed by the fact that only one segment of the reading public is involved in compiling them.
As far as I know, Technorati ignores traffic altogether, focusing on backlinks and frequency of updates--though often not even handling these in ways that seem fair or equitable. For example, each time we update, we still (presumably) have the same number of backlinks that we had before updating, and these backlinks had a certain value before we updated. Why do they now lose some of that value simply because we now have one more post on our blogs? Shouldn't our latest post simply add value to our already-existing links since we haven't actually lost any links and have gained a post? That, in my view, would be equitable.
Which Is It, Technorati? Is It Good to Update Often or Isn't It?
Personally, I tend to question the value of a blog ranking service that makes a blogger afraid to update for fear of losing hard-won ranking--thereby effectively providing a disincentive to update frequently. Is it better to update frequently or not? If so, Technorati needs to reassess its algorithm to stop penalizing bloggers who update frequently without amassing huge numbers of backlinks at the same time.
Reassessment: Are Blog Ranking Services Really Relevant?
Many are reevaluating Google in the wake of the current PR fiasco whereby bloggers have had their PR lowered--to as little as 0 (or no PR) in many cases--for so-called link-selling, causing a widespread questioning of the relevance of Google. In the same way, this writer is beginning to reassess the relevance of Technorati. While there's little doubt that many will continue evaluating bloggers based both on Google PR and Technorati ranking--and many by Alexa ranking, as well--which will certainly impact quite a few areas of blogging; I seriously wonder what any of these ranking methods can really mean when they reflect little more than the bias of the particular service whose ranking we happen to be checking.
What Do You Think? Should We Care About Technorati or Other Rankings?
Is Technorati relevant? What about Google? And Alexa? What do you think? If our Technorati ranking or authority drop, should we care? Should we be concerned if Google decides to "steal"--or has already "stolen"--our hard-earned page rank? (I know it's theirs to give and take away, since they gave it in the first place; but we did, after all, work hard for it.) Should we care that our Alexa ranking is based only on one segment of traffic to our sites?
If you have any insight or comments on any of these ranking services, we'd be very interested to hear your thoughts. If you have more to say on the issue than can be conveniently addressed in a comment and would rather write a post about it on your blog, please let us know in a comment and leave us a link to your post. We'd love to read it!
Looking forward to hearing your views,
Jeanne
This is not a sponsored post.
Did you enjoy this post? Have anything to add to the Technorati, Alexa, or Google conversation? We welcome your feedback!
| 49 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by tlcorbin-raginravensview
Comment by Anonymous
Don't worry. My authority on Technorati has also decreased even though my links have increased.
Laura
WritingThoughts
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
There seems to be little rhyme or reason at Technorati once you advance beyond a rank of 50,000. Seems as if they want to make it a challenge to remain in the top 50,000 blogs. I can imagine how much worse it must be for even higher-ranking blogs!
By the way, here's a little update on the Google PR fiasco: Athough my PR widget is still reading PR 3 at the moment, it appears that Google has stripped my blog of page rank today, knocking it down to PR 0, as it's done yours.
I noticed that PayPerPost suddenly began listing my PR as 0 earlier today. I've checked, and all the PR checker websites (except Blog Flux, for some reason) are now reporting my PR as 0.
I had visited the PPP blog earlier today, and as I read the comments posted there, I learned that many posties' PRs had been lowered to O just today. That's how I knew that the veritable postie scalping wasn't over yet; and when I afterward saw that there was only one page of posting opps that I qualified for (when I usually qualify for 3-4), I knew something was up. I realized I'd better check my own blog's PPP stats, and sure enough, my PR was listed as O.
Don't know quite what to make of all this. I'd only had PR for about a month, and now I'm back where I started from! But, I guess we all have to take life as it comes! I've managed to survive blogging for the past 10 months with a PR 0--and I'm sure I'll survive a PR 0 now!
Thanks for the visit and the support!
Jeanne
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Between Technorati and Google these days, it's tough to know what the answers are. I agree that traffic is very important, but then again, so are quality links to our sites. And updating our blogs is pretty important, too.
As much as we may want to rely totally on raw traffic stats, the reality is that our blogs are still judged in many quarters by Technorati and/or Alexa ranking and Google page rank. Yet, we have little choice but to play the hand we're dealt the best we can. That's all anyone can ever do.
Sorry to say that at the moment, that's the best answer I can give! I do agree, though, that we shouldn't let it get us down. As long as we're behaving ethically, I think we should simply go on running our blogs just as we always have and let Technorati, Alexa, Google, and Yahoo do whatever their little hearts desire.
Thanks for your input!
Jeanne
Comment by Joanna Young
Like you my 'authority' has been decreasing recently - I got to 200, put the widget on my site, then watched it drop each day, till I took it off, concluding that I'd jinxed the process, or it was come-uppance for my pride!
What counts is what counts for you whether that's traffic, reputation, connections, friendships, blogging conversations...
Joanna
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
I really believe that they've built something into their algorithm that makes it more difficult once your ranking becomes better than 50,000, because before I hit that point, my authority and ranking consistently rose and I never had any trouble with losing either!
Now, it's all I can do to stay below 50,000--and often I can't--and it's really become little more than a battle to continuously retake ground that I've already won! It definitely does cause one to become quite disillusioned with Technorati!
But, as you say, Technorati is very valuable for finding out who's linking to you--or writing about you--which can help you find so many interesting new blogs and make all sorts of wonderful new friends!
Every blogger has to decide what's important; and I suppose we all have to decide whether or not we really need outside validation from such entities as Technorati, Alexa, or Google to believe in our blogging/writing abilities.
Though it can be difficult when we're kicked down a few notches at PayPerPost (or another paid posting company) and thereby blocked from the higher-paying opps or when we're knocked back in the search engines because Google has stripped us of page rank; we still have to blog according to our principles, doing the very best we can.
If we do that, at the end of the day, despite the fact that we may have missed out on certain opportunities and lost certain search engine traffic, we'll at least be able to look at ourselves in the mirror without feeling guilty. And that's worth so much more than high Technorati authority or ranking or high Google PR.
Thanks so much for your insightful input!
Jeanne
Comment by Tom Colvin
Our constellation of blogs comprise a very small niche in the webosphere. There's no way our "rank" will amount to diddly squat. More important, I've come to believe, is our traffic curve and our subscriptions, along with the growth in commentary from readers. And maybe some recognition for our peers.
So, for Christmas, all I want is 100 subscribers -- I'm currently at 82 -- and 5000 unique visits [I'm at 4600]. Is that asking too much, Santa Claus?
Tom
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
You've definitely got a handle on the three most important things--and I don't mean Technorati, Alexa, and Google! Unfortunately, Orble only offers a partial feed, so a high number of feed subscribers is not something I'll be getting this Christmas--or anytime soon! (Wish they'd reconsider this practice and begin offering a full feed, as I requested a little while back.)
I have, however, watched my traffic gradually double over the past several months, and my comments are growing, as well; so perhaps I'll receive even greater gifts in these two areas this Christmas.
Hopefully, "Santa" will bring you the two blogging gifts you want most!
Thanks for stopping by!
Jeanne