Race for Rank Series Finale
When I started the Race for Rank series at the end of January, it was to help my readers increase their rank with Technorati, Alexa, and PageRank while testing my own knowledge. Often times I find it easy to believe that I know less than I do. So, this was a great test of my knowledge and applying it. And the results have been great; along with rank I have newfound confidence in myself.
Before I evaluate the results of Race for Rank with you, let me first remind you of what the goals for I’m Blogging That were, to be met by the end of April:
PageRank: 4 on index page
Alexa: 100,000
Technorati: Authority 100; Rank 70,000
On January 28th, when the series began my ranks were:
PageRank: 3 on index
Alexa: 168,322
Technorati: Authority: 65 Rank: 132,210
Every goal that I have set for all 3 ranking systems I have achieved. To improve my ranks I did nothing that I believe is black hat or unethical. Which further goes to tell you that what I have done you can complete. And you don’t have to be an SEO (search engine optimization) guru either.
Google’s PageRank
Let’s start with PageRank because by far, I think this ranking method is the biggest mystery to a lot of people. And I’m not going to claim that I get it or understand how I achieved the rank that I have (4). I’m simply going to tell you the effort I put forward that I believe would be helpful in achieving my PageRank.
Content
While I always write first for my visitors and myself, I kept Google in mind with every article I published. And after just a few posts, my thoughts became completely natural and I didn’t have to think about what I was doing.
There are a lot of tips out there that suggest you should put a lot of keywords into your articles. I don’t disagree with that theory but I took a different approach. When writing my articles I thought “if I was searching for this piece of information, how would I ask Google to retrieve it?†Honestly, Internet marking, a highly competitive search term is something that I wouldn’t find myself going to Google and inputting. I wanted something natural and to achieve that, I looked at the search terms that people were already using to reach my site.
Oddly, you find that people tell their lives to Google and other search engines. I don’t have search results for Internet marketing but I do have a search results for “promote my blog†and “how to sell something on my blog.†Both search phrases sound like marketing to me.
Lesson: When writing my posts, think like the person using the search engine and not the search engine.
Deep Linking
I’ve vaguely suggested this before and it’s on my list of things to write a dedicated post about, but let’s touch on this again.
Deep linking is the act of linking to other pages within a post. Have you noticed that in almost every post I publish, I have linked some sort of anchor text to another post I’ve made? This is incredibly easy to do when you have a niche blog because all of your posts run along the same topic therefore it makes anchor text easy to find for the right posts.
By deep linking my posts, I’ve given Google keywords to associate with my posts. The posts that I did this the most with are the ones now that have some of the best internal PageRank here. Additionally, those posts are also found with search phrases that match the anchor text I used to deep link.
Lesson: Find ways in every post to deep link to relevant helpful posts that are on topic using anchor text that will promote searches to the post.
Keywords
Without using any keywords tool other than what Google provides, I added keywords to the index title for I’m Blogging That. The ones that I chose are Blog Ranking, Blogging Tips, Search Engine News, WordPress Tutorials, and More.
For most bloggers, they would have seen these keywords as a chance to use them within posts and link to their site’s index page using these keywords as anchor text. I probably could have done that but didn’t.
I do know that I don’t rank well for these keywords. Although I do find being on Page 5 for “Blog Ranking†out of nearly 5 million results something. It’s not wonderful, it’s not great, but it is what it is.
Lesson: Do more keyword research for natural anchor text and keywords that are easy to link in posts.
Alexa
For Alexa, I relied a lot on traffic from other webmasters and bloggers who understood the importance of Alexa to other bloggers and webmasters. This means that they’d have the Alexa toolbar installed and/or Firefox’s Sparky add-on. Either would help my ranking.
My best resource for lowering my Alexa rank was Stumble. Every day I get more and more StumbleUpon traffic (thank you!) and these visitors are particularly helpful in dropping your Alexa rank.
I easily reached my Alexa goal several weeks ago when I saw a rank of 70,833. Then Alexa changes their system and my rank goes up. With the new ranking system, I’m still happy that I’m sitting at 100,833. While almost under the 100,000 mark, I’m still including this a success. Had Alexa not changed their system, I’m sure that I would be significantly past the 70,000 mark but I won’t stress on this.
Lesson: Unknown – further research on Alexa’s new ranking system needs to be done to render a better rank.
Technorati
Seriously, I think Technorati is the most misunderstood website for bloggers. The Race for Rank series has opened me up to that much! The comments and EMails that I received about Technorati were just crazy (even though I loved it)!
The biggest key with your Technorati rank is to actually use the site. I included some of my personal favorites with how to use Technorati posts during Race for Rank. Both posts I saw huge spikes of traffic with which further led me to believe that more information needs to be put out there about Technorati.
Here, you need to be active by adding favorite blogs and becoming a fan. In the last three months, I’ve gotten a boost in fans (though not many) and the posts that I have written have been linked a lot which has contributed to my Technorati authority.
How my blog’s rank is calculated with Technorati I haven’t done enough research with but will.
Lesson: Use the website to best of your ability but adding blogs as favorite, pinging Technorati with new blog posts, and discovering new and interesting ways for the site to become a great resource.
Post Frequency
I used to take on the attitude that I would post when/if I could. And I still very much have that attitude. This blog is my passion, not my obligation. It was important for me to understand the statement and then work out a schedule that worked for me and my levels of creativity.
To boost the frequency of posting, I have started writing posts whenever I feel like it. I feel that this is enabling me to write better posts. Currently I have a folder of about 30 posts that are formatted and ready to be posted at a moment’s notice.
My reason for this was two fold: I wanted to provide regular new content. That is why you come here, right? Secondly, this summer I will have a need to be absent from this blog for about 4 weeks. That’s quite some time. And while I will have time to respond to comments and talk during those 4 weeks, I won’t have the thought processes to actually publish anything (nothing really major to talk about but I’m going in for surgery). Having these posts ready cover me while I’m gone and when I’m not feeling creative enough to write.
From three or four posts per week, I am now publishing six or seven posts a week. This has done great things for my subscriber count and my motivation.
I believe that the constant flow of new posts, information, and comments helped me gain rank and authority with all three ranking systems.
What’s Next
I won’t be setting new public goals for myself. However, I believe that I have properly understood the advice of many now and have done significantly better at applying that knowledge. Reading and understanding informational posts is the easy part, it’s applying the lessons to work for you that becomes the challenge and for me, it’s one that I’m up for now.
Questions for You
Have you followed any advice from my Race for Rank series that has worked? Do you keep track of where you rank and what’s your reasoning for doing so?
This post was written by I’m Blogging That’s former owner, Katy Castro who can now be found blogging at Unedited Life.
May 1st, 2008 at 6:04 am
That is a very good post. I never really thought about making my blog more google friendly and increasing my rank. I had a rank of 5 once, for a few days and now it is three. I have a brand new blog and it just got a rank of 4. So strange how that worked.
May 1st, 2008 at 7:48 am
First off, congratulations, Hon!! Woo hoo!! Not bad for 3 months, not bad at all :)
Second, I applied a little here and a little there, and I can honestly say that it’s worked for both blogs. I’ve only been posting semi-regularly at RA, and still gained readers and still gained PR (from a 1 to a 2). I did the same with TM2TS, and jumped from no PR whatsoever, to zero to THREE!! I’m all excited for that.
I have you to thank, along with my own perseverance, and while I didn’t set any major goals, my one and only goal was to get back the PR I had before the Google Spank, and I’ve achieved that :)
May 1st, 2008 at 10:42 am
Some great tips here. Keep up the good work and things will pay off for you. I’ve been a blogger myself for 9 months now and my site is a PR4.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:31 am
Very interesting write-up. The tips are very informative and have in depth descriptions that are beneficial to improve your sites ranking. Understanding the rankings and how they work like you have taken the time to do and share with all of us is key to improving your rank but I like how you mentioned to think what the consumer is and this way you can get them to your site by targeting the correct keywords.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:32 am
That’s great that you achieved your goal! I don’t think I pay attention to giving my sites a higher pagerank, I’m more focused on getting a steady flow of visitors.
I would love to know what your opinion is on blogrolls. Should they be nofollow or dofollow?
May 1st, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I really need to work on using technorati – I rarely log in there.
I’m hoping that the google pagerank update isn’t complete, I’m still sitting at a zero. Of course, if domain age is a factor in pagerank, then I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
I’m going to be away for one or two weeks over the summer as well, I should probably start planning soon on writing some posts to have autopost while I’m away. Good post, and congrats on the improvements!
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:30 am
Drew » PageRank and Google are certainly strange beasts. I think with all the removing of PageRank best to not ask why you have it then why you don’t. LOL Having a 4 rank though seems to be more and more common which makes me wonder about changes with Google though.
Sarah » Thank you! I think your big help on TM2TS was switching to using a sub-domain. Although, I almost wish you hadn’t of done that so that I could have a way to test a crazy theory that I have. LMAO! But I’m still happy for your success.
NewSunSEO » I’ll be the first person to admit that keywords never really made a ton of sense to me, especially when they’re keywords related to information that I search and haven’t ever used those words to define my search. If I never gained in rank but continued to receive the search engine traffic that I do because of my lack of keywords, I’ll be happy.
Dowan » With everything that I have done, I have gained a larger readership which has probably been the most fun thing. Even more so, those readers are now coming from search engines where they weren’t for. Both have gone hand in hand.
Thanks for your link, I’ll check it out a little later.
Alan » Technorati is an interesting site but worth it if you want to put the effort in (note want and not need for effort). With your time away this summer, perhaps guest posting might work well for you? Just a thought…
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:52 am
I’m sad to see your series come to an end. I hope you will post advice randomly. I learn so much.
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Congratulations – this should definitely show some people that it’s still possible to dramatically increase your site’s measurements in a relatively short period of time.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:53 pm
This information is very helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to sum up what you have learned. I must admit I was in a blog funk most of April, but I am going get back on track and use some of this advice.
May 4th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
[...] Improve Page,Alexa and Technorati Ranks at ImBloggingThat.com is a great guide to how to increase your PageRank, Alexa Rank and Technorati Authority and Ranks. A great read if you’re obsessed with your site’s numerous ranks. [...]
May 4th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Very informative post. I been applying the technique you outline and got a good PR for one of my blogs in the recent google update. Thank you.
One thing you impress me is that you acknowledge and reply to all my comments since I started commenting here a month back. That’s what I like about here. The community.
May 5th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Karen » While the series has come to an end, increasing blog rankings is still a subject that I’ll approach often.
Stefanie » Thank you! And I hope that you’re right: that this post serves as an example of what you can accomplish quickly.
Michelle » Glad it helped and you’re quite welcome! Good luck on working through your blogging funk, I’ve been there.
Asia’h » Congratulations on your PageRank, I’m glad that my advice was able to help you along.
Also, I’m glad that you enjoy that I reply to comments. It’s important to me that commentators feel like they’re part of something with me and not reading something that is one-sided. Community, it’s all about it — at least for me. :D Thank you for the compliment!
May 18th, 2008 at 6:00 am
I really agree with you regarding blog with passion not as obligation. Many peoples write blogs as compulsory. One should write at his or her own ease and always write constructive and to the point. Nich is very important for blogs now a days.
May 18th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Bizliner » It’s amazing to see how a lot of bloggers blog because of the obligation they feel rather than the passion that drives them. And while sometimes it’s a hard balance, passion should be what drives as it makes a blog more successful in the long run.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:31 am
I had followed a bit your tips and my blog was rank well for “Belajar SEO” well and this is without using Technorati.
I think I should try Technorati too for getting more exposure to my site.
July 19th, 2008 at 12:52 am
I am still not convinced that writing to increase page rank does a better job than focusing on good writing, an interesting layout, interaction with readers and some drama. Great post for those wanting to chase that ranking dream…
Catherine, the redhead blogger
July 20th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Thanks for this one. I still don’t fully understand how PR and the other sources work. But your breakdown of what you did and the increase that was a result gives a little bit more insight.
Content, Networking, Content, Networking…. :)
That’s basically what it boils down to. Write your content, working in a natural feel for search engines while not totally focusing on them. And networking on other sites, blogs.
I will see what I can implement into my own blogs that will help me increase my rankings.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:45 am
@JK: You hit the nail on the head. Write awesome content, network — rinse, later, repeat. :D
Good luck with implementing methods on your own blog that helps to increase your rank.
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:08 am
Have you followed any advice from my Race for Rank series that has worked?
This is my first visit to ur blog.Looks nice.
Do you keep track of where you rank and what’s your reasoning for doing so?
I’d like to start making money from my blog a few months from now.
December 21st, 2008 at 2:12 am
Any ideas on how to get listed in the DMOZ? I have been wating for over a year and they have yet to revue my website http://www.greeentextbooks.org
Do you think anyone ever gets lited there anymore?
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Good information about technorati, i was not aware of this.
March 25th, 2009 at 3:07 am
that the great info and post, before i used SEO to increase page rank
April 5th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Is commenting on blog increases the page rank?
April 5th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Is commenting on blog increases the page rank?
April 5th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Is commenting on blog increases the page rank?
April 5th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Is commenting on blog increases the page rank?
March 30th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
That is a very good post.