Hi all,
I just went through a few articles on trusty blogs which claimed to reveal how the Google Blog Search results worked. I read them up, and formulated a small theory on how to improve your Google Blog Search listings. Before my theories, I have put up a few paragraphs to educate newbies WHY Google Blog Search is important for bloggers.
Oh, firstly, let me thank my sources -
1) Google System
2) Bloggers Blog
Back to the topic at hand. Please note that all facts stated here ARE facts and were obtained by the Google System blog by painful (;)) reading of a patent sumbitted by Google. For those keyboard potatoes out there, scroll down to the bottom for the Dos and Donts.
Why do people use Google Blog Search?
Google Blog Search made a revolution in the era of searching the net. People who wanted content rather than useless spam use Google Blog Search. Google Blog Search is useful for a company to review users opinions and posts about their product (especially if they use Consumer Generated Advertising techniques like PayPerPost)
So whats in it for bloggers like me?
Put short and sweet, readers. Every site developer out there has an aim. Getting visitors to their site. Similarly every blogger has his/her own aim - to get real readers. Visitors are not the priority for bloggers. Bloggers look for READERS. Some people to read, comment, appreciate, criticize or debate what they write about. And “they” inculde bloggers like you and me.
Google Blog Search, like all other blog searches, display results ONLY from blogs, thus eliminating all spam stuff and reference sites. Searchers READ through the blog content, not look through it. And if they like what they read, they might even bookmark your site, or subscribe its feed! And since its from Google, the name’s trusty, a lot many people use it, AND they have a superb algorithm.
Searchers from Google Blog Search seem to linger on your site for longer than other searchers. For example, on my other blog BlogForPeace I get about 250 visitors per day. About 50 of them come from Google Search. Of that 50, about 40 linger only for about 10-30 seconds. Another 30-40 come from Google Blog Search. Of this, 10-15 stay for 5-8 minutes, and the rest(about 25-30) stay for atleast 20-30 minutes. See the difference? Blog searchers READ through your stuff, unlike conventional searchers.
Right. So Google Blog Search uses PR like Google, right?
Wrong! Google Blog Search (GBS from now on) uses a unique algorithm which also considers Page Rank, but is not the final deciding factor. As clearly listed in Google System blog, GBS considers as positives -
- links from blogrolls (especially from high-quality blogrolls or blogrolls of “trusted bloggers”)
- links from other sources (mail, chats, blog directories, blogging communities like Technorati, Digg, Del.icio.us, MyBlogLog etc.)
- using tags to categorize a post
- PageRank
- the number of feed subscriptions (from feed readers)
- clicks in search results
And GBS considers as negatives -
- posts added at a predictable time
- different content between the site and the feed
- the amount of duplicate content
- using words/n-grams that appear frequently in spam blogs
- posts that have identical size
- linking to a single web page
- a large number of ads
- the location of ads (”the presence of ads in the recent posts part of a blog”)
To rank the search results, Google combines a quality score obtained by
mixing those signals with a relevance score (IR score) that depends on
the query. “The IR score may be determined based on the number of
occurrences of the search terms in the document. The IR score may be
determined based on where the search terms occur within the document
(e.g., title, content, etc.) or characteristics of the search terms
(e.g., font, size, color, etc.). A search term may be weighted
differently from another search term when multiple search terms are
present. The proximity of the search terms when multiple search terms
are present may influence the IR score.” (the quote was slightly
altered for clarity)
Uh, what does all that mean?
It means that if you have a decent blog, with no sorts of wrong doings, and with good content updated regularly, and ofcourse, a well marketed feed, you’ll get more readers from GBS. Here’s a small image I formulated for better understanding -
Skip the chatter! Gimme the Dos and Donts!
dos&DONTS
- DO update your blog regularly with good quality content which you have written yourself.
- DONT update your blog if you havnt got quality content. i.e. Do not spam your blog.
- DO market your blog. Try to get links from high profile bloggers.
- DONT submit your blog to link farms etc. A good example of a link farm is Free For All pages.
- DO talk about your blog with your friends via emails and chat. Include your blog in your email signature, and other community signatures
- DONT use spam keywords for higher paid ads.
- DO use tags(see our previous post on Tags) to categorize your posts. Also display a prominant link to your feed. It might be a good idea to use Feedburner as well. Publicize your feeds by all possible methods and get readers to subscribe to your feed.
- DONT have duplicate feeds or posts. Also avoid editing your posts after publishing it, or configure feeds such that they quickly reflect edited posts. Conventionally feeds arent updated till the next post is submitted.
- DO try to get a good Google Page Rank. We will talk about methods to improve Page Rank in future issues.
- DONT link to poor quality spam websites which promise you return links.
- DO include relevant keywords in your META tags to improve conventional search engine results. Use optimal SEO techniques, but dont go over the edge. Please realize that your blog is for HUMANS and NOT for GOOGLE BOT. But do use these relevant keywords as tags as well in relevant posts. (for example, if your site is about Dogs, and a META keyword is “Dog Food”, use the tag “dog food” whenever you write about dog food. Some people may list “dog food” in META keywords and use post tags like “food for dogs” or “high quality canine food”, which wont harm you, but neither will it benefit you)
- DONT use spam keywords or use keywords which you think will elevate the ad value of your site (I’ve seen web hosting sites use the keyword “mesothelioma”(asbestos lung cancer) because it is a much higher paying keyword).
- DO put in a few relevant ads in places like your sidebar. Use tools like Text Link Ads which are very well paying, and gives you money for DISPLAYING the ad, not clicks.
- DONT put in too many ads or spam ads. DONT put in ads in your header area or in between post content. Put decent sized ads on your sidebar, or in the interval between posts, or below posts, or before posts.
- A final DONT : It seems (no conlusional proof yet available, but personal experiences quoted by many users and felt by me) that Google PR and Google Blog Search results are directly influenced by Google Adsense. i.e. If you’re a started blog with good content, and if you apply for Adsense and get accepted, you’ll see a boost in your PR and search engine listings and GBS listings. On the other hand, if you get declined, you’ll have to work extra hard, and will take more time and effort than usual, to get a better PR and to get decent search engine results. This same effect takes place if you’re banned from Adsense.
So my advice is : DO NOT apply for Adsense if you’re a started blog. Once you are established with a PR of like 2, then you can apply IF AND ONLY IF your blog complies with ALL terms listed by Google. If you get accepted to Adsense, DO NOT employ cheating or other methods to produce false clicks (Google’s algorithm is damn good!) or do any other illegal activities which might get you banned from Adsense.
Come to think of it, Adsense isnt very well paying unless you have a sound reader base of atleast 500 per day! But I’ll talk about Monetizing in future issues.
I hope that you have got a general overview of what it takes for a good GBS ranking. Good luck! And if you have any doubts, or require any help, I can try to help you out with what little I know(time permitting). Just drop in a mail to
mohan [at] bloggingindia [dot] net
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