Technorati Rank Worse, RSS Subscribers Stagnant

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on May 19, 2009

Well, imagine my surprise when I decided to check Technorati today, after not looking at it for a week or so, and finding that my authority has dropped significantly, which is course means my overall blog ranking has dropped drastically also. I mean, what the hey?

A big part of me is wondering whether this has to do with the decrease in the number of posts over the last month and a half than anything else. I’ve noticed that the number of visitors has also dropped, but I thought it was a pretty good experiment to undertake, especially since so many of you regular visitors complained a little bit that you had problems keeping up with the pace sometimes.

Now I’m not so sure that was such a good idea after all. I’m noticing that not as many of you are stopping by all that much lately, which of course could be my topics, but there have been many more new visitors coming by. Is it possible that this blog’s strength was built more on the backs of new visitors than my returning visitors?

There could be a point to that. After all, returning visitors, if they subscribe to your blog, don’t really have to return at all. I use my Feedreader program to read blogs, and I also have the ability to write comments from there, though I don’t. I don’t know if people get credit for visits from readers, though I believe they’d get credit for the feed. If that’s the case, then Technorati must not count it as true visitors.

And, speaking of Feedreader, y’all know that I had my big RSS subscriber contest back in January, and it resulted in a few more people subscribing to the feed, but since that time I’ve hovered between 65 and 75 subscribers, and since my beginning of the year goal was 500, that’s fairly pathetic.

Of course, part of the problem could be Technorati itself, which has been up and down often for the past week or so, but I’m thinking that would only impact pings not getting through more than them not getting my numbers correct. But I don’t know that; any of you who follow your Technorati rank, what’s it been looking like lately?

In any case, I’m not a happy guy. As someone who always wants bigger and better, being stagnant doesn’t suit me well, and going backwards is unacceptable. So, I’m going to have to do more thinking about this one; what say you?

Tags: rankings Feedreader, RSS subscribers, Technorati

16 Comments »

malted_tea:

Just keep on doing what you’re doing. I read you in Google Reader where you’ve been on my list of folks to check in on for over a year.

While I rarely have reason to visit your site, your topics are enjoyable. Scattered, but enjoyable.

Perhaps a bit more focus on your niche (for example, if you’re going whole hog into being an article writer then focus on all aspects of article writing and why I need a human instead of one of those article spinners…or in addition to).

Above all else, have fun with it all! And, err, get the Mrs. interested in what you have to say

Mitch Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 5:27 PM

Thanks Natasha, and welcome to the blog! Actually, I’m not overly worried about the niche part for this blog, as that’s what my other two blogs are supposed to be for. But I do have topics I like to concentrate on more than others, and that part will never change.

However, stay tuned for tomorrow’s post; something way out of the ordinary. lol

May 19th, 2009 | 1:39 PM

Neostead:

Ignore Technorati. It’s seems wonky these days – and a kind of holdover from before web 2.0. The Technorati rank just isn’t what it was.

Mitch Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 9:05 PM

It may not be, Neo, but some blog ranking sites still use it as a part of their algorithm, a big part, which is why I’ve been trying to get it higher. Of course, I’d rather have more subscribers that worrying about my Technorati rank, that’s for sure.

May 19th, 2009 | 7:48 PM

Ajith Edassery:

Mitch,
The technorati rank can suddenly go down if some inbound links go out of their 180 day window. For the ranking purpose they care about only those blog backlinks that arrive in the last six months.

As for the traffic, I have been doing very bad as well. From 11K uniques in January, I have come down to 6K now. But the main reason for me is lack of time to blog due to which my post frequency reduced. I am trying to do a rebranding and better SEO to improve search traffic, at the least.

Ajith Edassery´s last blog post..What was a blog and what is it now?

Mitch Reply:
May 19th, 2009 at 11:33 PM

It’s probably the better way to think Ajith, but I know that I haven’t let down on what I’ve been doing overall with this blog, though I’m thinking that maybe I haven’t commented on as many blogs lately. But that’s lately; if it takes into account six months, I should still be doing okay.

But no matter; I just report the numbers, and we see where they take me. Sorry you don’t have the time to post as much these days.

Dennis Edell Reply:
May 20th, 2009 at 4:58 PM

I do believe 1 blog = 1 link, meaning if you comment on my blog 5 times, it is still only counted as 1 link in. Mine is a bit off as well, and I think this is why.

I was 160, now 127.

Dennis Edell´s last blog post..12 Tips To Increase Sales On Your E-commerce Website

Mitch Reply:
May 21st, 2009 at 12:47 AM

Wow Dennis, that’s just freaky. Maybe they changed their algorithm; matter, of fact, I think I read somewhere that they did. Well, no matter; it is what it is, I guess.

May 19th, 2009 | 11:04 PM

Sire:

My technorati is hovering at 93. I would love it to get over a hundred but I’m not busting my chops to get it over that hump.

Relax and enjoy the blogging experience Mitch. Don’t worry too much about that sort of stuff. As long as people keep coming back and commenting you are doing OK. If your getting new visitors, and they’re commenting that your articles are doing well as most people just wander by.

Sire´s last blog post..The Security Of Your Photos Is Important

Mitch Reply:
May 21st, 2009 at 12:48 AM

Thanks Sire. I’m not overly worried, but you know I’m a numbers guy, and sometimes the other side of my mind wants to figure out a reason why certain things are happening. I’ve gotta keep that under control; maybe more chocolate. lol

May 20th, 2009 | 7:11 PM

Sire:

Now you know you can’t go that route Mitch. Perhaps something less sweet?

Sire´s last blog post..Using Comments To Double Your Exposure

Mitch Reply:
May 21st, 2009 at 1:45 AM

Less sweet,… well, what fun would that be? Course, I can’t afford to go into another binge, can I? Still, there’s this chocolate called Toberline,…

May 21st, 2009 | 1:41 AM

David:

I am new to all this kind of thing and don’t know much about Technorati. Is there any real benefits of it? I tried to sign up, but it wasn’t having it and no response from support.

David´s last blog post..How to Stop Your WordPress Blog Getting Hacked

Mitch Reply:
May 21st, 2009 at 6:47 PM

Hi David; overall, no. However, rankings are something you can tout that, if you’re looking for paid subscribers, you give them those numbers, they have no idea what they are but it sounds good. Otherwise, none of the numbers mean overly much, except to give you an idea as to how wel your site might generally be doing.

May 21st, 2009 | 5:59 PM

David:

I see. I’d imagine that the top blogs in Technorati probably get good traffic though.

What are you finding is the best SM site to generate traffic? I was on page one of Delicious not long ago. The traffic was disappointing though. You would get more from a keyword page on StumbleUpon.

David´s last blog post..How to Stop Your WordPress Blog Getting Hacked

Mitch Reply:
May 21st, 2009 at 7:06 PM

Truthfully, I get lots of traffic from Twitter. Every blog post I write goes on Twitter, and if you have enough followers, there’s enough people who will find you. I also do post a lot of my posts on delicious, which I find the easiest. I’ve never been on StumbleUpon, and I will never hook up with Digg. However, I known that some people have put some of my posts up on StumbleUpon because I’ve been informed of it, which is kind of neat.

May 21st, 2009 | 6:55 PM

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