I'm Just Sharing

Posted by Mitch on Oct 28, 2009

Maybe not everyone knows this yet, but Technorati changed how they do their rankings. And the way they’ve gone, I’m not sure whether it’s better or not overall, but it’s certainly drastically different from what it used to be. And it’s a way to track our blogging proficiency, even if we don’t understand it.

Back at the end of December, I posted that I was hoping my Technorati rating would move up into the top 60,000. At that time I was sitting at 88,000 or so, which was great, and I actually knew that that number meant. Now my number is 491, and initially it meant nothing to me. Even now, I’m not totally sure what it means to me. With the original number, I knew that my blog was in the top 90,000 blogs in the world, which wasn’t bad. Now… 491?

Still, it’s a number to use for comparison, if nothing else. Here are 18 numbers for you. The first set of numbers are the numbers for my other blogs, some of the people who post comments here (check out their blogs), and a couple most of us know pretty well. The second set are some of the top ranked blogs on Technorati that you may have heard of, and I’ll give you their ratings also.

Mine & My Friend’s Blogs

Top Finance Blog – 120

Mitch’s Blog – 415

Wassup Blog – 482

Kikolani.com – 453

HSH Associates – 134

Ramana’s Musings – 125

John Chow – 429

Problogger – 657

Top Ranked Technorati Blogs

Huffington Post – 963, #1

Tech Crunch – 888, #3

Mashable – 883, #4

Gawker – 483, #12

Lifehacker – 817, #19

Official Google Blog – 806, #25

White House Blog – 792, #36

Perez Hilton – 771, #74

Freakonomics – 763, #85

NME News – 754, #99

Actually, that last one I’ve never heard of, but it’s last on the list of the top 100, and it’s tied with another one, but it’s last on the list and I wanted to show the number that, if we’re looking to be big time, we want to aim for.

As for how Technorati works? I have absolutely no idea. One thing they’ve supposedly changed is that they don’t only go off the 6 month rule anymore, which is something that irked a heck of a lot of people. Instead, it’s supposed to be a combination of both current activity and its historical strength. I figure that’s the only way that my blog Mitch’s Blog is so close to this blog in rank, since I have more than 65% more readers for this one than the other one. Oh yeah, it also seems that Technorati, when looking through the estimated 112 million blogs (ouch), also now ranks them in categories based on the tags we put on our blogs. I just started using tags without realizing this; talk about timing.

So, we take it for what it’s worth, another measuring tool of some fashion, and we aim for higher ground. Hey, at least we have numbers, right?

22 Comments »

Walter:

I’m curious about my Technorati ranking, where can I find it? I was checking my ranking on Alexa alone.

Mitch Reply:
October 28th, 2009 at 10:17 PM

Walter, all you have to do is go to the site, then you’ll see something that says “search blogs” and you should be able to find yourself.

October 28th, 2009 | 10:10 PM

Rummuser:

I am happy that I feature at all, in your list. What would be interesting is to see how google page rank shows up exactly opposite to each technorati ranking!
Rummuser´s last blog ..The Joy And The Punishment.

Mitch Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 2:42 AM

You might be right, Ramana, but I’m taking a break on that one.

October 29th, 2009 | 12:16 AM

Peter Davies:

Hi Mitch

Interesting thing you say about Tags. How do you research which Tags to use?

Pete
Peter Davies´s last blog ..Strategic Profits – League of Extraordinary Minds

Mitch Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 4:10 PM

Peter, I don’t think you research the tags. It’s whatever tags you put for each post you write. So, I assume, since there’s not much detail beyond this, when you write a post, whatever tags you decide to add that explain what your post is about is how Technorati will look for you and rank you accordingly. Just make sure your tags match your content that day.

October 29th, 2009 | 4:56 AM

Dennis Edell:

So we still don’t know what the numbers mean?
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..As Promised – An End Of The Year Advertising Special!

Mitch Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 4:13 PM

No we don’t, Dennis. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say it has a lot to do with activity and links. A blog like Huffington Post, for example, has lots of bloggers and lots of information and links coming and going. Many of the others I mentioned aren’t written by individuals either. Maybe they should have a category for group blogs and one for individual blogs, but that would take it away from algorithms and make them have to hire a bunch of people to visit every blog at least once.

October 29th, 2009 | 3:11 PM

Kikolani:

Last night, I noticed that the “Fave this blog to Technorati” button on another site was no longer working. When I logged into Technorati, all of my profile information, photo and favorites were gone, along with the thumbnail for my site. So whatever they’re doing, it certainly messed up my account.

~ Kristi
Kikolani´s last blog ..How Do You Make Money Blogging?

Mitch Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 4:15 PM

That’s not good at all, Kristi. I wonder what’s up with that. Did you write them, or are you just going to log your blog again?

October 29th, 2009 | 3:23 PM

brightfeather:

When the changes were made I logged in a found much to my consternation that my blog listing was appearing but no ranking or authority were appearing and neither was my most recent post. I used the getsatisfaction feedback option and posted into a thread that many others had posted into as well. Here’s the link to the thread

Technorati staff acted quickly and the following day my latest post did appear but there was still not ranking or authority assigned. Yesterday I checked again and found this. My blog has now been updated it has a number (16245.*) has another number 415 that I thought was for authority.

Today I logged in again and found these numbers (16235*) and Technorati Auth: 414 – Change -1

Hopefully it’s not to much to ask that Technorati staff publish a blog entry that clarifies exactly what’s going on and what these numbers mean in the very near future.
brightfeather´s last blog ..Silence is Medicine for the Soul

Mitch Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 9:11 PM

Yeah, that 414 is your new authority figure, brightfeather, although, as I said, I really don’t know what it means. i just find it odd that Sire and Kristi say they couldn’t find their blogs on there when I see both of their blogs and their rankings. All 3 of my blogs, obviously are still there.

October 30th, 2009 | 6:08 PM

Sire:

What the hell! I’ve just gone to check to see what was happening and they’ve gone and lost Wassupblog. That sucks. I never had much time for Technorati, and now I have no time for them at all.
Sire´s last blog ..Googles Latest PR Update In Time For Halloween

Mitch Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 9:08 PM

Sire, if I found it and your ranking, how can you say you’ve lost it. Did you do the search feature?

October 30th, 2009 | 7:15 PM

Sire:

All I can say is that it’s not listed under my claimed blogs. Perhaps I have to claim it again. What a pain.
Sire´s last blog ..Googles Latest PR Update In Time For Halloween

Mitch Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 9:39 PM

How strange, Sire. I just went to the site and mine were there. I did read the link that brightfeather left, which is the Technorati blog page, and read their explanation of it all.

October 30th, 2009 | 9:27 PM

Mitch:

As a quick followup, check this link to the Technorati page telling us more about the changes.

October 30th, 2009 | 9:44 PM

Ned Carey:

Coincidentally I just checked Technorati tonight and wow was it different. I didn’t know what was up so thanks for the link Mitch.

As Kikolani said my lots of info was gone. There is a place to ad the tags in you blog profile but I tried several times and it wouldn’t take. I think they have a lot of bugs to work out.
Ned Carey´s last blog ..Help! My Home is going to tax sale.

Mitch Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 9:41 AM

Hi Ned,

They certainly do have a lot of kinks to work out, but you at least found your blog, right? Hey, I figure that most of these things are kind of arbitrary measurements we can use to see what at least one source thinks or our blogs. If we’re on the list, at least we’re in the game.

Ned Carey Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 2:57 PM

Yes, When I logged in my blog was there. But my picture was not and my blog snapshot was blank. They had lost the feed.
Ned Carey´s last blog ..Death Notice of Ned Carey