Blog Authority vs. Page Rank

Well, now that I have thoroughly confused some of you...it's time for an apology and to set things right. I went to do some research in technorati.com today and discovered I was using the wrong terminology. I'm afraid I may have led some of you astray by using the term "page rank" rather than "blog authority" which is the correct term when talking about ranking in technorati.

Blog authority shows how many unique links your blog has to other blogs and the higher that number, the higher authority your blog has. Technorati does not count links to other sites, just blogs.

On the other hand "page rank" should be as small as possible. I don't know exactly how that is calculated, but sites like google, yahoo, ebay, amazon, etc. have the best page rank. These are probably all in the top 10. If you're able to get your site into the top 100,000 you have really accomplished something!

All of that being said, it may still be a good idea to get your blog listed in technorati and to "claim it." Here is a link to the FAQ that explains the benefits of claiming your blog: http://support.technorati.com/faq/topic/87. One of the benefits I see is that others can search based on keywords that interest them and find your blog.

The reason I was thinking about technorati when I wrote my previous blogpost, was because I was looking for other blogs based on my keyword so I could interact with them. That's what it's all about, isn't it? Making connections, following and being followed, commenting and receiving comments, building contacts and relationships.

If you have more questions about how all of this works, you can find a wonderful FAQ section under the "support" button on the technorati website.

Utilizing Technorati

I know this is going to be a bit on the technical side, but maybe this information will be helpful to someone else. Some months ago, I learned about technorati.com. It is a social networking place for bloggers. I began "claiming" my blogs on technorati and also using technorati to "ping" each blog update. I also used it to search for other blogs that utilize the same or similar keywords. By doing this I quickly discovered many blogs in my "niche" that already had high page ranks. Just a word about page rank - the higher, the better. Then I was able to go to their blogs and comment, thus piggybacking off of their high page rank.

So last night I decided to go into technorati and claim my new blog (this one). Imagine my delight when I discovered that Grandma is a Writer already had a page rank of 4 in just a little over a week. That shows the power of commenting, following, visiting, etc. All my other blogs only have page ranks of 0,1 or 2 after months and even a couple of years of existence. Most of them get very little traffic, if any.

Amazing! I hope this encourages you to rush over to technorati, claim your blog and find out your page rank.