I surprised myself the other day writing a post about another blog. Somehow I felt vaguely embarassed about it. I did it because I genuinely thought they had great content that I just had to share, but it wasn’t honest work.
It was too easy. Easy to write the post - I didn’t have to do much thinking, quite honestly, just let my enthusiasm run with me; easy because I didn’t have to do any research. And very useful, since I didn’t have the time for a lengthy and well researched post but I did want to make an update and keep those bots coming back.
And this got me thinking whether blogging about other blogs can really help with the search engine optimisation, not only from a freshness of content point of view but also with link building (assuming the respective blog uses DoFollow). Every time one blogs about another blog and in so doing links out to the respective blog, one creates a trackback, which in turn is a link to the referring website.
Sure, it’s a reciprocal link. Sure, it won’t count as much as a uni-directional one. But still, a link is a link and if it anchors a website in a cluster of same industry/topic blogs can only help with the search rankings.
Not to mention it also creates a certain amount of good will and a feeling of kinship among fellow bloggers. And we can all do with a bit more of that. Mind you, if the reference is negative and controversial scrap all I’ve said about good will and be content with the link. Assuming your trackback doesn’t get dissaproved.
So this is my thought of the day: go on and talk about other blogs, folks: you only have to gain. Just make sure they use DoFollow, unless you absolutely love their content in which case just go for it, eh?
And in case you’re wondering how to find the said DoFollow blogs, I include a few resources (note how I’m following my own advice :))
- dofollowblogs.com
- Nicusor’s DoFollow List
- SlightShadySeo’s tip about finding DoFollow blogs with Google image search
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August 25th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Blogging about other blog also a part of link building. Do follow blogs can also be found at http://courtneytuttle.com/blogs-that-follow/
August 26th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Writing about other blogs is a great strategy for building loyal readership. This is something I do on some of my blogs but I should be doing on all of them.
August 26th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Hi Peter - it really is a great strategy; but it’s funny how I never came across it while doing SEO work on corporate websites. Somehow one doesn’t think “community” in the corporate SEO world.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
In this case i think relationship building is more important. Apart from back-link, if your site is well ranked and got good reputation, the bloggers may write a post themselves “Look what other(your name) say about me” and linking to you. Long term but interesting.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Hi Iva - thanks for stopping by!
I agree - more often than not it’s not so much the intended ‘audience’ but other bloggers who can make or break a blog. The conundrum here is that one can end up writing for other bloggers, rather than for the main audience.
It does require a long term involvement in managing the balance, but then reputation building takes a long time in any industry.
August 28th, 2008 at 2:01 am
I think it is definitely a great strategy to write about other blogs. People have been doing it for quite some time now with great success. No need to feel embarrassed.
August 28th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Also remember that any publicity is good publicity, even if you have to talk bad about another blog. Be critical and honest. Don’t write good things about another blog just because you want a good relationship with them.
August 30th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Thanks it s very easy
UZAKTAN EGITIM’s last blog post: Yurtkur Sonuçları site: http://www.perims.net
September 30th, 2008 at 8:43 am
But its confused to find out the do follow blogs ..Even they say it is do follow they are adding no follow tag to Anchor text …
Mean while its a nice article ..Thanks
October 17th, 2008 at 11:11 am
The idea of blogging about other blogs is a great idea. There’s a bunch of blogs I’m interested in but don’t have enough time to. If there was a good critic out there who was blogging about all those blogs I’d read his/hers instead
November 4th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Thank you for sharing your the info about the backlinks that we can use to increase the traffic in my site. Creating comments help me a lot because i can insert the backlink of my site.Additional info it is important to remember to always use the keywords you want to categorize in your anchor text of the relationship. Some bloggers do not allow keyword in the anchor, but only a first name. Something that I will never understand because if you are offering to follow-why put restrictions on the anchor? For the love of God that wants to qualify for his first name? However, I digressed. Links with nofollow do not count as backlinks to Google and other search engines, so you dont get the search engine ranking benefit for a link with nofollow.At this moment a whole movement has evolved, who are removing the NoFollow settings. These bloggers are able to reward commenter’s with so called love links. Love links are an excellent way to reward visitors that are contributing to a useful discussion.
November 5th, 2008 at 3:30 am
HDTV “Links with nofollow do not count as backlinks to Google and other search engines, so you dont get the search engine ranking benefit for a link with nofollow.”
Really? I didn’t know that. So what’s the point of them then? Link love seems to embody the whole point of linking, right? I have to say don’t think I’ve ever used the “no-follow” setting even on my first blog.
Blogging about other blogs… I will blog about a post on another blog if it really grabs me and it’s related to my theme.
What I do though is really talk about the post and give my own unique view view.So it takes me as long as when writing an “original” post. I haven’t done it as much on my newest blog, but I do so from time to time on my personal blog. I also ask people to comment either on my blog or the one with the post I’m blogging and often my readers do both. I find it’s a good way to highlight other blogs - blogs that might not be getting a lot of attention and could do with a mention.
My personal blog gets around 11K hits a month, but I never forget how long it took to get there or how I loved checking out when people had linked to me.
Nicky´s last blog post: Expressing the ROI of Social Media. Uphill Battle or No-Brainer? site: [site]
November 5th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Yeah, the nofollow tells the search engines to discount that link as a “vote” but they can still follow it and index the linked page. For some reason Wordpress has all the links nofollowed by default. Beats me why.
It is nice when I discover someone mentioned my site somewhere, I know what you’re saying. And it does take a lot of time to build a site up. But the thing is it can’t be done without the help of the other people in the blogosphere and I really think people should care about this aspect a bit more than they do.
And removing the no-follow tag and giving the commenters some link love is just plain courtesy for the traffic and awareness the build for my site.
Sure, I do get the occasional spammer, but since I’m moderating every comment that’s not an issue.
November 9th, 2008 at 5:07 am
Search engines interpret a link to another site as an endorsement or recommendation on many levels. While I believe that writing about, and linking to, other sites is a component of ‘web relationship management’ and SEO, it carries with it benefits and risks. Much like associations or partnerships offline, if you lie down with online dogs you may get up with virtual fleas. Essentially, quality links bring quality results while anything else may carry a cost that is not worth the short-term benefit.