Blog indexes are a great way to raise your profile. But if you are the newbie on the block, how do you raise your score on their popular Parent Blog Index? Paul Coggins, MD of Wikio, give us some suggestions.
What is Wikio?
Wikio is a news portal that lists recent, up-to-the-minute articles from media news sites and blogs. But why do certain sources appear above others, even though their time of posting might be earlier? It's no ordinary timeline; it's because of Wikio's ranking algorithm.
Wikio, being more than a collection of news stories, is a blog ranking system. With 28 categories ranging from Politics and Parenting to Cycling and Music, the network is growing, catering for the hundreds of blogs that sign up each day. Once a blog is submitted into the Wikio index it is given a rank for the category in which it is placed, and a 'general ranking', which determines its overall position in terms of influence.
How does a Wikio ranking work?
A Wikio ranking is a measure of influence - starting with 1 as most influential. The more influential a blog, the higher on the Wikio rankings it will appear
Links:- Updated every month, top blogs are firstly ranked based on incoming links from other blogs. If someone likes an article you've written, they might want to either replicate the article in full (providing a link at the bottom - hopefully!) or they might want to include a link within their own post mentioning your original article. These are known as dynamic links. Why? Because they aren't sitting doing nothing; for example, the algorithm doesn't count links found on a person's blogroll. Only links found in RSS feeds are counted.
Weight:- The weight of a link depends on a few things: a link increases in weight according to how recently it was published - immediacy is the key here; weight is also judged according to the linking blog's rank on Wikio (if they have submitted their site).
Tweets:- In November 2010, Twitter was added to the algorithm. This means that retweets of an article now count towards a blog's ranking on Wikio. Again, it all depends on weight - so the value of the retweet is ranked by the relevance they hold to the category of a particular post that has been retweeted. It's a "weight smart" system that adds calculations based on average number of tweets in that category. General links to a blog article on Twitter are also included.
All of these aspects and others besides are calculated by Wikio's algorithm to not only aggregate news, but also rank blogs
Raise your ranking
There are a few ways that you can improve your ranking on Wikio:
- Get involved with like-minded bloggers. Connecting with other bloggers in your category is a great way to raise your Wikio profile. Comment on others' blogs, arrange blog-swaps.
- Post regularly. Posting regularly will not only increase your chances of being seen, but Wikio only takes into account your most recent posts, so it's key to keep things fresh.
- Optimise your blog. SEO can work wonders for the status of your blog when indexed by Wikio.
- Network. Networking is key to growing your community, and therefore increasing influence. With no community around your blog, there can be no real influence to exert in the first place. Increasing your followers on Twitter is a great way to do this.
Wikio and ebuzzing
In 2009, Wikio merged with ebuzzing, a platform for bringing advertisers and bloggers together in an ethical and transparent way. A large number of mummy bloggers have recently been paid for taking part in campaigns for advertisers such as Pizza Hut, Dell, Coop, Sony and Paypal amongst others.
If you would like to learn more about Wikio and our blog ranking please go to www.wikio.co.uk, and for further information on how to meet with relevant advertisers at ebuzzing please go to www.ebuzzing.co.uk.
How does a Wikio ranking work?
A Wikio ranking is a measure of influence - starting with 1 as most influential. The more influential a blog, the higher on the Wikio rankings it will appear
Links:- Updated every month, top blogs are firstly ranked based on incoming links from other blogs. If someone likes an article you've written, they might want to either replicate the article in full (providing a link at the bottom - hopefully!) or they might want to include a link within their own post mentioning your original article. These are known as dynamic links. Why? Because they aren't sitting doing nothing; for example, the algorithm doesn't count links found on a person's blogroll. Only links found in RSS feeds are counted.
Weight:- The weight of a link depends on a few things: a link increases in weight according to how recently it was published - immediacy is the key here; weight is also judged according to the linking blog's rank on Wikio (if they have submitted their site).
Tweets:- In November 2010, Twitter was added to the algorithm. This means that retweets of an article now count towards a blog's ranking on Wikio. Again, it all depends on weight - so the value of the retweet is ranked by the relevance they hold to the category of a particular post that has been retweeted. It's a "weight smart" system that adds calculations based on average number of tweets in that category. General links to a blog article on Twitter are also included.
All of these aspects and others besides are calculated by Wikio's algorithm to not only aggregate news, but also rank blogs
Raise your ranking
There are a few ways that you can improve your ranking on Wikio:
- Get involved with like-minded bloggers. Connecting with other bloggers in your category is a great way to raise your Wikio profile. Comment on others' blogs, arrange blog-swaps.
- Post regularly. Posting regularly will not only increase your chances of being seen, but Wikio only takes into account your most recent posts, so it's key to keep things fresh.
- Optimise your blog. SEO can work wonders for the status of your blog when indexed by Wikio.
- Network. Networking is key to growing your community, and therefore increasing influence. With no community around your blog, there can be no real influence to exert in the first place. Increasing your followers on Twitter is a great way to do this.
Wikio and ebuzzing
In 2009, Wikio merged with ebuzzing, a platform for bringing advertisers and bloggers together in an ethical and transparent way. A large number of mummy bloggers have recently been paid for taking part in campaigns for advertisers such as Pizza Hut, Dell, Coop, Sony and Paypal amongst others.
If you would like to learn more about Wikio and our blog ranking please go to www.wikio.co.uk, and for further information on how to meet with relevant advertisers at ebuzzing please go to www.ebuzzing.co.uk.
