Building Technorati Authority and Rank

In my previous post, Blogging The First 54 Days, I mentioned that I was able to achieve a Technorati Authority of 64 in a little over 50 days. I have received some emails asking how I did this, and how does Technorati work. Technorati works using two ranking systems

• Authority – Number of unique incoming links to your blog.
• Rank – How far your authority is from the number 1 position on Technorati. The higher authority you have, the closer to number 1 you will be.

The FAQ for Technorati explaining authority and rank.

Currently the number 1 blog is Engadget, with an Authority of 30,326, my current rank of 64 has me a ways out from 1st position.

Initially you start with no links to your blog so you have a Rank of something like 3,570,000. For each unique link your blog receives, your Authority increases by one, and that Authority will be compared to all the others on Technorati to give you a Rank. Each unique link adds one to your Authority for 180 days.

Example – A blog links to you for the first time. This increases your Authority by 1, for 180 days. If the same blog links to you again, the 180 days will be extended another 180 days, you will not receive an increase in authority. One blog can link to you in every post, but will only increase your authority by 1, but will extend the length of time with that +1 Authority.

Here is my Technorati page:

• Information Area – Gives you Authority, Rank and Fans
• Authors – The authors that post on this blog
• Latest Posts – List of the last few posts
• Blog Reactions – Blogs that have linked to you 

Technorati Tags

As you create posts, associate Technorati tags with the post to make them searchable on those topics on Technorati.com. Add code similar to the following to create tags associated with Technorati, Blogging, Authority and Rank

[Technorati Tags:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Technorati" rel="tag">Technorati</a>,

<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Blogging" rel="tag">Blogging</a>,

<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Authority" rel="tag">Authority</a>,

<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Rank" rel="tag">Rank</a>]

The lines breaks are for readability only. If you have a program such as Windows Live Writer, you can use Insert Tags, type the words you want to tag, and Windows Live Writer will add the tags for you, yes score another one for Windows Live Writer.

Achieving Authority

I achieved my current Authority using the following methods.

• I started writing a lot of content. I tried to ensure a couple high quality posts a day to build a good solid batch of content. After 54 days I have over 125 posts.
• I use Technorati to search for blogs writing about the same content I am, then I comment on those blogs. If I had a post that was pertinent I would add a link in my comment to the post. If I created a future post I would link back to this original article, giving them credit for the idea of my post.
• I did not worry about Technorati Authority as a gauge for who to comment on. A blog you may be commenting on, or linking to now may only have an authority of 1, but who knows where that blog will be a month or six months from now. If you have built a relationship with that person before, they will be willing to link to you.
• If an article gave me an idea for a post, I would link back to the original article. If an article links to another article and that gives you an idea, mention both. As I said in my earlier post I am not big on vias, but they work for some people.
  Example – I saw <blog title> on <blog owner> [via]. The via includes a link to the blog that you found the first article.
  I like to give as much credit as possible. The more good links you give, giving credit to others, the more willing they are to link to you.
• Don’t expect A List bloggers to immediately drop everything and start linking to you. Build a relationship with them by commenting on their blogs. Remember there is a fine line between being persistent and being a stalker.
• I am generous with my links, on pertinent topics, initially don’t expect any links in return. Try to write quality content and add links that add value to your topic. If you create posts and add links randomly, others will not accept these links and they will not show up on others blogs.
• I joined one good meme, The Face Behind the Blog, that I thought was interesting. You could go crazy and join a bunch of link exchanges, but people can see where you are getting your Authority from, if it is random and without order, people will discount your Authority. The incoming links you have, need to be appropriate to have value.
• I add Technorati tags to my posts to ensure they are searchable. Ensure your tags are pertinent. One of the most overused tags I have run into is Google. Mentioning Google in a sentence does not make that a topic in your posts – that is not a valid tag, knock it off. If I see that you are adding inappropriate tags to your blog post, I will most likely not visit your blog again.

Summary

I find Technorati Authority and Rank makes sense to me. One frustrating issue, is if your Authority stays static, your Rank will actually decrease as other blogs are gaining in their Authority and Rank. So if you are standing still, you are actually falling behind. Periodically you get surprised and will come back to notice your Authority has increased by 2 or 3.

Adding tags allows others to search for your content as they are looking for information. If someone finds your content useful, they could comment on your blog adding to the conversation, or link to you in their blog post increasing your Authority. Another issue to keep in mind, is that Google rates pages based on quality of incoming links. The better quality and the more incoming links you have, the higher the page ranking will be. Performing well on Technorati can help your Google page ranks also.

So that in a nutshell is how Authority and Rank works, and how you use Technorati Tags to allow your content to be searchable. Go forth and start increasing your Authori-tay!

Technorati Tags: Technorati, Increasing, Authority, Rank, Blogging