If you haven't had a chance to read Jason's AR blog (and other content), do so - lots of great tips - the guy is sharp.
In a recent post, Jason explores the use of Technorati and how to integrate it with your ActiveRain blog through a "claiming" process. I'm indifferent about Technorati because I've seen some of my clients knocked off the top search page of Google many times because they (a) added Technorati tags to their weblog posts, and (b) "claimed" their blogs with Technorati. This post is not intended to convince you to avoid Technorati or in any way to diminish the content provided by Jason -- rather, it's provided to stimulate your thinking about the unintended consequences of giving up lots of links about a specific topic -- all pointing to one domain.
Why (and how) did our customers get knocked off the top pages in Google?
The answer to why is complex, but how it happened is simple - if you continually reward a specific domain with inbound links about a very focused subject such as "Tampa real restate", eventually that domain will trump all other domains as being more recommendable by search engines. And in fact, it will be true - Technorati will become the most relevant source of real estate information about Tampa if everyone buys into their story, their claming process, and their tagging model.
Ponder for just a moment - what happens when all real estate blogs in ActiveRain are integrated into Technorati and all real estate related tag URL's resolve to that domain?
The net result will create these additional unanticipated results:
- In Google (and many search engines), Technorati will appear in the top results for real estate related searches; these results will affect local, regional, and national key terms for your industry;
- Highly ranked result items for Technorati may point to your blog content in Technorati, not your own domain. But more than likely this will not be the case -- the links will point to a tag search URL on Technorati's domain and that will bring up [maybe] your blog, but more likely your competitors blog. This means that visitors to your content will have to first click the link in Google's result page and then scroll down to find content they are really interested in - and by chance, that might be your post;
- For every post you make that ranks slightly lower because Technorati ranks slightly higher, your prospects and customers will be one additional level of indirection away from your message and your brand;
- Technorati will (over time) become the largest hub of links to real estate content -- hubs are more valuable than spokes -- continual reinforcement of Technorati through tags or blog claims will only draw emphasis away from ActiveRain and reward Technorati's domain;
I saw this happen repeatedly in 2004 and 2005 with our non-real estate customers and I decided to do something about it. Understanding this dynamic resulted in the development of Topic Cloud, a technology that makes it possible to participate in Technorati without linking to it.
I hate to bitch about something without providing some guideposts as possible solutions to this issue, so here are some tips.
- Encourage ActiveRain to provide a tagging server that is Technorati compliant (perhaps they already do, but I'm not aware of it). For example, this tag (ActiveRain) doesn't seem to mimick the required URL's for tagging information that Technorati (and other tag services) require.
- If you use Technorati Tags in your blogs (ActiveRain or otherwise) consider creating tag URL's that point to your own domain. Technorati even tells you what that format should look like. For example, because I have Topic Cloud at my disposal, you'll find my personal (R&D) blog will support this URL -
http://bfrench.info/topics/ActiveRain
You can also achieve this on your own blog as well - just come up with a URL redirection that handles all such tag links. Call your IT guru to get advice about this. ;-)
To be clear - I'm indifferent about Technorati so please don't misinterpret what I'm saying here. I like Technorati - I think it provides a useful resource for finding information in the blogosphere. But so does Google's BlogSearch and Yahoo's MyWeb 2.0. I'm simply pointing out that giving up millions of inbound links to one blogosphere search engine has unintended consequences.
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