The Biggest Technorati Tip in the World

A couple months ago I listed Ten Technorati Tips as an introduction to how the service can help increase your blog's exposure. However, since I posted I discovered the most important thing there is to know about Technorati. Pardon me if this is something you already know, but it's buried in Technorati's pages for all but the most dedicated of bloggers to find, I wish I had found it earlier:

Technorati only keeps your links for six months.

There it is, simple and plain. Any link your blog gets will only be kept by Technorati for six months exactly. This is because Technorati wants to make sure they're only ranking the most current and popular blogs, not blogs that were popular two years ago. Now, here is where this gets important: what does this mean for your blog?

It means the first six months are critical for developing links. From the day you first register with Technorati the clock starts ticking and for six months you can collect links right and left free of charge but one hundred eighty days after that things change. From that time on your links begin to expire, day by day, and begin to drop off your list.

For example, I signed up for Technorati on September 13, 2006. From that day until March 13, 2007 I collected links one after the next until I accumulated around 1200 but on March 14th all links I acquired on September 13th expired and dropped off my list. On March 15th any link acquired on September 14th dropped off, on March 16th all links for September 15th dropped off and so on.

Luckily for me I discovered this principle around the middle of February and knew it was coming and realized I had another month to gain links because on March 14th any links I gained would be offset by the links that expired. Does this make sense? The first six months are a time of growth, once you're past it and begin losing links you will pass into more of a maintenance mode where it is harder to rise in the rankings.

This doesn't mean you can't still grow after six months it just means it's harder to do. To give you an idea, I wanted to see if I could break into the top 1000 before my six months were up. I hit 989 a week before my March 13th deadline and since then I've continued to increase, but at a much slower rate. Of course people are more prone to link to me now that I've been around awhile, I didn't get many links six months ago, and I collect links much faster now than I used to so the farther I go, so the more time that passes, the more links are going to be expiring. If you've been confused as to why your Technorati ranking may have dropped suddenly on a particular day, it could be because of expiring links.

So if your blog is new, do your best to encourage links and if you've been around a while, do your best to encourage links. No blog can afford to sit back and relax with their collection of links and feel confident in their Technorati ranking because the days for each link are numbered.

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To see Technorati rankings in action, pay a visit to Jordan McCollum at MamaBlogga who has put together a list of most popular parenting blogs based on several factors including page rank, number of comments and Technorati ranking. She's a talented blogger on the rise who not only writes well but knows a thing or two about blogging.

Technorati tags: Alaska, tips, blogging, Technorati