Technorati for bloggers

Technorati is one of the better known blog directories and it's worth knowing about if you're a blogger because it specializes in blogs rather than anything else.

Other directories such as The Open Source Directory, Yahoo! Directory and so on, focus on mixed websites and therefore your blog will be a little like the proverbial 'needle in a haystack'.

However, things don't get much better in an aggregator which focuses only on blogging as there are millions of blogs out in cyberspace and you just become a needle in a slightly smaller haystack by getting listed.

I'll declare my hand from the outset, I'm not a fan of Technorati.

I think its 'Authority' system is over-complicated and not entirely transparent, but it's like many things in the world of the web, you might not like it but it's free and it's something that you ought to do to give your blog a good quality back link from an established and respected site.

You have to start by 'claiming' your blog.

This is normally entirely straightforward, if you have direct access to templates or feeds, but be warned, I have at times found the blog claiming process frustrating and difficult.

This might also be a good time to mention that the support staff don't seem in a rush to get back to you with help either - I don't think I've ever had a query answered by their helpdesk, the emails just seem to go into the 'dead zone'.

However, once your blog is successfully 'claimed', you get to enjoy the experience that is 'Authority'.

This is what the website says:

Technorati defines Blog Reactions as the number of links to the blog's home page or its posts from other blogs in the Technorati index. A subset of blog reactions, Technorati Authority is the number of unique blogs linking to this blog over the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has.

It's interesting that I have a friend who runs multiple blogs, and he was able to accelerate his 'Authority' simply by inter-linking all of his blogs together.

His ranking went up at the same time, so like Alexa, this ranking system is flawed and should be taken with a relative pinch of salt ... use it as an indicator, don't get hung up on how you're doing.

Once you've successfully managed to get listed, you get the usual array of buttons and badges to add to your website, but not a not more to be honest with you.

The key reasons for getting listed are:

1) Getting a good quality link back to your website .. more 'link juice' which is always good.

2) It's free

3) It's another way of people discovering your website ... an ongoing and essential part of your web strategy.

4) It helps to build the credibility of your website.

I would personally recommend Feedburner as my preferred tool of choice, but like everybody offering an RSS feed with my website, I understand the importance of getting as many good quality listings as possible.

You might also like to try Best of the Web - or BOTW - which is another long-established directory which offers a specialized blogging directory, though you should note that it's a paid directory.

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