Blogrolling
By AndrewBoyd • Dec 27th, 2007 • Category: Blogging tipsYesterday afternoon I posted the first linkbait piece over at Intrapreneur Blog and was updating the blogrolls in some of my other blogs - and this got me to thinking about how I applied my personal rules of blogroll maintenance:
- Don’t just link for linkings sake.
- Only add one of my blogs to the blogroll of another where there is a stated advantage to the reader - that is, the linked blog will contain something that the reader will want to read - and it needs to be in context, such that there is a neat segue from the link text to the linked posting or site. The link is only useful where it adds value to the reader.
And then I thought about how these rules are exactly the same for any other link in any other part of the blog - they are only added where they add value to the reader.
While inbound links are a great way of boosting index service (Google, Technorati and so on) rankings - I believe that artificially boosting the index while alienating readers is not a sustainable strategy.
What are your blogroll rules? If you have three blogs would you add each of them to the blogrolls of the others?
AndrewBoyd is a consultant by day and blogger by night. He loves good food, good wine, and discussing faceted classification schemes with friends.
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I use my blogroll to show the blogs I am keeping tabs on regularly. Thus it gets added to when I see one I like, and cleaned up occasionally when a blog goes stale from my perspective.
As for self-listing in the blogroll, I don’t. I think that linking to my own blogs sort of comes across as a bit wanker-ish.
Hi Ian,
thank you for your comment.
I think that is as good a way as any - to add those blogs that you read yourself (as inclusion in the blogroll is like a recommendation to your readers).
Best regards, Andrew
[…] left the following comment on my Blogrolling post […]
My blogroll has blogs I like to read. I have a few hidden that I like to read, that I don’t feel I want to promote. I have no niche on my blog, I do it for my own personal satisfaction and whilst I don’t have a huge readership, I have to keep in mind the variety of people who do read it, including students and parents at the school where I teach!
Hi Joh,
thank you for your comment.
The wearing different personas thing is interesting - I wear a different hat here for example than I do at humaneia.com (which is about more work-y stuff I guess) and fauxcuisine.com (which is purely recipes and cooking as slackly as possible).
Best regards, Andrew
[…] for the sake of the link but actually adds value to the reading experience. This applies equally to blogrolls, links within posts, and links within social linksharing […]
[…] for the sake of the link but actually adds value to the reading experience. This applies equally to blogrolls, links within posts, and links within social linksharing […]