You Have a Voice – Don’t Let Blog Badges Steal it
If you’re like most bloggers, you blog because you want your voice to be heard. You enjoy having readers. You’d love to get noticed by Google.
But guess what? – Those shiny cool badges that look great on your blog might just be stealing your voice.
Now you’re wondering, what the heck does David know about this?
A lot.
Today, I’m taking a break from dating, parenting, and booty calls to share some fatherly blogging knowledge with you…
First off, know that I have two degrees in computer science, and six software patents – three of them internet related. I’ve lived and worked in Silicon Valley for more than twenty years. I’ve written an HTML browser for TV set-top boxes. I knew the founders of eBay, Netscape, and other startups, and have friends in practically any major tech company you can name. I’ve lunched at the Googleplex. I’m plugged in.
When readers visit your blog, they love seeing the bling. Badges, images, links to other places. It looks like the world approves of all you do. And I’m sure the world does! Because you rock as a blogger. You have a unique voice that deserves to be heard. Everything you write should end up on page one of Google search results.
But under the covers, and probably unbeknownst to you, those blog badges are sucking the life right out of your blog.
When Google visits your page, it’s a computer, not a person, taking a peek. From the computer’s point of view, all those badge links mean that you think OTHER pages are more important than yours. Here’s how it works.
Google sees every link on your page as pointing to something more important than you. If a blog badge points to someone else’s site, Google takes note – it says, great, thanks for letting me know that the other site is more important. I’ll put THEM up on page one of search results, and relegate you to the bottom of the heap.
Worse than that – Google sees that blog badge link on every single post you write! If you write five posts a week, then that’s five votes for the other site being more important than yours. Talk about killing off the energy of your own blog!
What can you do about this? If you never link anywhere, your blog becomes stagnant. Without sharing link love, no one will visit you anymore. You have to link out and trust that others link back. And they will, if you write compelling content. But beware – some of the links you see pointing to you are not seen by Google! It can be tricky. If you have specific questions, ask me.
Quick fix #1: remove the badge. Save the free advertising for friends and groups you care about.
Quick fix #2: leave the blog badge images in place, since they look so pretty, but take away the link. There are two ways to do this. One is take away the anchor <a> tag. Unfortunately, that means your readers can’t follow the link. The other is to add rel=”nofollow” to the anchor tag. That way readers can follow the link, but search engines ignore it. Feel free to ask me for help if you need it.
Bottom line: Only give out links in your actual blog posts. That way, if you write five posts in a week, and link to a site in one of those posts, you only give away that link love once. Your other four posts stay strong. Your voice is heard!
If you link to a blog, and that blog links back to you, that’s a good thing. You are sharing link love, and they are sharing it right back. Doing this in a blog badge isn’t terrible, but doing it in a blog post will keep the most link energy on your own blog. [Ed. Note: the Single Parents Connection badges available for download use nofollow and do not leak energy.]
Here are the nitty gritty details for Quick Fix #1:
If you have a blog badge like this:
<a href=”xxx”> <img src=”yyy” /> </a>
Change it to this:
<img src=”yyy” />
That’s it!
(For the more HTML savvy, use the ‘no follow’ techniques.)
Maybe you’re fine with giving away your Google energy. Some people blog for a social outlet and communal connection, and don’t care to rank high in search results. Nothing wrong with that. But at least now you are aware and can make your own choice about where your blog’s page rank energy goes.
Whether with family and friends or with a wider audience, your voice deserves to be heard.
If you have questions about this and want specific advice about your blog, shoot me off an email. I’ll do my best to answer or refer you to a consultant.
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Comment by Cathouse Teri
| September 17th, 2008
Good advice, I’m sure. Although for me, I don’t give a shit whether Google sees me or not. I just do what I do because I like it.
Cathouse Teri’s last blog post..This…
Comment by Kitkat4real (SOLO dot MOM)
| September 17th, 2008
Thanks for this techy stuff! I love blogging, but I also want my voice heard for my own voice.
I have already adjusted several badges linked on my page…
Great info…
Thanks again, from a simple techy guru.
Kitkat4real (SOLO dot MOM)’s last blog post..Single Parents, We Will Survive
Comment by T
| September 17th, 2008
Thanks Dad!!
I love that you’re always looking out for us!!
T’s last blog post..Your love got me lookin’ so crazy right now
Comment by The Exception
| September 17th, 2008
It’s always nice to have a little insight into how things work. (And now I have a feeling that you know people where I work. )
The Exception’s last blog post..How I Love a Nice Voice – Any Voice Actually
Comment by Lance
| September 17th, 2008
Very cool, thanks for the tech info and change-of-pace.
Lance’s last blog post..Working out a Sex Schedule?
Comment by dadshouse
| September 17th, 2008
Teri – no worries, I know some people simply blog for fun. But hopefully folks now know they can choose to give away their link energy wisely. It’s like donating money – rather than toss it out the window, or worse, have it stolen without you knowing it, you can choose to give it to a worthy cause.
Kitkat and others – know that there are methods you can employ to keep the link with the badge, without giving away the link love. I didn’t want to get into too many HTML details here, so I gave the simple method of removing the link. I’m happy to refer you to the consultant who helped me move my blog to the new host. He’s great, and up on this stuff.
Comment by Lance
| September 17th, 2008
BTW, what is that a patent of in the pic?
Lance’s last blog post..Working out a Sex Schedule?
Comment by dadshouse
| September 17th, 2008
It’s my “TV Centric Layout” patent – a method for displaying HTML elements on a TV without horizontal scrolling. http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6326970.html
I’m proud to have invented some kick ass technology back in the day, and was co-inventor on a mix of internet, 3D graphics, and TV patents. I have friends who won Emmy’s and Oscars, and all I got were these shiny patent plaques! Haha!
(Well, I got that, and a deep understanding of how all this blog and internet technology works…)
Comment by Laura
| September 17th, 2008
Thanks for this! I am totally clueless when it comes to this stuff and while you lost me at the nitty gritty – I do get the point ;o)
Laura’s last blog post..Tough Love
Comment by Jimmy
| September 17th, 2008
Why is there a tony smile above & to the left of the A in About Dad’s House?
Comment by NewWrldYankee
| September 17th, 2008
I never even considered this – Thanks for the tip, DH…Hmmm, need to peruse the code. Gotta go!
Comment by dadshouse
| September 17th, 2008
Jimmy – I’m not seeing the tiny smile, but if it’s there, it’s a wordpress signature thing.
NewWrldYankee – tell me about it! I bet most bloggers are unaware. Those badges are cool, but you sure do give away the power of your own voice when you mindlessly link to other sites.
Comment by deek
| September 17th, 2008
One more note: If a link is inside Javascript, then Google does not see it :)
Comment by Single Mom in New England
| September 17th, 2008
Now we can see the tangible proof of where your daughter gets her smarts from! ;)
Comment by always home and uncool
| September 18th, 2008
Good stuff. I feel the need to funkifize and delinkifize myself all at once.
always home and uncool’s last blog post..Pity the Poor Flaccid Mice
Comment by Wait a sec?
| September 18th, 2008
Didn’t you just release a badge for that facebook group? Should I remove that too?
Comment by dadshouse
| September 18th, 2008
Pointing to a community that points back to you isn’t terrible, like I said in my post. There are more advanced ways to keep the badge and link, without giving away any link love. Happy to elaborate in email or refer you to a consultant. I don’t want to bog down this blog with HTML. [Ed. Note: the badges available for download at SingleParentsConnection.wordpress.com are now coded to not leak away energy. If you're concerned about other blog bages you've been offered, send me an email and I can take a look.]
Comment by Hip_M0M
| September 18th, 2008
Thanks for the advice. I know HTML (sort of) so I’m kind of dumbfounded as to why I haven’t thought of this myself.
And yeah, had to scroll back to the top to see the tiny smiley face which is so strange and would’ve never noticed hadn’t someone pointed it out. I use Firefox so I wonder if it ’s something only “we” can see. I assume you have a mac…
Hip_M0M’s last blog post..Invest in Your Community!
Comment by dadshouse
| September 18th, 2008
If anyone wants an explanation of how Google ranks 25 billion pages on the web, here’s an article from a high ranking site that explains the Google pagerank dance using high level math concepts like eigenvectors and sparse matrices: Google Page Rank explained. Not for the faint of heart. (Go on, have a look. You know you want to…)
A nice quote from the article: “The fundamental idea put forth by PageRank’s creators, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page [Google's founders], is this: the importance of a page is judged by the number of pages linking to it as well as their importance.”
In other words: “All roads lead to Rome.”
On another site, some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experts suggest they’ve successfully helped a page’s rank by linking out to a small number of high-ranking sites using relevant keywords. If the keyword or phrase is an important part of your page’s content, then it’s relevant. So you shouldn’t be afraid to link out when relevant.
Linking out to the same site on every single one of your pages is a bad idea.
You might wonder about my blogroll and blog badges. Yes, those links work. No, they don’t hurt me. I use HTML techniques to tell google not to leak away the energy of my blog. Typically, I share link love with other sites in individual posts. So the love gets shared in a relevant way.
Comment by dadshouse
| September 19th, 2008
as mentioned in one of my comments above, using the HTML snippet here for your Single Parents Connection blog badge won’t leak any energy off your site. (If you grabbed a badge before Sept. 19, try grabbing it again.) If you’re comfortable reading HTML, you’ll see it uses a nofollow technique.
Comment by Tyler @ Building Camelot
| September 29th, 2008
Nice write up – thanks for putting this together. I try to watch who and what I link to and we all want to get the most Google love we can.
Tyler @ Building Camelot’s last blog post..10 More Things I Love About My Wife (Part 3)