Tuesday, 8 January 2013

Qualities Needed to be a Successful Blogger in 2013

Qualities Needed to be a Successful Blogger in 2013

Blogging is one of the ever green areas in internet. The advent of social networks and improved Google algorithm brings in more and more bloggers into blogging and abundant ad networks available to monetize their content make them think to take up blogging as their career. I have seen few bloggers last year, who just started their blog and within one year, they were able to reach great Alexa rankings with good PR. So there are few qualities to become a successful bloggers.
Read more �

Monday, 7 January 2013

Template Customization - Salahuddin Ayubi

Salahuddin Ayubi Blogger Template







Template:

Salahuddin Ayubi

Layout:

Two Columns

Size: 32.0 KB
Compatibility: IE9+, All
License:  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial


Demo      Download

Template Description:

I have already discussed in detail the important features for SEO, Social Media and Plugins. To read about why this template is so different please read the following article:

Easy Customization

Lets begin with important things that you would need to change the look of your template and edit important sections.

Note: You may not share or red-distribute the codes shared below without consulting us. All resources below are protected by DMCA and are sole property of STC Network.

1. Subscription box

subscription box

Copy and Paste The following code inside HTML/JavaScript widget for the subscribe box:

<style>

    #salahuddin-ayubi {

        border: 0;

        margin-bottom: 10px;

        margin: 0 auto;

            width:300px;

    }

 

    #email-news-subscribe .email-box{

        padding: 5px 5px;

        font-family: "Arial","Helvetica",sans-serif;

       height:38px;}

    #email-news-subscribe .email-box input.email{

        background:#FFFFFF;

        border: 1px solid #dedede;

        color: #999;

        padding: 7px 10px 8px 10px;

        -moz-border-radius: 3px;

        -webkit-border-radius: 3px;

        -o-border-radius: 3px;

        -ms-border-radius: 3px;

        -khtml-border-radius: 3px;

        border-radius: 3px;

        border-image: initial;

        font-family: "Arial","Helvetica",sans-serif;} 

    #email-news-subscribe .email-box input.email:focus{color:#333} 

 

#email-news-subscribe .email-box input.subscribe{

        background: -moz-linear-gradient(center top,#666 0,#333 100%);

        background: -webkit-gradient(linear,left top,left bottom,color-stop(0,#666),color-stop(1,#333));

     

        font-family: "Arial","Helvetica",sans-serif;

        border-radius:3px;

        -moz-border-radius:3px;

        -webkit-border-radius:3px;

        border:1px solid #333;

        color:white;

       

        padding:7px 14px;

        margin-left:3px;

        font-weight:bold;

        font-size:12px;

        cursor:pointer;

        border-image: initial;}



    #email-news-subscribe .email-box input.subscribe:hover{

     

        background-image:-moz-linear-gradient(top,#333,#666);

        background-image:-webkit-gradient(linear,left top,left bottom,from(#333),to(#666));

        filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Gradient(startColorStr=#ffffff,endColorStr=#ebebeb);

        outline:0;-moz-box-shadow:0 0 3px #999;

        -webkit-box-shadow:0 0 3px #999;

        box-shadow:0 0 3px #999

     

        -pie-background:linear-gradient(270deg,#ffda4d,#ff9b00);

        border-radius:3px;

        -moz-border-radius:3px;

        -webkit-border-radius:3px;

        border:1px solid #333;

        color:#FFFFFF;

     } 



    #other-social-bar {

        padding: 0px;

        overflow: hidden;

           height:37px;

         margin-top:-8px;

    }

    #other-social-bar ul {list-style: none outside none; padding-left: 4px;}



    #other-social-bar .other-follow {

        float: left;

        overflow: hidden;

        padding:5px;

        width: 270px;}

    #other-social-bar .other-follow ul {

        list-style: none outside none;

        padding-left: 4px;}

    #other-social-bar .other-follow li {

 

        display:inline;

        border:0;

      }



    #other-social-bar .other-follow li a {

        font-size: 12px;

        color:#666;

        font-weight: bold; font-family:arial;

        display:inline;

        }

    #other-social-bar .other-follow li.my-rss {

        background: url('https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwleEzr7nHFE7hoQvQ-xpgMSn8Gnpan6bOQSt1vKp9FpVmXWAo_k_V4KWmXCUPMycCpj545wk0yU3sPj5muPbNk68Ym6EHQjR8WcdNN9ogdNrIV0tppCWqPEWsBKNRG3nTO7jZZwtqzek/s400/rss-16x16.png') no-repeat transparent;

        line-height: 1;

        padding: 0px 3px 1px 20px;

        width: 60px;

        margin-bottom:0px;

            margin-left:5px;}



    #other-social-bar .other-follow li.my-rss a, #other-social-bar .other-follow li.my-twitter a, #other-social-bar .other-follow li.my-gplus a{

    text-decoration:none;

    }

    #other-social-bar .other-follow li.my-rss a:hover, #other-social-bar .other-follow li.my-twitter a:hover, #other-social-bar .other-follow li.my-gplus a:hover{

    text-decoration:underline;

    }

    #other-social-bar .other-follow li.my-twitter {

        background: url('https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY274Lg49DJw07_2PwSUl3wsnUbs598jk91K6yUFidcHQmb50HuyzxdGDy1guw9UYTcuwZVpbVTaAcJNnIphSXDIDxPvc6dGLabNnnwt0hEBqbBw5Wvt9xfq1Wpq4BP9r981lv3CGrty0/s400/twitter%2527.png') no-repeat transparent;

        line-height: 1;

        padding: 0px 3px 1px 20px;

        width: 60px;

        margin-bottom:0px;}

    #other-social-bar .other-follow li.my-gplus {

        background: url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVNaGm_E_A3RgQoz7KpiR3REEqUURJ0kL0Tu9tewgOE2OczsLTM9xBKspNl6Cp7p-qruaWVPKva-ayFSeFP-KjbWkuWXTI7-FsMHy2w4iZwyYCk_lLsYjqyVLQRdq989uzFdhFBonAUWY/s400/gplus-16x16.png) no-repeat transparent;

        line-height: 1;

        width: 60px;

        padding: 0px 3px 1px 20px;

        margin-bottom:0px;}



.emailicon {

    background: url("https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuLXDAVbzcNSElt4UUBpj1M_J72yokAN4Z8kZer7vDPrf54yGP-L0iLZBnBCpGUGz9YydDHJ6j1MINL3YT-WW_8QvpGltcMRwwwNMlLVpHrj2TAyJhcaUGzG0S0eHB9Xhp8t3qqPNxbPgA/s400/MBT-RSS-FEED.gif") no-repeat scroll 0px 2px transparent;

     padding: 0px 20px 0px 95px;

    min-height:100px;

    margin: 0px;

    width: 183px;

    line-height: 20px;

    vertical-align: middle;

    font-size: 14px;

    color: rgb(51, 51, 51);

}



.emailicon p {

color:#FF8604;

font-size: 20px;

font-weight: normal;

font-family:  impact; 

padding:40 0px 10px 0px;

margin:0;

padding-top: 20px;

line-height: 25px;

text-shadow: 0px 1px 0px #fff, 0px 2px 0px #C6C6C6;

}

    </style>

    <!--[if IE]>

    <style>

    #email-news-subscribe .email-box input.subscribe{

        background: #333;

        }

    </style>

    <![endif]-->

 

<div id="salahuddin-ayubi" >

 

<div class="emailicon"><p>Subscribe to our Free Email Updates! </p></div>

<div id="email-news-subscribe">

<div class="email-box"> <form action="http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify" method="post" target="popupwindow" onsubmit="window.openundefined'http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=tntbystc', 'popupwindow', 'scrollbars=yes,width=550,height=520');return true">

<input gtbfieldid="10" class="email" type="text" style="width: 160px; font-size: 12px;" id="email" name="email"value="Enter your email here..." onblur="if (this.value == &#39;&#39;) {this.value = &#39;Enter your email here...&#39;;}" onfocus="if (this.value == &#39;Enter your email here...&#39;) {this.value = &#39;&#39;;}" type="text" />

 

<input type="hidden" value="tntbystc" name="uri" /> <input type="hidden" name="loc" value="en_US" /> <input class="subscribe" name="commit" type="submit" value="Subscribe" /> </form> </div> </div>

<div id="other-social-bar">

<ul class="other-follow">

<li class="my-rss"> <a rel="nofollow" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/tntbystc" target="_blank">RSS Feed</a> </li>

<li class="my-twitter"> <a rel="nofollow" title="twitter" rel="author" href="http://twitter.com/mybloggertricks"  target="_blank">Twitter</a> </li>

<li class="my-gplus"> <a rel="nofollow" title="Google Plus" rel="author" href=https://plus.google.com/1111214334130358474387 target="_blank">Google Plus</a> </li>

</ul>

</div>

</div>

  • Replace tntbystc with your Feedburner title

  • Replace the bolded sections with your twitter and Google+ username details

Note: There is also an Email icon in the sharing widget that appears at the bottom of post. To replace its link with your feedburner Email Subscription link kindly find and replace this: (You will find this link inside your template)

http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=TntByStc

2. Top Menu

Pagelist menu

These tabs can easily be adjusted in two ways. 1. either from layout section  2. or from Pages window.

To drag, add, delete or update the tabs, simply go to Blogger > Pages

From here you can add, delete pages and you can also drag the tabs to shift their locations.

 

3. Main Menu

Main MenuTo edit links simply search for the following code inside your template:

<div id='botmenu'>

 

Just below it you will see a list of li tags where you can insert URL and title for your tabs. To create a sub menu transform your code in the following way:

From this:

<li><a href='TAB URL'>TAB TITLE</a></li>

 

 

To this:

<li><a href='TAB URL'>TAB TITLE</a>

<span class='sf-sub-indicator'/>

<ul class='sub-menu' style='display: none; visibility: hidden;'>


    <li><a href='Subpage url'>Subpage 1</a></li>

    <li><a href='Subpage url'>Subpage 2</a></li>

    <li><a href='Subpage url'>Subpage 3</a></li>

    <li><a href='Subpage url'>Subpage 4</a></li>

   

</ul>

</li>

I added Jquery easing effect and transition on mouse hover along with smooth drop down effect. All these effects would work only if you add the yellow highlighted codes.

4. Footer Menu

Footer Menu

To edit the menu at the bottom, simply find this code inside your template:

<ul id='footer-navigation'>

<li><a href='#'>Home</a></li>

<li><a href='#'>Typography</a></li>

<li><a href='#'>Sitemap</a></li>

<li><a href='#'>Services</a></li>

<li><a href='#'>Contact</a></li>

</ul>

 

Now editing the links would of course be a piece of cake for you all.

5. Blogger Notification Bar

attention grabber

To update the announcement text inside the sticky top bar, find this code:

<body>

You will then see the following code jst below the bode tag:

<div class='openbloggernotification' id='bloggernotificationWrap' style='display: block; margin-top: 0px;'><div id='bloggernotification'>

Download this Blogger Template by  <a class='link' href='http://www.mybloggertricks.com' target='_blank'>Clicking Here!</a>

<span id='closebloggernotification'/></div><span id='openbloggernotification' style='top: -6px;'><span/></span></div>

You may replace the bolded text with any message you wish to display to your readers.

6. Author Image

To replace the author image appearing just below post title and also at the bottom of post. Please find and replace the following image link with yours.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-f8qSqNLtpBU/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAGQY/Sl371AuVYfM/s250-c-k/photo.jpg

Note: Your image can be of any size but make sure it is at most 30 X 30 in size.

7. Author Info

author box

To edit the title and author description kindly find this code:

<div id='about-author'>

You can then edit the details below it.

8. Archive Calendar

To add the archive widget kindly add an archive widget like your normally do from the layout section and then give it the following settings:

archive calendar settings

 

 

9. Multi Tabs

Jquery multi tabs

You can add widgets to the multi tab easily from the layout section but you will manually need to edit its titles from the template section. After you have added your widgets kindly edit their titles by finding this code:

<ul class='MBT-tabs MBT-tabs-widget-MBT-id'>

<li><a href='#widget-MBT-id1'>Latest Posts</a></li>

<li><a href='#widget-MBT-id2'>Video</a></li>

<li><a href='#widget-MBT-id3'>Recent Comments</a></li>

</ul>

 

You may now set these titles to your preferred widget titles.

10. About Author

To add your picture and some info about your self at the footer, you may paste the following code inside the HTML/Javascript widget in order to make the widget look as perfect as it looks in the demo:

<!--[if !IE]> -->

<style>

#profilemohammad{

border:2px solid #888; margin:2px 5px 0px 0px; padding:2px;

}

#profilemohammad:hover {

border:2px solid #ccc;

cursor:pointer;

}

 

.opacity  {

opacity: 0.5;

margin-left: 50px;

-moz-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; 

-o-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; 

-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; 

-ms-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; 

transition: all 0.5s ease-out;

-moz-transform: rotate(7deg); 

-o-transform: rotate(7deg); 

-webkit-transform: rotate(7deg); 

-ms-transform: rotate(7deg); 

transform: rotate(7deg); 

filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Matrix(

                    M11=0.9961946980917455, M12=-0.08715574274765817, M21=0.08715574274765817, M22=0.9961946980917455, sizingMethod='auto expand');

zoom: 1; 

}

.opacity:hover  {

opacity: 1;

margin-left: 0px;

-moz-transform: rotate(0deg); 

-o-transform: rotate(0deg); 

-webkit-transform: rotate(0deg); 

-ms-transform: rotate(0deg); 

transform: rotate(0deg); 

filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Matrix(

                    M11=1, M12=0, M21=0, M22=1, sizingMethod='auto expand');

zoom: 1;

-moz-box-shadow: 1px 1px 4px #000;

-webkit-box-shadow: 1px 1px 4px #000;

box-shadow: 1px 1px 4px #000;

}



</style>

   <![endif]-->



<style>

#profilemohammad{

border:2px solid #888; margin:2px 5px 0px 0px; padding:2px;

}

#profilemohammad:hover {

border:2px solid #ccc;

cursor:pointer;

}

.opacity  {

opacity: 0.5;

-moz-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; 

-o-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; 

-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; 

-ms-transition: all 0.5s ease-out; 

transition: all 0.5s ease-out;

zoom: 1; 

}

.opacity:hover  {

opacity: 1;

zoom: 1;

-moz-box-shadow: 1px 1px 4px #000;

-webkit-box-shadow: 1px 1px 4px #000;

box-shadow: 1px 1px 4px #000;

}

</style>

 



<img class="opacity" id="profilemohammad" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYJjaszW9RrvPUiCLmM7p0dhlZTv8QobCEXPyNurmI65-Usglpbam3n8qH93rTRBR7hiAVRCxTW84GXD2IANpq264loUn9cSbUu6X3Sz6cUZWe5sipYLOHBUEzYp6YJf49m_DFGJejy5wp/s1600/mohammadmustafa.jpg" align="left"/>

Hi! I am Mohammad, a certified SEO Consultant, Pro Blogger, Computer Engineer and an addicted Web Developer.

<a style="color:#888;" href="http://www.mybloggertricks.com/2008/06/something-about-me.html">Read More..</a>  <br/> </![endif]-->

 

  • Replace the yellow highlighted image link with your photo link

  • Replace the info text with anything you wish to write about yourself, your blog and your profession.

  • Replace the Read More link with the url of your About Page.

You May Read: Design a Professional Looking About us page

11. 468 X 60 Ad Banner

To Add your banner inside the Top right header section, Please paste the following code inside the Ad widget by going to layout:

<a href='#' target='_blank'><img width="468px" height="60px" alt='banner' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsY3JP6uww0b5SjHfE6GdP-ugXHpQ3NWj5-Tm4I7nxayu-E04COU4jHdNM5OzaWyhWKu6mmQxZpuSxNhBBluK3BuIGhjAIcwIY3RtfuCqTsc2EYeEMgRbc_rPRX4fY84wMxUcQetsWtV6h/s400/header-banner.png'/></a>

Replace the above image link with the image link of your banner and replace the # sign with Banner Link.

Anything left?

I just hope I have covered the details of almost every part. If you got yourself into any trouble just do not panic, bring a cup of coffee on your table and start posting your queries on this page. Technical queries will always be discussed here. We hope you find this little effort useful. My personal suggestion is that if you are really serious about SEO and blogging then Salahuddin Ayubi and coming new MBT designs are what you must try out. Care less about Fancy colors and animations and value more the core structure and SEO value of a template. Coming MBT designs are the best when compared to several designs available online that offer just design value and are unfortunately poorly coded inside that badly impacts search value. Yes truth hurts!

Another good news is arriving so stay tuned! Peace and blessings buddies! :)

Minimum a Responsive Blogger template

Minimum Theme Thumb
After The Releasing the Sensational A Responsive blogger template. I'm happy to release another free responsive blogger template. Minimum is a Wordpress Child Theme Published By StudioPress. This theme has a custom home page layout and post page layout I designed this theme to make the quality of blogger template equal to wordpress. This Theme has many Awesome features like Custom Social Profile, Opt-in Subscribe form, Custom button, threaded comment system and much more. ok Let see the demo for Better Understanding. ;)
Read more �

Saturday, 5 January 2013

Verifying Ownership of your Site in Google Webmaster Tools




We recently did a series on Google AuthorRank, and in that, we stressed the importance of setting up authorship for your site. But before you can take full advantage of having a site and setting up authorship, you first need to verify ownership of your site in Google Webmaster Tools. Verifying ownership of your site is one essential step you cannot afford to skip, because it allows you to see very valuable information related to your site. In this post, we will talk about the different ways you can verify ownership of your site, and let Google know that you actually own a site.







Verifying your site through Google Webmaster Tools opens up a secure communication channel between you and Google. For example, Google will show you confidential information, such as search queries that land visitors on your site. You can also use this to associate your site's content according to  your audience by demographics or geographical location etc.



You can verify ownership of any kind of website. You can, for example, verify a sub-domain (mydomain.example.com), or a site with www (www.example.com), or a whole domain (example.com), or a sub-directory (example.com/mysite), and so on. Once you verify your site, you can easily manage or add more owners, or managers/moderators for your site.






Verifying your site



By now, I am assuming that you've already added your site in Google Webmaster Tools. If not, then you can easily do so by signing-up for Webmaster Tools, and clicking on the Add Site button from the dashboard. Once added, you can then verify ownership using one of the following methods.


Domain name provider



This method is for you if you want to verify multiple sites, such as a multinational corporate website having many sub-domains, such as us.example.com, or eu.google.com etc. To verify your site using this method, log into your Google Webmaster Tools account, and click on Manage Site next to the site you want to verify ownership for. Then click on Verify Site.










Now click on Alternative methods, and choose Domain name provider. This method verifies your site through your registrar or domain name provider. In most cases, this is the company you bought your domain or hosting from. Choose your domain name provider from among the ones listed, and then follow the simple steps. If, for some reason, you are unable to complete verification, or if you're not able to find your domain name provider listed, then you can use another method of verifying your site.


HTML file upload



If you are the site owner, and are able to upload a file to your site's root directory either through an administration tool (cPanel) or through an FTP account, then you can use this option to verify your site. You will be asked to upload an HTML file to the root directory of your site. This is the main folder of your site where your index.html (or a default page) is found. For example, www.mysite.com/filename.html.


HTML tag



If you're familiar with HTML syntax, and can write HTML meta tags, then this is a good option for you. You will be asked to add a tag to let Google know that you actually own the site.


Google Analytics



This is, by far, the most convenient option. If you have set up a Google Analytics property for your site, then you can use that to verity your site within Google Webmaster Tools. Just log into your Google Analytics account, and follow the simple steps to verify your account.





Those were all the basic methods you can use to verify your site's ownership in Google Webmaster Tools. If you have questions, feel free to ask here. We'll be glad to help :)

Friday, 4 January 2013

10 Tips To Improve Google AuthorRank To Increase Traffic





Top 10 tips to improve Google AuthorRank




In the last couple of posts, we have been talking a lot about AuthorRank; what it is, and how it differs from PageRank. So by now, you should have a pretty good idea of what's going on, or should I say, what's gonna happen in the near future. The concept of ranking Agents (Authors) for better search results and elimination of spam seems pretty solid, and this development could change the ranking and SEO game as we know it. And I'd put good money on it. Needless to say, it's high time we all started preparing for it. In this post, we'll share the top 10 tips to improve your AuthorRank and thus, to increase your traffic.




Google AuthorRank Series




Part3: 10 Tips To Improve AuthorRank


While Google PR was mostly about the core of the content, AR focuses more on how the content is received and how it performs. Hence, a lot of emphasis on going social with it. Here are the top 10 tips you need to know before Google officially launches AR.




1. Write great content



The first step, of course, would be to come up with really good content. Good content is the cornerstone for further developments. And if you want your readers to like your content and engage with it, then make your content worthy of such. And it should be something worth sharing as well. Not something you can find on every other site.


2. Set up Google Authorship



The next necessary step would be to set up Google Authorship. This is very important, because this is how Google will identify you, and assiciate your content with a digital signature. Not only do you get a nice little rich snippet next to search results, along with your profile picture, but you also get recognition. And once you do, only then will you get an AuthorRank. We have done a nice little post about it, so be sure to check it out!







3. Go Social



As mentioned above, the emphasis is now shifting towards 'social'. And this is one big factor that will effect AuthorRank. Your presence on social media, and your fan following will be crucial to your success. So try to get active on popular social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, and so on. Try to increase your fan following as much as you can, and interact with people.





Go social


4. Pay attention to Google+



While socializing, pay special attention to Google+. Google wants you to use their social network more and more. So the more you share your posts on Google+, +1 posts, comment on others, and get followers, the better AuthorRank you'll get. Also, the number of people who have you in their circles is a key factor too, so don't forget that.


5. Create valuable contacts



Just like backlinks contribute towards PR, your contacts, especially those on Google+, contribute towards AR. The number of contacts, as well as the quality of contacts will also matter. So start connecting and socializing with people, and keep a look out for people with a high AR. Because a high AR contact will have about the same effect as a high-quality PR.







6. Encourage people to share



Another factor that Google will take into consideration when evaluating AR is how your content is received and performs. The more +1s it gets on Google+, the better it'll be for you. So encourage people to share your content, and participate in other conversations so that others will participate in yours. But before you ask others to share, make sure you create content that's worth sharing.


7. Communicate



Your AR will also depend on how much on-site engagement you have. This is measured by how many comments you get on your posts, and how many you reply to. So to increase your AR, get into the habit of replaying to your readers, and encourage them to participate in your debates.


8. Specialize in a topic



AuthorRank will be topic dependant. This means that if you get a good AR in one topic, say SEO, then it doesn't follow that you'll get a good AR in something related to science. Similarly, a professional chef will have a good AR when it comes to cooking recipies, but that doesn't give him a good AR in technology related posts. So for that, you probably will need to focus in one field, at least at first, and get a good hold of your AR on that particular topic before moving on to others.


9. Guest blog



With the introduction of AR, guest blogging will gain a lot of traction. People would want guest bloggers with a good AR to write on their blogs, since it will help their own PR in turn. And people would also want to write on high PR sites to get a good AR for themselves. So get used to this idea beforehand. For AR, it is important how many sites you have published your content on, and how good those sites are. When AR comes, you don't want your old guest posts on cheap, low-quality websites to hold down your AR. So concentrate on writing for a few good quality sites, and you'll definitely get a good AuthorRank.


10. Help people out



Finally, help people out as much as you can. Interact with your readers, and answer their questions to encourage them more, since socializing is what this is all about. Readers want a source they can trust. And they'll trust and respect you if you reply to them and help them out.





There goes the top 10 tips list. Hope you liked it, and have learned something from it. If you have questions, feel free to ask. And do tell us how you liked this small series. Good luck :)


Thursday, 3 January 2013

Difference Between Google AuthorRank and PageRank





In our yesterday's post about AuthorRank, we talked about how Google is working out on a new way to weed out spam from the web, and rank online content more effectively. Since then, some of our readers have been asking what's the difference between PageRank and AuthorRank, and which one is 'better'. Well, before we go on explaining which is 'better', we first need to take a look at what AuthorRank is, and how it is different from PageRank.




Google AuthorRank Series



Part2: Difference Between AuthorRank and PageRank?



What is AuthorRank?



AuthorRank is another way of telling Google about the quality of a content. An author's (Agent's) ranking will influence the content's performance in search results. According to Google's AuthorRank patent:


The identity of individual agents responsible for content can be used to influence search ratings


How does AuthorRank differ from PageRank?



When a user enters a search term into a search engine, basically two types of algorithms come into play. query-dependent, and query-independent. Query dependent algorithms rank content based on how closely it relates to the entered query. And query-independent algorithms rank content based on its quality. AR and PR are both query-independent 





AuthorRank and PageRank are similar to each other as far as informing search engines about the quality of content is concerned. But that's about it. PageRank is a way of ranking pages that hold certain content. And AuthorRank is a way of ranking authors who create that content.





Consider a triangle where the content is at the first corner, the creator (author) is at the second corner, and the container (site or domain) is at the third corner. PageRank is the relationship between the first and the third corner (i.e. between the content and the container). And it is restricted to these two elements only.





AuthorRank is not only the relationship between the author and the content, but also between the author and the container. So AR can effect more than one domain.





AuthorRank has some level of topic dependency as well. While PR ranks content found on one domain, no matter the topic, AR ranks content by topic as well. So a writer will have a better rank in literature, and a scientist will have a better rank in science.





Unlike PageRank, AuthorRank is lesser likely to be abused. PR can be boosted by buying high quality links or guest posting excessively etc. But AuthorRank will associate a digital signature with content. So an author's credibility will be instantly become clear.


AR vs PR, which is better?



PR is effected by factors such as number and nature of incoming links, interlinking, richness of content, no malicious activity, and so on. These factors have mostly to do with how good some content actually is at its core. So in a way, PR is still the bigger metric. It can be used to judge how good a website is, and whether other content on that website is trustworthy or not, since that's what's readers are mostly looking for. They follow links within a site that they like. So a higher PR m eans a better site.





But what about AR? Is AR important? Absolutely! AR depends on factors such as social activity and engagement, on-site engagement, sharing, comments, high-profile links etc. Hence, it has more to do with how content performs socially. A good AR will point towards a social and trustworthy content creator, and that's one of the most important thing readers look for in content.





So in essence, AR is not here to replace PR. It will just inform PR, and will make PR more accurate. So for a higher PR, you will need to work on your AR, and vice versa. The inter-connection between the two will ensure more social engagement and build up of a site's trust. So start working on both from today! We will cover tips for achieving a good AR in our next installment in this series, so stay tuned!


Wednesday, 2 January 2013

What is Google AuthorRank & How exactly it works?




AuthorRank algorithm

Google has gone a long way into streamlining their search results and delivering quality and relevant information to users. If you have been active lately and been following the news from the industry, then you would have heard about Google's AuthorRank. Even if you haven't heard about it, you'll most likely catch on pretty quickly, since the basic idea isn't unfamiliar. Google is working on a new system of ranking content and returning better search results to users, aka Google AuthorRank, which is a bit like PageRank really, if we strip down to the very basics. And this is what we are going to talk about today.






In fact, we'll compile a whole three-part series on the topic to tell our beloved readers more on the subject, because we believe this could well be the game-changer in the near future. And having knowledge beforehand might prove valuable for the success of your site after this new ranking system has been introduced.





Google AuthorRank Series


Part1: What is Google AuthorRank and How exactly it works?




What exactly is AuthorRank?



Everyone knows what PageRank is, right? Google takes a lot of factors into account when ranking pages, so that high quality pages are given a higher rank is Search Results. For a page, it is easy to calculate the incoming links, the quality of those links, traffic, page hits, and so on, and these are some of the factors that determine page ranking. But what about the people who write that content on those pages?










Before Google Plus, Google had no solid way of identifying who the author of a webpage is. Google Plus, together with Google Authorship helped overcome the problem by assigning a digital signature to piece of content. Since that difficulty has been overcome now, Google is now looking to rank people, or Authors, just like it ranks Pages. And this is what AuthorRank will be all about. 





An Author's (Agent's) rank will effectively influence a content's search results performance. So your reputation as a content creator will influence how well your content ranks. The better the reputation, the better the performance. Google will essentially use this information to pluck out spam from its very root.


How will it effect you as a content creator?



So far, we have established that this will be a new ranking system. But it won't be an algorithmic update, and won't be replacing anything. Nothing as big as Panda. You can think of AuthorRank as more of a supplement. AuthorRank will inform PageRank, which means that an Agent (author) with a high AuthorRank will now also effect a site's performance in SERPs.





Going Social





This suggests that some of the emphasis might now shift towards individuals who create good quality content. And when you look at Google's constant efforts to measure site trust, and their emphasis on going social, it all makes sense. People trust a site when they can connect and communicate with the author. So going social might just be the key here. How good content you write, how well you interact, everything will contribute towards AuthorRank.






Justice Vs No Justice


From Mohammad: 



"AuthorRank if implemented in 2013 would be the biggest relief for already established web owners and content publishers. With billion of pages uploaded each day, quality stuff is badly ranked well by search robots because its tough to pick the best among too many competitors. How would the robot know which article deserves more weight and credit then the other?  Here at MBT, each tutorial that we publish is duplicated several times by new comers that badly effect our traffic momentum, as a result we suffer both in traffic and revenue. With AuthorRank, we can expect true justice from Google, where real authors will receive true credit for their efforts. I am demonstrating this entire concept with a simple image shared below, which would give your a clear picture of how this new algorithm would work and do justice between authors."




Click the image to enlarge it. 




Google AuthorRank Example




What will effect AuthorRank?



Once again, AuthorRank alone will not effect a site's ranking. It will only be a factor. Google considers more than 200 factors, some of which will contribute towards your AuthorRank, which, in turn, will contribute towards your site's ranking in organic search results. That being said, let us look into some of the factors that might effect AuthorRank.




  • Google Plus engagement - How many circles an author is in on Google Plus. This indicated how popular an author is and what is the level of his engagement on Google Plus.

  • Social activity regarding the content - How many +1s and shares does an author's content gets. This will also take into account the social activity on other major social media, such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

  • Other sites the author has contributed to - This will take into account the number of sites that an author has contributed to, and their integrity, along with things like average PageRank of his content etc.

  • Number of posts to Google Plus, and other social media.

  • The number and nature of the connections on Google+ an author has. For example, connections with high AuthorRank authors will be considered good, just as high quality backlinks are considered good for a webpage.

  • On-site engagement - Number of comments an author's content gets, and the number of author responses.

  • YouTube engagement - Number of subscribers, activity on videos, engagement on YouTube etc.

  • Other authority indicators - Such as published works on Google Books, having a page on Wikipaedia etc





Google hasn't yet unleashed this ranking system, so no one knows exactly what factors it will consider. This list just serves as a rough sketch, the granular detailed of which will become public once this update takes place. Also, we don't know yet when it will take place. Google is working on it, and might just release in next week, or maybe after a month, or even an year. All we can do is, wait and prepare for it. Sites that have prepared for it will have a clear advantage over sites that haven't. So it's most probably time you started preparing too. We will cover more on how to prepare for it, along with some tips in our third part in this series. Until then, stay tuned. Shoot any questions you might have, because we're here to help. Good luck :)