Build Blog Traffic with Technorati, Part 2

Posted on June 24, 2007 by Michael Martine • 16 Comments

technorati-main.png
Continued from Build Blog Traffic with Technorati, Part 1

Overview

Add Technorati widgets to your Blog

Note:Technorati recently revamped their blog codes and widgets, so be careful about other articles on the web about this subject—make sure they’re talking about the new Technorati codes.

To add Technorati widgets to your blog, you need to go to your account profile page by logging in to Technorati and then click the Blogs tab. You’ll see a list of the blogs you’ve claimed, and for each one, there is a little green edit widget button.

technorati-widget1.png

Basically, all you need to do is check or uncheck the options you want for your widget:

  • Your photo
  • List of links of blogs that link to your blog
  • A search box that allows your visitors to search on Technorati
  • Display your Technorati authority number, which is the number of blogs linking to you in the last 6 months.
  • A link to your Technorati profile, so your blog’s visitors can view it.
  • A Technorati Tag Cloud. When a tag is clicked, your blog visitor goes to a Technorati page that lists all your blog’s posts that used that tag.


Note: The last couple times I’ve edited a Technorati widget, the editing page looked funny, as though there was a margin or padding mistake in the CSS. I hope they get it fixed soon!

Once you’ve decided what you want in your widget, you copy the code in the textarea (box you can type in or that can display text) and paste it where you want it to go in your blog. This is almost always a sidebar of some kind, but it could also be at the bottom of your blog. On WordPress, you will need to edit sidebar.php. In Blogger, you will need to add HTML/JavaScript under Edit Layout. Paste in your code. FTP the changed sidebar.php file to your webserver, and refresh the page. See if your Technorati widget is there and how it’s doing. Don’t forget that after you copy and paste the code, you have to click the save changes button on the widget. Also, your changes may not show up in the widget immediately! Give it a few minutes, then reload the web page. Once you’re done, you have a nice Technorati widget for your blog! You can see mine in the first sidebar at the right (and yes, that’s my Technorati authority! It pays to give out free WordPress themes with links back to yourself!).

Use Technorati Tags to Build Blog Traffic

Now that we’ve got everything all set up, this is the fun part! Technorati tags are short descriptors of a blog post’s content. For example, since I’m writing a blog post about Technorati, I’m going to add a Technorati tag for the word “Technorati.” Other people have blogged about Technorati, and used the same tag in their blog posts. A search on Technorati for the “Technorati” tag returns a list all the bloggers using that tag, increasing the chance that they will get visits by people interested in that tag. One thing to note, however, is that the busier a tag is, the faster your post will fall off the first screen. Adding Technorati tags to your blog posts will get you increased traffic. How much traffic you will get depends on many factors. People do click on tags they’re interested in. When your blog shows up as posting with a particular tag they’re interested in, they are more likely rather than less likely to visit your blog.

The HTML of a Technorati tag (sorry to get a little nerdy on you but it helps explain things and it’s good to know) looks like this:

<a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/tag+name" rel="tag">Tag Name</a>

“Tag Name” stands in for any words you want to use as a tag. There are two things to notice about this code:

  1. The rel attribute is set to tag.
  2. Multiple-word tag names use a plus sign (+) between the words in the link destination text (tag+name in the code above).

If you’re proficient in HTML you can write these links yourself into a blog post, but it quickly bogs down into torturous tedium! That’s why most bloggers who really want to benefit from Technorati tags have to use some sort of tool that helps to automate the process of adding tags to a post. There is a variety of choice when it comes to these tools. Your decision will depend on several factors:

  1. Do you have multiple blogs? If you have multiple blogs, and you want to incorporate a Technorati tag-generating widget/plugin/thingy into your post writing screen, you will have to repeat its installation/configuration for each blog you manage. It can be kind of a pain to do this, but once done you may feel that it has been totally worth it.
  2. Are your blogs all using the same platform (WordPress, Blogger, etc.), or different platforms? Imagine all the work mentioned above but compounded by different blogging platforms. It would be nice if there were somehow one solution for all platforms that would work on the server side when writing a post, but there isn’t.
  3. How comfortable are you at fiddling with your blogging platform’s template tags, HTML, PHP, and CSS? Some of the Technorati tag plugins or add-ons can involve complicated set-up and configuration. You may have to edit parts of your blog’s template code so that the Technorati tags will appear in the right place, look correct, and work properly.

With the above points in mind, here is a list of popular WordPress plugins (note that some of them are for social bookmarking sites). One plugin that’s particularly popular and powerful is Ultimate Tag Warrior.

My Solution for Adding Technorati Tags to Posts

As for myself, I use a very simple solution, one that works no matter what blog I’m working on or what platform it’s hosted on. The only work involved is if I want a specific look to the tags, I need to create a class in my CSS stylesheet. This isn’t strictly necessary: your Technorati tags will simply be a list of normal hyperlinks. What I use is called a bookmarklet. A bookmarklet is a bookmark (or favorite, if you use Microsoft Internet Explorer for your web browser) that, instead of sending you to a web page, executes a wee little program written in JavaScript. I got this code from Rakesh of Bravra Mann. To use this, follow these steps:

Note: This doesn’t seem to work, anymore. Not sure why, but there it is. There are plenty of Technorati tag plugins for WordPress, so try your luck with one of them.

  1. Click and drag to highlight the code below.
  2. Drag the selected code up to your browser’s bookmark toolbar (make sure it’s visible).
  3. Right-click to rename the bookmark to something more friendly.
  4. Create a post in a blog to test it.
  5. Click on the bookmark, and a prompt appears. Type in the words you want to use as Technorati tags, separated by commas—multiple-word tags separated by spaces (comma after the last word in the tag) are okay.
  6. Click OK or hit Enter. Your HTML code is ready and pre-highlighted. Copy it using CTRL+C on your keyboard (Cmd+C on a Mac).
  7. After you’ve copied the code, click OK or hit Enter again to close the prompt box.
  8. Paste the code where you want your list of Technorati tags to be (usually at the end of the post).

Here is the code:

That’s it! Happy tagging! If you use WordPress (especially WordPress.com), and want to play with the code in order to customize the output, I suggest you read Lorelle VanFossen’s thorough post on this.

Guess what comes next? That’s right:

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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  • http://www.sbishere.com/ Greg Balanko-Dickson

    Michael: the widgets are great and I think they add traffic but about 2 months ago I declared my blog a no Javascript zone.

    My pages were taking too long to load and sometimes would prevent pages from loading especially when the server of the co. whose widget you are using is down.

    I keep it simple PHP, HTML, and CSS. No offsite scripts.

    Just my 2 cents.

  • Michael Martine

    Greg, that is an interesting stance to take on the matter. It must be serving you well or you wouldn’t be doing it. You are the lone voice crying in the widget wilderness! I agree that too many crazy blog widgets can slow things down. Just look at your average MySpace page! Well, try to… I have also experienced slow page loads while waiting for umpti-million embedded YouTube video players to load. I’ve had to change how many posts display at once in the settings for my video blogs.

    Other than the Technorati widget, the only other JavaScript I’m using is in the Google AdSense and Google Analytics (Analytics is a fantastic product). Thanks for stopping by and commenting! I enjoyed your post on Lorelle.

  • chris

    Do you not think that Technorati can only send limited traffic. Google’s blog searc.h could be more important

  • Michael Martine

    Chris, I think that Technorati tags work, otherwise better bloggers everywhere wouldn’t be using them. Nearly all of the blogs I’ve seen that I would call better blogs use them. My goal here is help you be a better blogger. I have gained traffic from my use of Technorati tags. The amount varies. It depends on the topic and how busy the tag is (is everyone using it, etc.). One of the real benefits of T’rati tags is that you get very qualified visitors. Somebody clicked on a specific tag, went to T’rati, saw your blog/post, and then clicked on it to visit you. The relevancy in this situation is very high.

    Your comment is spam, but I let it stay because I think the question about how much traffic is a good one regardless. So you’ll pardon me removing your hyperlink from the comment.

  • http://www.sbishere.com/ Greg Balanko-Dickson

    Great perspective Michael, you got me thinking I should turn T’rati back on.

  • http://www.sbishere.com/ Greg Balanko-Dickson

    BTW does that solution from Rakesh work with the WYSIWYG editor in WordPress?

  • Michael Martine

    BTW does that solution from Rakesh work with the WYSIWYG editor in WordPress?

    Greg, that is an excellent question. The bookmarklet only works in an HTML code view. For WordPress, you would need to go into your profile options and uncheck the box that says “Use the visual editor when writing” or temporarily access the HTML with the “Code” tab. You may already know that, of course, but I thought I’d mention it for everyone’s benefit.

  • http://www.destyonline.com Desty

    I’ve heard conflicting information on the use of many different tags in your blog. Some say that the more tags you use, if you write about popular subjects, will help Technorati drive traffic to you. I’ve also heard, however, that too many tags will clutter your blog. I use Technorati’s WTF, popular searches, and popular tags on their homepage for ideas on what to write about sometimes, but I put a business spin on it and keep my current tags.

    A wordpress plugin in installed this afternoon helps with the Technorati tags, Autometa. If you’re going after Technorati tags, I suggest grabbing it. Installation is easy.

  • Pingback: Desty Online

  • Michael Martine

    Thanks for the tip on that WordPress plugin, Desty. I hadn’t heard of it. I’m doing a bit of research on how to decide what/how many tags to use in a post, so look for that coming in a post in the next few days.

    As for clutter, I think that issue is best solved with good design, which I like to think I’ve accomplished that with how I’ve formatted my Technorati tags below the posts.

  • http://electronicvillage.blogspot.com Villager

    I feel foolish. I am trying to show the number of blog posts that link back to my blog using the technorati widget. I have added it to the top of my blog, however, it doesn’t appear to be working. Makes me think I’ve done something SIMPLE wrong.

    Here is the widget that I’m using –>

    “>View blog reactions

    I’m a new Blogger blog.

    Any clue as to what I’m doing wrong?

    peace, Villager (blog@elecvillage.com)

  • Michael Martine

    @ Villager:

    Sorry I couldn’t reply to your comment sooner, but I just looked at your blog everything seems fine! Good for you on figuring it out and getting it to work! Sometimes these things can be frustrating but also rewarding when they work.

  • http://www.askchrisswain.com Chris

    I’m having trouble using this drop technique because of my delicious book marking feature installed that I have on my firefox plugin. I signed out of delicious and it still would not work, any ideas? It is a marvelous tactic and can’t wait to use it. Thanks!

  • Michael Martine

    @ Chris:

    I cannot think of any reason why you should have a problem. I use delicious extensively and have had no plugin/bookmark conflicts.

  • http://www.askchrisswain.com Chris

    Hi Michael,

    I don’t know why it wouldn’t work your way. I thought because I was signed into delicious it wouldn’t let me add to the toolbar, some crazy thing with delicious I guess. I went back and checked what was on the page and it does say to drop “copy” in the bookmark area.

    However, after trying forever to get it to work and having the same problem, I went to the link there for Rakesh. After reading those instructions it worked immediately. The DIFFERENCE was to copy the html into the navigation bar, test it, then save it to tool bar, then move it to the bookmark area. I’m a real bozo when it comes to tech stuff, so when I figured it out I wanted to let you know because I’m sure there are others like me who may have this problem. So, I wanted to forward this to you so that you can pass it along or make a note somewhere for people to see.

    Thanks for the help,

    Chris Swain

  • Michael Martine

    @ Chris:

    It sounds like you were using your delicious bookmarks toolbar as the destination for the bookmarklet. If so, that would be why it didn’t work. You are supposed to use the bookmark toolbar that comes with your browser. Depending on your browser’s settings, it may not have even been showing.

    I’ve gotten the bookmarklet to work by simply dragging the code to the bookmark bar. You can create a manual bookmark and copy and paste the code into it, but that location is different for different browsers. All in all, I wanted to present the simplest method possible. I’m glad you got it to work, and I hope you have a lot of fun using it!

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