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Here is how the first post began:
Greg Swann at Bloodhound blog on June 21, 2007 launched the new blog Real Estate Weblogging 101.
What Greg didn’t realize was he also set in motion an experiment I have been wanting to run here in the lab.
Here is the basis for the experiment:
- Setup a new domain name.
- Use WordPress as the basis
- Instead of Post use Pages
- See how the search engines respond
When I say search engines, I’m referring to Google primarily.
Since we recently had a PR update from Supreme Ruler I couldn’t resist going back to the site and seeing how the experiment is proceeding.
Quite well is the short answer. I should say amazing considering this is a blog that is barely 4 months.
In our second post on the site it was just over 2 months old and had nothing in supplemental results that shouldn’t be there. Time has passed and the issue of supplemental results is history. I miss them in a way, but not really.
What I found this week.
- The home page has a PR4
- Almost every page of the site had a PR3.
- There are a handful of PR2 pages.
- There appear to be 4 or 5 posts, Two of those have PR3 The others aren’t showing as indexed.
The internal linking of pages is established by a “Table of Contents” on every page which means every page is linked to every other page is significant. The same effect is now being done on sites that are publishing their archives in the sidebar navigation.
I don’t know about you but I would love to have a site that is less than 4 months old with about 40 pages not only indexed but with a PR3 and a PR4 home page with a smattering of PR2′s for good measure.
If I were ever going to build a static site with only pages and additional content to be added from time to time. This is how I would do it with a focus on pages not posts.
If I were thinking of changing locations to another part of the country and wanted to establish a presence there I would take my best blog posts, edit them to fit the location. Put them on a new site. Publish the entire site in a single step. I’d do this about 4 months before I was actually making the move and I would watch this little seedling grow to an oak.
Thanks again Greg for this great site. It is filled with valuable content and is being justly rewarded for it.
PS. Greg, please forgive the corny prose in the Supreme Ruler post the other day. : )
If you want to read the first two posts they are Real Estate Weblogging 101 and Real Estate Weblogging 101 2 month old Plus
The table of contents is big IMO. Most of us concentrate on finding links to our site and drop the ball when it comes to internal links. Great info Dave.
I agree and just installed this one. I had been keeping the last 10 posts as “Recent Posts”, but then they lose their pop once they leave the main page…
JMO, but when posts are organized the way that Dave has here on the lab, they are both the most functional for readers and the keep the link juice flowing throughout the blog.
@James-you can do it any way that works for your readers IMO, but for my money using archive and related posts from the past, Dave’s provided a solid example.
@Ryan-notice Dave’s use of archives…keeps em up longer, but also provides a ready reference for people going back to the forum.
Weblogging 101 provides both a guide for subject matter and structure IMO. That and the bloglab should be the “training wheels” every RE blogger uses to launch their blogging career. (grin) Seriously. Greg, when you turn weblogging 101 into a book, I’d love to write a blurb for you on the back page. (hint…hint!)
Eric
Yes, I think it’s a little easier to find older posts this way. Now if I can get the related posts plugin to work…having trouble.
Man, this has turned into a forum thread! I’m right there with you guys with regards to proper internal linking – it’s something that bloggers & webmasters tend to neglect…especially when they discover the power of IBLs. I’m interested to try out the related post plug-in you guys have discussed. I don’t know what I think about having links to every post on every page…I don’t know if I agree that it adds to the user experience. I think the proper use (and promotion) of categories can help the user out more (and will also help out your internal PR.) A well organized hierarchy is something that is pretty powerful. Just my .02!
Eric,
I think part of the use of archive in the sidebar is internal linking for indexing. Readers come in two ways. RSS or regular readers & Search engine results.
If your content isn’t indexed it isn’t going to be found.
I’ve been following the internal links to each post in the Google webmaster tools and those links are increasing all the time. More pages are being indexed and granted PR. Meaning they are there for the readers to find.
Does having it in the sidebar enhance the reader expereience? I doubt it. Does Meta tagging enhance the reader experience? Not visibly, but if it helps get your content in the searches that it pertains to, then yes it enhances the reader experience.
This is the point notice in following what happens to Real Estate Weblogging 101.
Dave –
I agree with you – it definitely will help get everything indexed…my point is that, with enough backlinks, everything will be indexed regardless, and you can spread the internal PR well using the categories. I agree that the links on every page doesn’t really detract from the user experience. It’s all aesthetics…I just think it looks a little cluttered (and that’s just my opinion – I’m sure there are many people that think otherwise.)
One other point to consider…if the majority of your links are pointing to your blog home, as you put more archived links on the side bar, the internal PR is going to be spread thinner over those posts. So, while you might start with a PR4 home page & PR3 internals, as you write more, if the home page stays a PR4, your internal pages can end up PR2. Granted…PR is just a very visible (and bad, IMHO) way to measure the power of a page. Checking your long-tail SERPs for the internal pages is a much better way to check your performance.
So…I’ll wind this ramble to a ramblin’ close.
Question for you…I’m not sure if I read your comment correctly – are you getting more IBLs as a result of the archive in the side bar?
Eric,
I’m guessing IBL’s are Inbound Links. Yes, I think I’m getting more. Here is why.
The more posts indexed, the more they appear in search results, the more people read the posts and find something they want to link to. If they never find it, they never come to the site, they never link to it.
I have noticed an increase in readers and IBL’s since putting the archives in the sidebar.
I understand the categories logic, but what if your category pages aren’t indexed?
With higher PR on each page and with each page pointing internally to every other page doesn’t this increase the juice not diminish it?
And with every post I write, I add one more internal link to every post and page on the blog.
I should also state that as far as I’m concerned PR is the means to an end not the end. Getting information to readers who want it and can use it is the end. PR to me just helps get the message out.
A famous missionary to china pushed himself day and night till he fell sick, so sick he was dying. One of his last statements.
“God gave me a message and a horse, Now I’ve killed the horse and the message won’t be delivered”.
As long as it’s increasing the number of backlinks, it will get you where you want to be. It will increase the PR & the SERP ranking for every post. BTW – I agree with you 110% regarding PR – I prefer to check long-tails to really see how the site/blog is doing.
And hey…you’re obviously doing things right here. You have great posts, and lots of great input from your readers. I just wanted to throw out another viewpoint.
Eric,
Sometime we forget this is a lab. All input is welcome. The funny thing, The lab is my hobby blog, my give back to the RE community blog. I do it for fun and to help.
The ones I really want to grow in readership and ranking are the business blogs, which do benefit from the lab experiments. But have less than half the readership of the Lab.
Just makes me laugh some times.
I would like to check out your business blogs. Can you give me the name of them?
Paul,
Glad you asked, I think they are all in the blogroll, but here they are in order of creation.
Tucson Real Estate in The News
Oro Valley Real Estate
Tucson AZ Real Estate
I am going to have to agree that when there is to much content in the navigation it makes it very hard for me to find what I am interested in. So while it might (and I stress might) help you with the search engines it clutters the look and makes navigation harder for readers.
Now how you are using your blog will greatly impact how you are going to set up the navigation.
-If you are using a blog to share information and not looking to sell anything like this one then who really cares where you direct your traffic. All information has the same value on a blog like this.
-If it’s a real estate blog that is set up to generate business for you then you need to limit the options, more important you need to focus the readers to visit the pages that you want them to visit. Mainly that will be pages that will generate leads for you to work with.
- If you have a blogsite (like my main Chicago site) then the navigation needs to be completely different as there are hundreds of pages of city specific information. Each city has it’s own navigation to only show the information from that city (for example look at the main Schaumburg page).
Now using my site is just the easiest for me, but there are plenty of other examples out there. The key is you need to remember the reason for your site before you set up your navigation.
Now my site is far from perfect and there are many upgrades I plan on adding, but it does a good job directing visitors to look at homes.
Hope that all makes sense.
Back to the search engines…have you tested changing your navigation to see if your rankings would drop? You are assuming that your rankings are based on the linking structure you have, not the authority you have built up. The posts/pages that need more juice to rank will never get it with your current structure so ranking for a hard term will never happen. If this isn’t important then giving all post the same value will work for you, but if you want a chance at going after some major terms you need to be able to focus your internal linking to those pages.
Ken,
If you place the “Table of Contents” (archives) at the bottom of the navigation it doesn’t come into play. I think it is important to put your navigation in the order you want it to be viewed by readers.
I’ve stated this is about one thing and one thing only. “KEEPING YOUR PAGES AND POST IN THE INDEX”. If it isn’t indexed it doesn’t matter where it is located it won’t be searched.
The structure is more about long tails than keyword targeting, but I disagree with you wholeheartedly on the statement “The posts/pages that need more juice to rank will never get it with your current structure so ranking for a hard term will never happen”
I started a new blog in July 2007 and in less than three months it was on page 1 of google for the keywords I was going after.
Things have changed dramatically on the past few months in the way Google is getting content into the index.
I can write a post and in less than 20 minutes I can find that post on page 1 of Google regular search, not blog search.
Dave,
I tend to agree with you because my goal is more about getting the posts read than the blog found. The posts are the \”meat\” that I want consumers to find and if keeping all posts indexed also helps all posts rank better, I prefer that. In this scenario, the layout is less important because they land exactly where you intended them to land anyway so they don\’t have to look for it.
On another note, I used your gallery plugin and succesfully created a very sharp featured listings page for WordPress with it. Thank you so much for the tip to the plugin.
Ryan,
I like the way that plugin is working for the images on your test blog.
Glad this is going to work for your application.
Great experiment! I think I am going to try the “Table Of Contents” approach! I have been primarily using blogger for my platform, but I think I will test your ideas with wordpress as well.
I do agree with Ken, in his statement that going after major search phrases will require link juice. Longtails are easier to rank especially with a blog being a PR 4. My blog ranks very well for longtails as it is a PR 4, but it doesn’t rank for more competitive phrases. Just my 2 cents.
Tony,
I see your website and it is ranking #5 on Google for Las Vegas Real Estate. That is pretty good in my book. But I don’t see a link on your site to the blog.
I think link juice has more to do with the owner of the site and the content of the site than most give credit.
The reason I say this, I started a new blog going after the most searched keyword phrase in our area.
It was a brand new blog on a brand new URL. In less than three months it was on page one for that search phrase and it bounces between #5 and #6. Where’s the juice coming from? It comes from me. I already have established sites with Google. They now my sites and they know how I program to make it easy for them to get to the content. As a result almost from the first day I started and notified Google “I claimed the site” I was getting crawled and indexed every single day.
I say this because I don’t see any link to your blog. I don’t know if you have claimed your sites with Google, if not I would suggest you do that. If you do go with WordPress and self host claim that blog, go after other keywords for your area you serve.
Dave,
What do you mean you “claimed the site”?
I believe that Dave is referring to a google.com webmaster feature that allows website owners to verify their ownership of a given website. Read this for more information and to get started:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8509
The benefits are as follows as stated on the Google website:
What kinds of information will I see if I verify site ownership?
Verify that you own the site, and we’ll show you statistics and errors about it and the pages in it that we’ve crawled. We also provide control features. This information includes:
Crawl errors: we list the URLs we had trouble crawling and why we couldn’t crawl them.
Search queries that return your site in the results: we list both the top queries that returned results from your site, as well as the top queries that directed traffic to your site.
What we know about your site: we list the top content of your site and the words other sites use to link to your site
robots.txt validation: we tell you if we have trouble parsing your robots.txt file and let you make sure your robots.txt file is blocking access to the right URLs. We also let you test drive changes to the file before you change it on your server.
Preferred domain input: you can tell us if you’re prefer to have your site indexed using the www version of the domain or the non-www version.
Crawl rate: we show you how much Googlebot has been crawling your site over the last 90 days and give you the opportunity to change this rate.
Indexing information: we tell you if your site is indexed, show you which pages are in the index, when Googlebot last visited your site, and if we can’t crawl your home page
Information about violations of the webmaster guidelines: if we find violations in your site, we give you the opportunity to fix the problem and request reinclusions.
Information on possible malware on your site: if your site is flagged for distributing badware, we’ll let you know so you can fix the problem and request review.
Paul,
Jonathan is right, that is what I’m talking about and I’ll write about it and the benefits again this week.
You can get an introduction to it reading the post on “Building a Google Trust Box”
Your experiment is basically what I did last June where I switched to WP for a static site that uses pages extensively.
I made the blog a secondary aspect of the site.
Nicely done. I wonder if it is the interlinking of everything alone that is doing this for you, or if the static pages has much to do with it.
Sorry, a bit off subject here…I’m new to the whole blog thing and I’ve been seeing how much success people have been having with their web rankings. Particularly Google rankings.
What blog platform would you recommend to a beginner?
Hi Chantal;
I can say without reservation that WordPress hosted on your own server is the BEST platform for all sorts of reasons, including the fact that it is pretty easily configured in a search engine friendly way.
Pleased to meet you!
Eric
Chantal,
I’m a WordPress guy, even though I complain about it all the time, I guess kind of like being married
.
I see you have a Point2 website and I believe they have a blogging platform that is made to fit with your existing site.
Jay Thompson the Pheonixrealestateguy.com is the person to talk to about Point2.
Thank you guys. Yes, I have the P2 Blog but I have just been playing with it & think I’ll get better results out of a hosted solution.
I was thinking about using wordpress on a hosted server…but needed some more clarification from experts in this arena.
Thank you for your advice. Nice to meet you guys too!
Chantal,
If you need any help setting up WordPress there is plenty of information here and I’ll be glad to answer any questions I can or find the answers for you.
WordPress rocks!
I’d second that. I will be glad to help you where needed…
BTW- Happy New Year, Dave…hope your 2008 is awesome…
Eric
Wow, you guys are the best. I am certain I will have a gazillion questions once I get knee deep into the blog setup.
Happy New Year to everyone hear! Wishing you a successful year both personally and financially.
Eric,
Happy New Year to you as well. Awesome indeed!
Dave,
I meant to come back here a long time ago and kept forgetting. Earlier in these comments we talked about clean archives and I wanted to let you know that I dumped in in favor of a small piece of php code. It looks like this in right.php:
Recent Topics
you can change the “200″ to whatever you want and it will simply look like the rest of your links. Click my name on this comment and scroll down (on the right) to see how it looks.
man, the code didn\’t show…
Recent Topics
php get_archives(\’postbypost\’, 200);
you have to add the < ? thing at the front and back of php at the front and the semicolon at the back.
Ryan,
I’ve got to try this. Thanks for sharing it. I’ve got a couple of blogs I don’t have the archive in the sidebar. Since I’m widgetized I’ll use the code anywhere plugin and give it a spin.
I hope it works for you. I think the look is more natural with the site.
Ryan,
I can’t seem to get it to work with widgets activated. I’m using the widgetize anything plugin and the php code seems to be causing an error.
I’ll have to play with it more. I guess I don’t spend much time looking at the look of the site overall. Once I scroll to the bottom of the post/posts. I almost never scroll any further.
I do like the way the post look on your site.
Congrats Ryan, I hope to be launching a new blog soon, with the help of a friend. Keep us informed about how things are going.
Jim
In your “right.php” file, where you see the php code that is:
php get_links_list();
(that one is the blogroll)
someewhere else you would add:
? php get_archives(‘type=monthly’); ?
Except at the beginning before the first ? you would add
It’s also probably supposed to be inside
man,
I can’t seem to get it right…
(‘postbypost’, 200) not (type=monthly)
Ryan, the (‘type=monthly’) did nothing, but the code (’postbypost’, 200) broke it completely.
will the permalink set up cause this to break?
I’m using category postname
Ryan,
Now I only need 9 more comments to have my first 100 comment post. Wo Ho!
Dave,
See if this helps:
http://www.realestatetestblog.com/using-php-instead-of-srg-clean-archives/
Ryan,
You’re a genius 5 times over. Yes, that was exactly what was needed to get it working inside the Widgetize Anything widget.
The nice thing about this widget you don’t have to put the php code inside the widget code area so I can put exactly what you need to get this to work on any blog right here.
The code:
get_archives(‘postbypost’, 200);
Paste this inside the widget box and Ryan’s solution will live on your blog too.
Thanks Ryan, I love it.
Glad to help Dave….I can almost smell 100 comments
Yep. I changed mine over as well after Ryan showed me that…simple and easy. Dave–did you ever post the 7 interesting things that Lydia memed you with?
Eric,
I’ll be switching over several of my blogs using the code.
Lydia’s meme:
I can’t think of seven interesting things, but more to the issue I don’t have 7 friends I could lay a meme on.
Short answer. No I haven’t written a meme post : ) But I love Lydia, I’m a real fan of hers.
Lydia, your story is an interesting one. I often think about doing just the opposite….going to WP. I really like the clean look. Redirecting all those internal links sounds very tedious. I wonder if you are any happier now…your REW site looks nice and its been a while.