All Entries Tagged With: "authority"

What Is An Authority Blog And How Do You Create One?

There is a concept in business blogging that has become popular and it bears some explaining. The word “authority” gets used a lot, but it’s a loaded word. What does it mean?

To become authoritative in one’s niche means something different to just about everyone. From an SEO perspective, to be authoritative means that the search engines consider your website an authoritative source. That gives you some search enging clout, but it doesn’t guarantee you any business. In a word, to become authoritative from an SEO perspective, is to be at the top of the rankings for a specific key phrase. That key phrase may or may not be one that is competitive or that receives a lot of searches each month.

If you query the phrase “Article Content Provider” without the quotes you’ll see that ArticleContentProvider.com is listed in the No. 1 position. See those three links under the Google snippet? Those links are placed there by Google and they are not paid for. They are indication that Google considers ACP an authoritative site for the key search phrase “article content provider.” But there are only about 58 searches for that specific phrase each month. That isn’t a lot is it?

No, it’s not. But those 58 searchers are buyers. They may not buy today, but if someone is searching for an article content provider then they are in the market for an article writer. All it takes is about 10% traffic-to-conversion ratio to build a modest income from a search phrase like that. Do it a few times with different search phrases and you can build a good business. There is only one problem. You can’t make yourself an authority site. That’s a classification reserved by the search engines alone. It is their editorial judgment.

However, you can do some things on the technical side of building your site to move your reputation in that direction. Success is not guaranteed.

The Human Side Of Authority

Another way authority is judged is by human value. What do your readers think? It is very subjective.

You can build an authoritative site that attracts a lot of visitors who hang on your every word, but that is hard to do. Building authority online in this manner is no different than building authority off line. It is based on your own personality and character. You essentially become a cult of personality. Real world examples include Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Oprah Winfrey. Online, you’ll find the same phenomena in personalities like Andy Beal, Darren Rowse, and Brian Clark. Each is considered an authority in their own right on a particular topic, both by the search engines and by a large number of admirers.

Do you have to have that kind of clout to succeed online? While it’s great if you do, it isn’t necessary. For every Brian Clark there are thousands of small business people churning out a living online. They may be authorities in their own small space, locally or globally, but their crowning achievement is not necessarily a label, but their influence within their small circle.

Let’s be careful how we use the word authority. It means different things to different people. The real goal – for all of us – is to connect with real people, build solid SEO strategies into our web businesses, and see an increase in the harvest.

Authority Blogging: What Is It And Should You Do It?

Listen to the blogging gurus and they’ll tell you to make yourself an authority. That’s good advice, but let’s be clear. An authority blog is not some unique animal as if you are feeding a beast. It takes time to build yourself up into an authority. It doesn’t happen overnight and it certainly doesn’t come easy. That’s not to say it isn’t worth it.

It may very well be worth your while to build yourself into an authority in your niche. There’s nothing wrong with it. But there is a time commitment. And you could just as easily fall on your face trying as you can succeed.

So what does it take to be an authority?

For starters, it takes a lot of knowledge. You have to know your industry inside and out. You have to know your territory, your competition, and yourself. And you’ve got to be able to communicate that in a meaningful way. It’s easier said than done.

Becoming an authority is like making a big splash in a large pool. It’s not the same as being a big fish in a small pond. That’s not authority. That’s bigheadedness, and you don’t want that.

I’m all for bloggers who want to position themselves as the authority within their niche. But if that’s what you want, you are better off writing your own blog. You are much better off making yourself the authority than relying on someone else to make you an authority. That rarely works.

How To Benefit As A Guest Blogger

Guest blogging has become one of the best ways to promote your own blog online. Similar to article marketing it does have its advantages with slight differences. First and foremost, you aren’t submitting one article to several sites at once. With guest blogging, you submit one original article to one blog and see if it is accepted. If so then you don’t want to send it out anywhere else. If rejected then you might rewrite it and submit it elsewhere.

There are several benefits to being a guest blogger.

1. As always, you get a link back to your blog. If you are guest blogging on a high authority site then that link could count as a valuable link for you
2. You can also get a big boost in credibility. If the blog you are guest writing for is a high authority blog written by a person with a lot of credibility then the readers of that blog will see your relationship as something of an endorsement from your host.
3. Of course, you’ll always get some traffic from a well-written blog post on another blog. More traffic will always be in your favor.
4. Increased exposure in the marketplace. Getting your name into as many places as possible is a must in today’s online business climate. Guest blogging does that well.

To really benefit from guest blogging, it helps if you have something to offer those you are guest blogging for. Read their blogs and comment from time to time. Understand the types of content that they use on their blogs and tailor your guest post to their audience. That will go a long way to making you more credible among your host’s readership.

Has Your PageRank Dropped Unexpectedly?

There are plenty of reasons why PageRank might drop. But one of the chief reasons you could see a drop in PageRank is if you write to your blog less often. I have a blog that I wrote to daily for a year and within 6 months I had achieve a PageRank 5. After one year of daily blogging I scaled back to writing just when I had the time. It averaged out to a couple of times a week. Within 6 months my PageRank had dropped back down to a PageRank of 4.

This is an object lesson. You should write to your blog daily. It will increase your credibility and authority. Anything less than daily blogging will provide fewer benefits.

Notice that the quality of my blog posts did not decline when I wrote less often. The quality has always been high, but now I write less often. That’s a key indicator for Google that your blog is less authoritative than your competition’s is. Don’t let them think that about you. When Google decides that your blog is less authoritative, so will your readers. That’s why you need to write every day.