This post is in response to a statement made on the PAII forum indicating that you will have higher Blog PageRank by using a sub-directory blog such WordPress instead of Google sub-domain Blogger defined with a CNAME.
It is NOT true that having your BLOG posts physically stored on your own domain increases your Blog Page Rank. If it were true, then you would see your inbound links to your blog and your inbound links to your main web site match, when using the LINK: command in a Google search and we will prove below this is Absolutely NOT THE CASE.
Acorn encourages ALL INNKEEPERS to learn the basics of internet marketing (Blog or Website) so in an effort to help cover these blog topics we are opening up our "School of Blog” Webinar on July 7th for any Innkeeper who wants to better understand blogging, and the topic of Page Rank in relation to your blog. Please join us. We will cover the following Page Rank information in depth at that time.
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Page Rank is nothing more than an mathematical formula that determines your site’s popularity based on links (IE: Votes) that include Incoming, Outgoing, Internal, etc. and how their value contributes to your site’s rank.
When you check your page rank you can choose any tool - but we like the first one, because it lets you check more than 1 URL at a time.
Try an Alternate Page Rank Checker
Remember to make sure to check both your website address and your blog address for respective page ranks.
Sample URLS:
- www.mickeymouseinn.com (This is a website URL)
- blog.mickeymouseinn.com (This is a CNAME Sub-Domain BLOG URL)
- www.mickeymouseinn.com/blog (This is a WordPress style Sub-Directory URL)
Though there are many Page Rank Explanations on the web, this site link is pretty easy to understand.
http://www.ianrogers.net/google-page-rank/
Let’s use an example Jeff Logan provided on the PAII Forum to prove this.
- John F. Craig House
Step 1: Go To Google and in the search box type:
link:johnfcraig.com
Look at each result as counted by Google as (a link/vote) for the johnfcraig.com WEBSITE. Remember this command is looking at the incoming WEBSITE links, not the incoming BLOG links – we’ll cover that next.
There are a total of 13 links/votes being counted toward the johnfcraig.com WEBSITE
- www.johnfcraig.com/blog (5 links from their blog point back to their main site)
- dir.yahoo.com (1 link)
- www.insideout.com (1 link from insideout.com website – not from their blog)
- www.funnj.com (1 link) www.channelcraig.com (1 link) www.bbonline.com (1 link)
- www.funnewjersey.com (1 link) www.missmollys-inn.com (1 link)
- www.johnfcraig.com (1 link pointing back from johnfcraig.com’s website, not their blog)
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NOW let’s look at each LINK as counted by Google for the johnfcraig.com/blog BLOG
Step 2: Go To Google and in the search box type:
link:johnfcraig.com/blog
Look at each result as counted by Google as (a link/vote) for the johnfcraig.com/blog BLOG (remember this command is looking at the incoming BLOG links, not the incoming WEBSITE links.)
There are a total of 29 links/votes being counted toward the johnfcraig.com BLOG
- www.insideout.com/blog (26 links coming from Jeff’s own insideout.com/blog BLOG pointing to johnfcraig.com/blog BLOG pages)
- www.johnfcraig.com (2 links from the johnfcraig.com WEBSITE pointing back to their blog)
- www.johnfcraig.com/blog (1 link from the johnfcraig.com/blog pages to the blog)
It is important to note that the 13 links/votes that are counted for the WEBSITE are NOT included in the 29 links counted for the BLOG.
So, if having your BLOG stored on the same directory as your WEBSITE really did “Naturally” help your BLOG Popularity then why doesn’t Google’s LINK: command show these links cross-referencing between the blog and the website?
Because IT DOES NOT MATTER whether you have your BLOG pages stored on your Website or on another server, each individual Page Rank stands alone. One Page Rank calculation is made for your WEBSITE, another totally different Page Rank calculation is made for your BLOG. (Just as you check Page Rank for each, they are not combined.)
DO NOTICE that the majority of the www.johnfcraig.com/blog popularity links are coming from Jeff’s own innsideout.com/blog pages.
Not that this is a bad thing, to drive up page rank you need to have quality links to the BLOG created and chosen by Google.
BUT DO NOTE THAT THIS is a major contributing factor as to why the johnfcraig.com/blog Page Rank is at a 4 matching the same Page Rank as the website. NOT because they have their blog stored on the same machine in a Sub-Directory using Word Press.
You simply need to have more quality links to your blog.
I did a case study on close to 50 innkeepers who either use Google CNAME blogs (blog.url.com) or WordPress Blogs (url.com/blog) to prove the concept above.
In most cases, in both Google CNAME and WordPress BLOGS, the customer’s website typically ranked 1 Page Rank higher than their blog.
- I found 3 out of 21 WordPress Blogs where the Page Rank to the Website and the Page Rank to the Blog were exactly the same at 4.
- I found 2 out 24 Google CNAME Blogger Blogs where the Page Rank to the Website and the Page Rank to the Blog were exactly the same at 4.
The majority of the remaining inn blogs (both WordPress and Google CName Blogs) typically had the Website Page Rank 1 higher than the Blog Page Rank.
Want to see the all the findings? Click Here.
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Finally, another topic also mentioned on the PAII forum.
You may have noticed Jay Karen’s PAII Innkeeping Blog move from a page rank of 3 to a 5.
(I cannot verify the 3, because I never checked this before Jay changed platforms) But this IS NOT because Jay moved platforms from Google Blogspot to WordPress.
Jay’s old Innkeeping blog was on Blogspot. I had recommended he set a CNAME multiple times, but he never did.
- There were 54 posts on the old Blogspot blog, with 0 popularity links.
- On the new WordPress Blog (with a URL / not a Sub-directory) the new PAII Blog is counting 126 posts, with 19 popularity links.
It wasn’t because Jay moved to WordPress that made his Page Rank jump, it was because the new blog now has actual links/votes pointing to it that Google counts thus increasing it’s Page Rank.
This is not unusual to see.
Point in case.
In less than 30 days Google took the new blog.bedandbreakfastfoodie.com BLOG (never been online before) from a 0 page rank to a page rank of 3. A bigger jump by 1 than Jay’s Innkeeping Blog.
And remember, this was a never before released site, where the blog posts are created with Google Blogger using a CNAME.
To wrap up: Page Rank and a specific platform such as WordPress or Google Blogger are not inherently related. It’s all about the incoming quality links as I’ve proven above.
When reviewing the Inn Blogs in the spreadsheet, remember, many customers have built these themselves. This discussion is all about the SEO, Page Rank and Data, and not the look and feel. That discussion is for another time.
Lisa Kolb
President and Co-Founder
Acorn Marketing
Educating our Industry One Innkeeper at a Time...
