Yesterday MassLawBlog was added to Blawg. Excellent!

One of the main reasons I really wanted to get listed on Blawg is that Blawg’s PageRank is 6/10.

Let me explain: Google ranks web sites with their PageRank algorithm. From their site:

PageRank Technology: PageRank performs an objective measurement of the importance of web pages by solving an equation of more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Instead of counting direct links, PageRank interprets a link from Page A to Page B as a vote for Page B by Page A. PageRank then assesses a page’s importance by the number of votes it receives.

In short, Google checks to see how many pages link to your site (the more the better). Then, they take it a step further and look at how “important” the sites are that link to you. So, if you have 100 links from sites that have a page rank of 0, it doesn’t help as much as having 10 links from sites with ranks of 6 or 7. You can see a page’s rank if you have the Google Toolbar.

And Google is a little bit confused as to how to rank blogs. Since they just released BlogSearch, they may be able to assign separate ranks to blogs and sites, but for now, every site and blog has a page rank.

Right now, MassLawBlog.com has a page rank of zero. But, to be fair, the site hasn’t been around long, and only has a few inbound links.

On a side note, Google’s page that explains PageRank technology has a Page Rank of 7/10. I would think it should be higher….?

Summary: When you’re looking for sites to link to you, pay attention to their page rank. If you can land a link from a high-ranked site, it’s a very good thing.

P.S.- And yes, this blog has a page rank of zero…..I’m working on that!

Popularity: 10% [?]

The second day of promoting the mass law blog is dedicated to other law firm related sites. There’s some give and take here.

The Goal: Get other sites to link to MassLawBlog.com

You can’t really just email bloggers and say “Hey, could you link to my site?” It just doesn’t work that way. You need to let your content attract links. But there are some other ways to get other bloggers to notice your site.

1. Link to them- By nature Bloggers are ego driven. That’s not a value judgement, it’s just a simple fact. Why have a site if you don’t want people to read your work and like it? With this said, I’d say 90% of bloggers check their stats. Whether they are using a free service like StatCounter or are using log analysis software, bloggers look to see who’s coming to their site…..and where they’re coming from.

When bloggers look at their referrer log, they often check out sites that send them traffic. And sometimes, they’ll link back to that site. Sure, it’s a longshot, but it’s worth doing.

In addition, most blogging software products have TrackBack. So bloggers can easily see sites linking to them. Which leads me to my next point….

2. Leave comments- When a blog allows comments, they usually have a URL field. This allows you to both leave a comment and a link to your own blog. This is HUGE. But you have to be careful here. You have to leave quality comments, or you’ll either be banned, or worse, you’ll get a bad reputation.

So find blogs that have relevant content, and leave a comment. Not only will you appease someone’s ego, (which may, in turn, get them to link to your blog sitewide) you’ll also have a small link to your site. By small, I mean that you’ll have one single link, attached to your comment. So it’s not something that is easy to find, or viewable on the main page, but it is a link nonetheless.

Summary:
When you’re trying to get links to your blog, the normal approach of asking for a link isn’t necessary. Instead, you can use commenting (but not comment spam) to your advantage.

Popularity: 4% [?]