How the Rankings work... or, why is my blog going backwards?
I've had a few questions about this lately that I thought it would be better to respond with a post rather than try and answer each question individually. The questions usually go something like this;
Could you explain how the popular ranking works. I am confused as yesterday I had 33 visits against my blog and today I have 26 - this seems to be going backwards!!
How do the Most Visited Blogs work?
The rankings for this work on a rolling 7-day period. For example, if we take Sunday to Saturday and the blog has been visited like such;
Sun - 7 visits
Mon - 10 visits
Tues - 13 visits
Wed - 9 visits
Thur - 10 visits
Fri - 16 visits
Sat - 18 visits
The total amount would show 83 visits for the week. However, when Sunday comes around again we lose the 7 visits credited from last week but pick up only 5 for this Sunday. Therefore our new total would be 81 instead of 83 reducing the blog in the rankings (perhaps!). It may depend on what is happening for all the other blogs as well.
You can visit your own blog but it will only ever be counted once within a 24 hour-period.
How do the Most Faved Blogs work?
This algorithm is a little more secretive because it wouldn't be fair if it could be 'gamed'. So before I pass on any hints permit me to share the rationale behind this.
The reason for the Faved Blog feature was to try and quantify member's blogrolls. If you've ever traversed the gardening blogosphere you will have noticed that most blogs contain a roll of links pointing to other garden blogs that the owner likes. Each blog may share some that are the same and then have a list completely different to others. It can be best illustrated with this Venn Diagram.
Blogger A may share some blogroll real estate with Blogger C and Blogger B. Blogger C may then share some with Blogger B. So although each blogger may have blog links that are only shown on their blog they still have some that are in common with others.
We could assume that each blogger has 3 levels of links: (1.) ones that are only shown on their blog - A, B, C (2.) are similar to other blogs - AB, AC, BC and (3.) some that all three share - ABC.
Therefore, links that are in the ABC portion would be ranked higher than AB, AC and BC links, and these would be higher than the A, B and C links. Then if you take this further you will notice that if a blog of high calibre (Google uses PageRank to determine this) were to *vote* for blogs in ABC these may be worth more than a low calibre blog voting for ABC.
If I haven't confused you yet then you're doing okay!
While Google uses PageRank to work out who's vote has more weight, Blotanical has its own algorithms based on a few different variables to determine who's votes cast more weight for the Faved Blog ranking. Needless to say you may have more people Faving your blog than another but still be ranked lower than them.
Apart from this I can't reveal much more other than to say, if you're wanting to get higher rankings for your blog in the Most Visited and Most Faved lists then it pays to get involved with the community. Meet more bloggers, leave worthy comments on their blogs, link to them, read them and have some fun - it will definitely help your cause.
BTW - don't become obsessed with it otherwise you will begin to look spammy.
Comments
Stuart, will you answer these questions for the newcomers?
1. Where do you have to click to get your visit counted? ... is it only on the Most visited page and the Most favoured page?
2.Does it count whenever you see a "visit blog" link? .. like from the search pages
3.Does it count as a visit if you visit a site from the picks pages?
These were things it took me awhile to figure out and I'm sure some of the new comers to Blotanical don't know the answers.
Is there another way to give exposure to blogs other than on a weekly basis? Top users are shown on a 24 hour basis, would it be possible to show top blogs on a 24 hour basis, or would that be way too much work? That way, different blogs other than the ones that always show on the popular visited page would have more exposure.
Posted by: Crafty Gardener | May 12, 2008 10:11 PM
Thanks Stuart. That pretty much clears it up!!
Posted by: LetsPlant | May 13, 2008 12:55 AM
Cheers for the questions Crafty.
1. Basically, any time you visit a blog from a link on Blotanical (apart from within Picks which is separate because it works on RSS feeds rather than URL's) your visit is counted. This visit becomes a *vote* for that site and is then tallied.
When a link from the Faved Garden Blog or Meet Garden Bloggers widget is clicked this also counts towards the tally.
2. Yes. The "VISIT BLOG" links count toward the tally as outlined above.
3. I have been tracking this for some time trying to find ways to do what you are asking - obviously I'm not that big on stale content either. So I'm always trying to find ways to keep things fresh and moving along with the hope that other blogs will get to enjoy some of the limelight too.
Alas, a daily list will simply reflect the weekly list - especially for the first 5-10 pages. I'm trying to find other ways to do this but have been unsuccessful so far. I am currently considering whether adding the Picks views will be of any benefit and if so this may become part of the mix. Stay tuned....
Posted by: Stuart | May 13, 2008 6:08 AM
I would love for the picks page to be counted towards the visits too. That's the main thing I use to visit blogs now that we have those lovely icecream flavored picks that you worked out. Thanks for trying to inform us about this information!
Posted by: Cinj | May 13, 2008 10:46 AM
Please don't become to obsessive with lists and whos at the top etc. If a blog has good, interesting content and nice pictures it will be read.
Stuart you do a great job but, in my view, don't become too fixed on lists. Much more important is: can I find my favourite blogs and their new posts easily and can I browse and find new blogs to read.
I hope Blotanical remains a fun site and never gets to serious!
Best wishes Sylvia (England)
Posted by: Sylvia (England) | May 13, 2008 6:26 PM
Good points Sylvia but never fear... Blotanical will always remain a fun place. My aim is to make it the Disneyland of Blog Directories.
As for the lists, unfortunately they are the best way we know how to organise information - in this case, blogs. The problem always becomes who should be at the bottom and who should be on the top. That's why these discussions keep coming up...I guess. Mainly because no-one wants to be on the bottom!
Posted by: Stuart | May 13, 2008 9:48 PM
Thanks for reminding people not to get obsessed by the numbers, Stuart. But since the numbers are there, I do want to understand them. So here are a couple of questions:
1) What is the User Ranking? Is it some sort of compilation of stuff that indicates how active you've been?
2) Is there any limit to the number of picks you can make?
3) How do you find yourself on the "Popular" page? Does one of the numbers on one's plot correspond to one's rank on that page? Because if so, I haven't figured out which one. And if not, then this is a fourth ranking; how is it determined?
Thanks for taking the time for this--and thanks for building the site!
--Kate
Posted by: theManicGardener | May 14, 2008 9:24 AM
All good questions Kate.
1. The User Ranking is basically the old Top Blotanists ranking. It still has some bearing for the Most Active Users but isn't the 'be-all-and-end-all'.
2. No. You can Pick as many posts as you like, the only limitation is that you can only Pick the same post once and obviously the number of posts available to Pick.
3. For the time being, the only way to do this is to scroll through the pages. I was, at one stage, contemplating whether this should be ranked on the My Blogs tab in your Plot alongside the Faved Ranking. If members are keen to have this data then it's quite a simple process to add it. Let me know if you might find this advantageous.
At the moment I haven't started ranking Faved Blotanists either and I'm not sure that I will - who knows, there may be a need for it in the future.
I hope this answers all your questions.
Posted by: Stuart | May 14, 2008 2:15 PM