It's been common knowledge among bloggers for awhile that blog posts will generally rank high on Google in any particular topic area. And it's generally acknowledged by most everyone that if you want to be seen online, you want to be seen on Google.
What makes blog posts so attractive to the Google search engine? Several things, which are laid out well in this Microcontent article from way back in 2002: Google Loves Weblogs: How Weblogs Influence A Billion Google Searches a Week
According to the article there are two primary reasons that Google loves weblogs:
Weblogs are an interesting combination of freshness and persistance. The 'front page' of a weblog changes everyday as new information is added, but the automatic archives provided by most weblog software ensures that earlier posts persist. In many ways this is ideal for a search engine--fresh content and links that don't rot.
At the ACE conference I attended last week, it occurred to me that I didn't hear people talk about Google page rank as a marketing tool (there may have been talk, but I didn't hear it). And I think Google page rank is important. Not to the point of obsession, but if we want Extension to be the 'go to' place for educational content and information on certain topics, they we have to be the 'find it' place when people go searching for that educational content and information.
If you think maybe this isn't a good enough reason for weblogs in Extension all on its own. That's okay. I have 4 more reasons to offer over the next couple of days....
Posted by dcoates at June 29, 2004 09:33 AMAnother reason that google loves Web logs is because they tend to be built with Web standards. Google loves Web standards.
More correctly, google loves sites that it can read. Sites that are built with a table based layout are difficult for google to decipher because the HTML markup (redundant) is usually semantically meaningless. Google doesn't know what is important info on the site.
Long live Web standards. Or more correctly, DIE tag soup!
Posted by: Matt on June 29, 2004 08:54 PMGood point, Matt!
I've heard people say--well, maybe Google shouldn't be as important as it is. But in the world we live in right now, Google is important. It's generally the number one place people go to find what they want on the web. And if they're not finding what we have, then all our information and knowledge isn't really doing much good.
Posted by: Deb on June 30, 2004 10:48 AM