A little known Google command can tell you what kind of company your blog is keeping. This is important because part of the way that Google ranks blogs and other sites is based upon their “neighborhood”, or “theme”. So, the question is, what kind of company are you keeping?
Here’s how to find out: Enter this, sans brackets into Google: [related:www.yourblog.com] – Now take a a careful look at the results.
- Are those results on topic with the theme of your site?
- Are they authorities in your niche?
- Or are they totally unlrelated?
Part of the problem with running blog networks is the tendency to link to every blog in a network, from every page, on every blog, in that network. This can create confusion as to what the theme of a particular blog is about. Just try it on say, Gizmodo for example. I would have expected to see Sony, Panasonic, other tech related sites, and although there are tech related sites in there, there are also political sites within the Gawker network.
Im not saying Gizmodo have trouble ranking, far from it, they’re big enough to rank for whatever they post. With smaller niche blogs though, this could be a dampner on rankings and thus traffic.
So, what kind of company are you keeping?