Blogging search engines
To be heard above the din and noise of the Internet world is not an easy task. Search engines, which are used to rank web sites, have been found to be lacking in many respects while ranking blogs. The reason is simple. A blog is a dynamic web log. The freshness of information and of posts inside the blogs is vital for rating blogs. The traditional search engines with their antiquated technology, takes weeks to evaluate and rank web sites. In case of blogs, the response time is measured in terms of hours if not minutes. Visitors to blog sites want to know the response of bloggers to live events and news. This fundamental difference between blogs and web sites gave rise to a new technology for ranking blogs; the blogging search engine.
The dynamics of blogging is such that updated blog posts have to be registered by search engines and latest information being provided to visitors. This has given rise to pinging. Pinging is a means to let search engines register changes in blogs and blog postings. The change ideally should get reflected in search engines instantaneously. Search engines facilities provided by Technorati and Ice Rocket use pinging to register changes. Bloggers can also use feedburner to ping many search engines simultaneously. Traditional search engine technology is still being used but is likely to become outdated soon.
Realizing the potential of blogs and the need for a separate search engine for them, popular search engine providers like Google, Yahoo and MSN have joined the blogging search engine bandwagon. Each of these service providers has launched their version of search engine for bloggers. These also use pinging technology to rate blogs. Providers like Technorati and IceRocket have created a niche for themselves in the blogging arena. They offer many other tools and facilities to bloggers to optimize their blog and achieve higher ranking on search engines.
Now this leads us to the question of designing your content to make it search engine friendly. It should always be remembered that there is no substitute for good content. Having said that, some fine-tuning may be required to achieve higher ranking on search engines. Since pinging is related to changing of content, it is recommended to keep adding to your blog as frequently as possible. This would refresh your blog on search engines and ensure good ranking. Since many blog search engines read the title of the blog, it is prudent to give thought to this aspect. Relevant, topical headings would give better results. Linking to other sites can also affect your blogs ranking on search engines