Now that Google PageRank update has come and gone, it’s time to finally stop talking about it, right?
However, the questions keep pouring in:
“Why didn’t I get any PR?”
“Why did my site that I barely pay attention to get PR3 and the one I work on every day, got zilch?”
“How come TGC got no PR rank? Why should I comment here?”
Fine, let’s talk a little bit about it, shall we?
Here are some additional resources for you to look up regarding PR:
- Mystery of Google PageRank Solved? - See what the difference is between Google visible PR and real PR.
- Do Sitelinks Convey More About How Google Rates A Site Than PageRank? - Randy Pickard gives some great insight into a different way of determining a quality website and when visible PR doesn’t really mount to any value.
- The New World – Top 90 Online Marketing Blogs (Rookies) - take a look at this list of influential blogs that are not getting enough recognition due to Pagerank’s influence on other people’s belief when it comes to measuring authority. Definitely check it out; who knows maybe your blog is on it!
Now let’s answer some QUESTIONS:
1. Anchor text
“Can you write a post on Anchor Text? I heard that it’s one of the key factors of SEO! All posts on Anchor Text Optimization was too difficult to understand!”
Done! Look for it this week.
2. My “fancy” RSS feed
“I was looking at your RSS and I love how it looks, it has a small thumbnail and 3 related posts. How do you do that. Thanks!” Brankica Underwood /Live Your Love blog
OK, you really got me puzzled, Brankica. After spending about half an hour yesterday trying to figure out an answer to your question, my conclusion is I HAVE NO IDEA!
We are both using Feedburner, so I check my settings to see if there is anything special that I am doing there, but no, I kept most of the default settings.
Maybe one of my readers could be of more help? Does anyone know why my feed shows thumbnails next to my posts?
Note: Devesh of Technshare.com is my go-to technical guy and he gave us directions on how to set up your feed (he was probably the one who did it for me to begin with.)
“Here’s the step by step guide to make a Fancy RSS Feeds
1. Go to Settings Page (Settings > Reading) check the box to show summary in RSS Feeds.
2. Next to show Related Posts – YARP (this is what ana is using here), it has option to show number of related posts in feed page.Bonus Tip – Use RSS Footer plugin by Yoast – You can add extra line of content to articles in your feed, defaulting to “Post from: ” and then a link back to your blog, with your blog’s name as it’s anchor text.”
3. Traffic generation for a Newly Published Post
This question is based on my Traffic Generation Step by Step: So You Published a New Post, Now What? post.
In that post I revealed the exact steps I take to bring the initial surge of traffic to my newly published posts.
“I know in your seven steps you have given us the suggestions you do, however I was wondering if you had modified your list or not.” Jayne Kopp
I went back to that post, Jayne, to see if I changed anything about the steps I take, and the answer is no, I still follow those steps and haven’t added any new ones.
4. Pinging
I was reading that the ‘built in’ ping service in word press will ‘ping’ even if you make a modification to your post. I also heard that is not good and can have you banned from the pinging service. I then read there are different pinging services that will not send the signal out umpteen times.
I am afraid to over-ping… yet I want to ping!!
I just want to effectively share… spread it around… but there is so much to read… and everyone has different ways….
Great question, and the answer is YES, it’s true that WP automatically pings services each time you edit your post and that CAN get you banned from pinging services.
Solution: I use MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer to avoid this problem. This plugin will prevent WP from pinging the same post repeatedly.
5. HTML Code Errors
Ana, you posted awhile back about a validator site which checked for code errors, and I have a lot. Can you recommend someone or a resoursce to clear problems for the Luddite’s like me? Linda Esposito
The first thing to do to fix most of the HTML errors is to choose the right theme for your blog.
By the “right theme”, I mean error-free SEO-optimized and yes, most likely, paid theme like Thesis, which is what I use on my blog.
Once you have the right theme, it’s important to keep your HTML code in check. You can use W3 Validator at http://validator.w3.org/ to see how valid your code is.
I’ve tried to find an automated way to fix those errors in the past and even tested a few pieces of software that claimed to fix the errors for you. Result? They completely corrupted my code - good thing I always back up my blog! 
Bottom line: you need a human to fix the errors for you and if you can’t do it yourself, hire someone.
I would recommend doing what I do: outsource your blog maintenance altogether and have someone check your HTML code, broken links, backup your database and respond to occasional technical emergencies on a weekly basis.
If you don’t know of anyone who can do it for you, send me a message via contact form and I will get you in touch with someone I use for this.
Many more questions answered during broadcast!
Next Week Post Schedule
LINK BUILDING and SEO are in focus this week on Traffic Generation Cafe.
Monday: 15 Scalable SEO Strategies for Newly Launched Websites
This is a great all-around SEO post that touches on the array of different ways to get your website moved up in search engine rankings.
Tuesday: Link Building Tip: How to Get 10 High-Quality Links In 30 Minutes Or Less
I’ll show you how I find high quality pages, not just sites, to link from back to your blog - all using free Firefox addon SEOQuake.
Wednesday: How to Use Your RSS Feed to Turn Junk into Treasure
This is an incredible link building strategy that you won’t find many other people talking about. You definitely don’t want to miss this one!
Thursday: Your Ultimate Anchor Text Tutorial - from Basic to Advanced
The promised post on how to properly used anchor text. Even if you think you know everything there’s to know about anchor text, you might want to read this one: I could still surprise you with a tip or two!
Friday: Blog Audit Friday
I haven’t chosen the blog to audit yet (remember, it will be one of my top commentators’ blog for this month), but I promise it’ll be good!
What was your excuse for not being there? Comment to show me that you’re alive!
I am a wife to a great husband of 13 years (here ya go, now I have to make changes to this sentence once a year), a mother to a beautiful and, no doubt, genius little girl, and a successful internet entrepreneur. I also devoted my life to Jesus Christ many years ago, and He remains my true priority, focus, and hope.
{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
Now THIS is what community is all about!
Nice one Ana - great interaction happening here too
Sorry you got jibbed on the PR there!
PS: I’d love to join in one ofyour webinars on Linkbuilding some day, might be good to throw some opinions and back your brilliance up
Would love to have you, Alex - anytime!
Thanks again for the wonderful Sunday Coffee, Ana.
OK, will get a paid Thesis theme, and hire a living, breathing, techie to clean up my errors.
I would be so afraid of making things worse, so that’s one area I will happily outsource.
Next stop, the contact form!
Thanks, Ana;).
Linda´s last blog ..Protecting Your Executive Image When Anxiety Attacks
My feeling exactly, Linda. I used to try to figure things out on my own, and then, after wasted hours, still ended up outsourcing the task.
Hi Ana:
I wish I could’ve been at the show live, but I am glad I can watch the recorded session. Maybe I am a bit cranky these days, but in reading your post that goes along with this video, I got quite aggravated at the question some people may have asked you. “why should I comment here?” How about because you receive basically a free education here? Top quality, high level information in given here on a daily basis. Commenting should not be reserved specifically for getting links. One needs to interact and how many times can this be said? I think it really aggravated me reading that!!
It’s imperative that people realize while PR may be a small indicator of a site’s importance, it’s a lagging indicator (as Gerald Weber from Serpd.com points out.) and I firmly believe that. In my own opinion, PR is oft times the LAST thing I look at when I comment on a blog. I understand people want their links on high PR sites, but I want my links on relevant, solid and educational sites as well. Why? Because mark my words, the blogs I choose WILL have higher PR in the future.
Thanks for letting me rant Ana!
Lisa
Lisa@ blog building basics´s last blog ..Internet Marketing- Hey Yo- You Talkin’ To Me
It’s surprising how many people would disagree with you, Lisa. Many do come for links only and EXPECT them in return for their commenting.
I am glad dot be included in your list of future high PR sites!
Ana,
I like always, I learn something new every time I come to your site. I am a MaxBlogPress. I put the optimizer on my site. I did not know how I was affecting my pingbacks with my editing.
I just wanted to mention a couple of things. You can check this out to be sure. The the code of the free themes listed at WordPress.org have been checked. I am always interested in themes that are easy for the Newbie. Right now I am testing 2010 Weaver, a free theme from WordPress.org. I love it. It is easy to work with and has plenty built into it.
My WordPress guy has suggested not using Feedburner. He said that it has a tendency to be unhappy with a lot of code. That shows up in your validator. I took it off and things have been sooo much better. Most new themes do not need a reader plugin and just run Google reader.
Sheila Atwood@newbielifeline.com´s last blog ..77 Best Practices for Landing Pages That Rise Above Status Quo
I did a check on Feedburner problems, Sheila, and found no info on it.
From what I understand, Feedburner feed functions independently of your site, so I am not sure how it can affect your internal code.
Can’t tell you one way or another about free themes being checked by WP. I would think it’s a good idea, but then again, there are plenty of themes that are not listed in WP and are still used by bloggers.
I’ve tried a few free themes before switching to Thesis and my main problem with them was the fact that they weren’t very SEO ready and I would’ve had to change a lot of code to fix that.
Thanks for coming by!
Hey Ana,
I can’t seem to get your video to work, it starts (and the red line starts moving right, showing that it’s loading) but then the video just freezes. Anyway, I fill figure this later (maybe same cache problems or something).
I am still amazed that people still believe in PR soo much. This just goes to show how much influence google has over the minds of new webmasters.
PR it’s just a metric (that as time passes by starts to count less and less in SERPs) that shows the quantity and somewhat the quality of your links. It doesn’t mean it’s proportional or directly responsible for your traffic.
By the way I have a website that has it’s index page ranked between nr 1 and 5 for something like 6-5 keywords (the keywords are Word + random random).
Also, although meta description it’s used on some degree by search engines but I think that it’s best use is for call to actions (to increase your CTR in search engines).
SE bots actually read your page hierarchically, that is following the pages html markups (which can be manipulated by css or other layout features)as they were written. You said the pages area read from top left till bottom right, and this is true if you were referring to the html, but if you are referring to the layout it’s a mistake, because I can float the footer in the top left corner and the bot would still read it last.
To see how a bot sees your content you can use lynx or a online simulator.
Alex@Jocuri´s last blog ..Masini de distrugere
Sorry you had trouble with the video, Alex.
I do agree that meta description is best used for potential searchers, however, it’s still has some SEO value and we should ignore it as such.
I wasn’t referring to the layout, Alex, but to how SEs read HTML.
Ana
very interesting video!
In regards to PR; i’ve been dropped down to a PR2 from a PR5 over the period I stopped blogging. Though This update (algo change update post Jan 26th) I’ve been blessed with some ‘sitelinks’ Webmaster is showing 7 while the search displays 3. Nonetheless = More real estate for the ‘brand’.
Though a few posts ago I talked about domain authority and its greater relevance then PR and hopefully will finish a case study on that soon.
It is a more useful metric.
Validation errors…arghh! I spent toooo long fixing them before and I would jump on the thesis wagon once I can cook up (or get someone to) a decent skin to keep it all unique.
Donace@hostgator rebate´s last blog ..Beard Trimmer Review
Turns out I have 7 sitelinks as well; what do ya know…
Look forward to your domain authority post; would love to see what your finding are.
Validation errors - there’s no way to escape them; just to make sure you are not committing suicide I suppose.
haha true; and the post is http://thenexus.tk/why-a-com-is-better-that-a-gov-and-edu-link/ about a week ago. Havent gotton round to ‘proving’ my point yet, but bare bones info is there.
Donace@hostgator rebate´s last blog ..Beard Trimmer Review
Left a comment on that post.
Hey Ana,
Thanks for the great video. I experienced a page rank update on one of my sites that I barely did anything with for a while, but one of my other sites that I have been active with didn’t see any kind of update so I was a little curious about the reason for this. It looks like you got some great posts coming up this week. I look forward to some more great advice and tips from you Ana, thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
John´s last blog ..How To Remove Moles From Your Face Naturally Using Cheap Household Items
Sounds like what happened to me and some of my blogger friends, John.
I heard some “rumors” that newer websites got short-changed in this update.
Great week coming ahead Ana; I am very much eager to read your posts for the week ahead. Yes I was on a Scientific Conference over the weekend and I had no internet access. I have missed the good stuff.
Jane.
Blogging Tips´s last blog ..20 WordPress Plugins to Enhance Commenter Experience
Thanks, Jane - hope to see you next Sunday!
Saw your email, by the way; will get back with you shortly.
Thanks for another great broadcast, Ana. I look forward to this week’s content
Warmly,
Mavis
Mavis Nong @ Free Marketing Training´s last blog ..Is Your Blog Completely Safe and Secure From Hackers
Thanks so much, Mavis!
On large pages, sometimes there are too many broken links to fix, it is recommended to use a 404 page with a list of links to various places on your website so that all this traffic does not get lost.
Very good point, Andreas.
Also, I don’t think it’s THAT big of a deal; readers are always smart to click on “home” if they really want to take a look at you.
Ana, I’m loving this Sunday coffee. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it.
Lots of tummy bugs going this week where the kids are concerned. A bit of an interrupted sleep prevented me from flying out of bed like the FTP Florist man. 
I am so thankful for the recording. Thanks for answering my questions on sharing content and ‘pinging’. I am going to be re listening, reading and taking notes to implement all your advice. I can hardly wait for this weeks posts!! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge so freely with such kind generosity. We all really appreciate it very much. ~Jayne~
Jayne Kopp´s last blog ..How to Build a Website for Your Online Business
I completely understand, Jayne - my daughter has been sick this entire week.
You are so very welcome, and you know you can always ask me a question!
Ana
Hi Ana,
Can’t wait to read your posts for this week! Especially for Tuesday and Wednesday topics.
May I recommend other 2 good tools (sites) which I usually use to check my website for 404 errors (you can also see this errors on Google webmaster tools) and hidden links as I think these 2 errors are also important for your PR as well.
1. 404checker.com/link-checker
2. yellowpipe.com/yis/tools/lynx/lynx_viewer.php - this is a good tool to see how your website look in the eye of search engine bot. If you have any hidden link, it will show on the bottom. And if your website is using osCommerce or any other shopping cart software, then you can see if your html links are SEO friendly or not.
Rose @ Samui Art Gallery´s last blog ..“Luncheon Of The Boating Party” Famous Painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
I love the fact that you wanted to recommend additional resources, Rose - that’s great!
However, I’ll have to disagree with their usefulness.
The first one only tells you links with errors for a SPECIFIC page looks like, not the entire website like Google Webmaster Tools does.
NAnd the second one shows what your website looks like in a text browser - meaning a browser that doesn’t use any images, just text, and not what it looks like to search engines.
If you would like to see what your website looks like to search engine, go to View => Page Source in your browser.
Hidden links are not a bad thing - it just could be that they are cloaked because they are affiliate links.
Hi Ana,
Thank you to give me chance for discussion with you on your blog.
I agree that 404 checker is not as good as Google webmaster tool (already mentioned that) but just for someone who are not really techie, to do a quick check on their site.
And this one is regarding Lynx: google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
Hidden link: mattcutts.com/blog/hidden-links/
Regarding hidden link, some time problem can happen because of W3C error.
Rose´s last blog ..“Luncheon Of The Boating Party” Famous Painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Thanks for the additional resources, Rose - I learned something new.
I see what you mean about Lynx. Not that search engine bots see it that way, but that’s a good way for us, humans, to imagine what we need to focus on the most - text.
Ana
Been observing a lot of sites this past few weeks, specifically with Google’s recent Pagerank update, and I’ve come to realize that the updates only occurred to sites that were already been live since April last year, and with the sites that have only been launched/live last June and onwards haven’t been updated yet. Also, my theory is that the recent update was just partial (probably with just the links that were indexed from April 4 - last week of June).
By the way, thanks for the mention Ana
Regards,
Jason
Interesting point, Jason - of course, it would make sense for my situation and a few other newer blogs.
And you are welcome!
Ana
Regarding PR… the older the domain, the more Google ‘values’ the domain.
One tactic is to buy older domains, create SEO rich landing pages and then create a link wheel of sites that all feed into your home site.
Regards,
Ivan
I used to be a believer in buying aged domains, Ivan, but I actually did do it with this blog (I didn’t buy one per se, just redirected my first blog domain that was PR2 and with tons of links to this domain name).
Needless to say, it didn’t work. So I am not sure at this point if Google is buying into such tactics.
Ana
I was so mad this morning to see that I can’t load the Shows tab on your fan page. It had something to do with actually allowing that app you need to be logged in.
I actually didn’t log in properly last time and had no problem with loading. But anyway I am so glad to see the broadcast here
I gotta say I was plesently surprised to see my blog between those 90 on a list you linked to. Thanks for pointing the post to us, I loved seeing my blog there, it is nice to be put on a list among those great blogs.
You provided a lot of info in this broadcast, I loved it. I learned a thing or two especially about linking from guest posts, which I didn’t do properly in my first two posts. But I learn something new every day.
Thanks for the great broadcast.
Brankica@How to blog like a star´s last blog ..10 ways to run your Facebook Fan Page into the ground
Sorry to hear you had trouble logging in, Brankica - I saw your post on FB and knew that you wanted to be there.
Glad you watched it anyway and got a few things out of it - see you back next Sunday?
Another awesome Sunday coffee Ana. You’re doing awesome job here
.
What a Fancy RSS Feeds Ana
!
ok, Here’s the step by step guide to make a Fancy RSS Feeds
1. Go to Settings Page (Settings > Reading) check the box to show summary in RSS Feeds.
2. Next to show Related Posts - YARP (this is what ana is using here), it has option to show number of related posts in feed page.
Bonus Tip - Use RSS Footer plugin by Yoast - You can add extra line of content to articles in your feed, defaulting to “Post from: ” and then a link back to your blog, with your blog’s name as it’s anchor text.
Thanks for sharing this great post. Looking forward to reading Monday’s post.
keep ROCKING.
Devesh´s last blog ..Education And Dedication – The Key To Becoming An Expert Blogger
Awesome, Dev - thanks so much!!!
I added your instructions to the post; I can’t believe I couldn’t remember how to set it up!
Thanks for the instructions, I will go set it up now
I am already using the plugin you mentioned, but I wanted the related posts and the thumbnail there
Brankica@How to blog like a star´s last blog ..10 ways to run your Facebook Fan Page into the ground
Me again (not for the links, I promise).
Devesh, I found the plugin, installed and deactivated it from showing related posts in the post (I just want it in RSS).
Now, it says something about copying some of its files to my Thesis folder. Since I am not going to use this plugin in posts, do I have to copy the file, I would hate to mess something up.
Can I just leave it as is since I only checked the box for related posts in the feed?
Or do I have to copy the file anyway? I am playing with this for half an hour and didn’t manage to get it to work.
Let me make sure Dev gets this question, Brankica - from what I know you don’t need to worry about it, but let’s check with the expert.
By the way, you can come back ANY time - for links or otherwise!
Hi Brankica,
Install the YARP plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yet-another-related-posts-plugin/)
Now Go to Settings > YARP > Display options for your website tab.
Uncheck that “Automatically insert rss feeds”.
There is no need of copying files to thesis folder.
Devesh´s last blog ..Are you an Impatient Blogger Well- Hold the Rush!
Thanks, Dev!
Thank you both. Now I need to figure out that thumbnail
But I love the new looks of my RSS.
Brankica@How to blog like a star´s last blog ..Keyword Questions from Wordtracker Research your market’s needs
Great talk this morning Ana! Thanks for all of the info (I just finished setting up my “category” pages) Can’t wait for next week’s posts and talk
Katie Goode @LivingAnxietyFree´s last blog ..Eternal Sunshine of the Optimist’s Mind
Hi Ana,
People seem to put to much into Google PR and definitely Alexa ranking. I didn’t get any PR either, but why would I, BG is only 2 months old. Does it matter, nah not really. I think a high PR attracts the spammers looking for links on High PR sites.
I am looking forward to your next weeks posts, wish I could be that organized.lol.
Pete
Pete Carr´s last blog ..6 Basic SEO Tips Direct From Google
PR only matters for acquiring new clients or advertisers, Pete.
It’s definitely not a great indicator of good linking opportunities, and we’ll talk more about it this week.
By the way, doing these Sunday Coffee sessions is what made me organized - now I know that I need to have all my posts scheduled a week in advance. Keeps me accountable!
I am trying to get my weeks worth of content done on a Sunday as well. Frees up the week for promotion and other important stuff.
Will join the next Sunday Coffee.
Pete
Pete Carr´s last blog ..6 Basic SEO Tips Direct From Google
I just wanted to add something. Ana is right about PR being a glue for advertisers, but here is a good thing about it, in case you don’t have PR.
If your blog fits well with someone’s marketing plan (being in a good niche, having a lot of comments or what ever they want) they still might be contacting you. They will ask for the proof of the traffic for example, but you still might get the ad.
This is what happened to me the other day with my niche website (whish I am not working on for months now). The site has a PR 1 for a while (1 is not much is it, lol) but I was approached by an advertiser who thought it fits perfectly with what they want.
They wanted to know how many page view I get per month on that site (the site is built on strong SEO foundations and gets more and more visitors each month without me ever doing anything on it).
The number of visitors, not the PR was what they wanted. I told them that the link to their business will be a no follow and they were OK with it. They just needed the targeted traffic. And Alexa, although not perfect, is a nice way to see if a blog is getting traffic or not.
So, although we would all love to have high PR, traffic is something that is more important when selling ads, in my opinion.
Brankica@How to blog like a star´s last blog ..10 ways to run your Facebook Fan Page into the ground
That’s a very good point, Brankica - I think (and hope) that advertisers are getting much smarter these days and are able to pass PR and focus on the real priorities like traffic and readers’ engagement.