Blog ranking changes
A lot of bloggers have noticed that there has been quite dramatic changes in the ranking of blogs. This is due to the fact that we had to make a change to our algorithm. We removed the links from blog posts and links from blogs from the ranking algorithm. This is only a temporary change until such time as we’ve optimized the link checking.
So, while you may be on top of the world at the moment, this may change again soon. We still believe that our Afrigator ranking algorithm is a good representation of a blog’s authority, thus the change is only temporary. We’ll let you know when it is back to normal.
For now, traffic and only traffic counts!
Manga said,
Wrote on September 21, 2009 @ 17:29
I think that traffic should be the primary if not sole, factor determining a blog’s ranking. In that regard, Up Station Mountain Club with close to 9 million hits is definitely the #1 blog in Africa – not some irregularly updated blog with 15,000 hits and 100 links.
I hope this temporary situation becomes permanent!
Robert Bravery said,
Wrote on September 21, 2009 @ 17:55
And here I thought it was all me. Doing such a good job. Thanks for bursting that bubble.
Although I think ranking is subjective, you’ve just proven that. It all depends on your algorithm. I suppose Afrigator has to build up a certain amount of trust and credibility. Why, because I see huge differences on some blogs when compared to the likes of Amatomu, who use a total different algorithm and base their rankings mostly on traffic. Not that that’s bad, it’s just a different point of view.
I suppose the best way of getting an accurate ranking of your blog is to take multiple ranking agents into account. See how close each are, and then draw a conclusion.
Never-the-less, well done Afrigator.
Tamaku said,
Wrote on September 21, 2009 @ 21:59
I wrote a snotty post on this very issue today
Chris M said,
Wrote on September 21, 2009 @ 22:25
Let’s just hope the linking (authority) comes back into the algorithm soon, because at the moment, it’s not a true reflection of the best blogs in Africa.
Robert said,
Wrote on September 21, 2009 @ 23:20
I think there has to be a certain balance between traffic and linking. A blog with 9 million hits, could maybe not be as popular as someone’s blog who has links coming in from everywhere with people talking about it. Proper people with proper opinions and real interest in the blogs.
I’m with Cris on this one. I hope the linking comes back.
Bloggers should be following blogs said,
Wrote on September 22, 2009 @ 06:43
[...] news and anything that will affect your blogs. Today I found out that Afrigator has changed their blog ranking algorithm, and so my blog will be affected. If the news were to be quite devastating, I can still have a [...]
Stii Pretorius said,
Wrote on September 22, 2009 @ 11:31
Thx guys. This all got us thinking a bit more even about ranking. Chris, it is coming back in some way or another as we do see it as an authoritative factor (sorry Manga), but we may even add more to it, like post frequency as it is indicative of how much time and effort a blogger put into his blog. We must just get the weighing right as not everything can contribute equally to the ranking, methinks… If we do look at post frequency, we’ll separate group blogs from individual blogs, etc… lots to think about anyway!
Thanks Robert and yes, you’re absolutely right. There is no right or wrong way. There may well be better and worse ways, which is what we’re after for sure!
If anyone have any suggestions, please do throw it into the mix!
Chris M said,
Wrote on September 22, 2009 @ 11:34
Glad to hear that it’s coming back. What’s important here is authority, not just traffic – it’s easy to burst out hundreds of keyword targetting posts to aquire lots of traffic and achieve a bounce rate of 110%, but that’s hardly a measure on the quality of the blog and I’d imagine that Afrigator wants their top 20 odd blogs to really be the top 20 and not the ones which blog out krap to acquire traffic
Manga said,
Wrote on September 22, 2009 @ 18:56
Hi Chris,
Rankings are about the most popular blogs (traffic and links) not about content/quality which cannot be determined by some algorithm. If we want to know about the “best blogs”, then we should turn to national/regional/continental blog awards for guidance. Again, the number of links to a blog does not determine its quality, neither does the number of visitors…
Chris M said,
Wrote on September 22, 2009 @ 19:25
@Manga – So you’re happy with Afrigator representing Africa’s blogsphere with a top 10 list of rubbish blogs? Don’t be silly.
The point here is that traffic alone or links alone or page rank alone is not sufficient and therefore an algorithm is used to encompas all these factors in such a way to get a good mix between traffic, links, authoriry amongst other things. Taking all these factors into account presents us with a far better list of blogs.
I have been blogging for 10 years and have won blog awards on more than one occasion, I’m well experienced in this field..
Manga said,
Wrote on September 22, 2009 @ 22:22
Hi again Chris,
I don’t have any problem with the use of any algorithm to determine blog rankings. However, I still insist that no amount of Algorithm can to determine what the “Best” blogs are. From where I stand a blog’s quality is determined by content, interface design, etc., and not by abstract algorithms which serve a different purpose.
So it is not the place of Afrigator to weed out “rubbish blogs” from its rankings or to skew the results in such a way that the blogs it considers “rubbish” (based on content, written by bloggers out of SA/Africa?) will be excluded. If that were the case, then the rankings would serve absolutely no value.
Anyway, let’s agree to disagree on this one without being disagreable.
I’m done with the issue.
Chris M said,
Wrote on September 22, 2009 @ 22:28
You should then easily be able to agree that an algorithm which takes traffic and links into account would be better than one which just takes traffic into account – the more determinants, the better.
Robert Bravery said,
Wrote on September 25, 2009 @ 10:13
Chris and Manga,
I think your both wrong and right in some areas. Most certainly a back links to a blog is a vote of confidence in the blog, but it certainly does not determine whether a blog is crappy or not. Chris your years of experience in this field should tell you as much.
In fact, one can buy links, if you have enough money. How does that then make your blog better than any other.
Anyway, what backlinks are counted. Only ones from Afrigator member, hardly a fair ranking of the popularity of the blog.
What’s crappy to one is pure pleasure to another. It’s the viewpoint of the reader.
Yes one can also buy traffic. This is why there is no right or wrong way. Afrigators algorithm and their ranking does not mean that this is the absolute scientific result of the top 20 blogs.
Manga, traffic is indeed a huge player when it comes to the popularity of a blog. But these can also be manipulated. I believe that Afrigator need to upgrade it’s a;algorithm, not only this time but on a regular basis as new factor present themselves and as they themselves, the Afrigator team. learn more.
The point is, as I said before, the Afrigator ranking is not the be all and end all of a blogs rank. To get an accurate idea, one needs to take into account many other different factors as well as other ranking systems.
AS an example many blogs have a higher Afrigator ranking than mine, but mine has a way higher Alexa ranking, or Compete or Quintcast. You see it’s all a matter of view point.
Lets just hope that the guys at Afrigator can get closer this time round. THen start working on it again for the nest iteration.
Chris M said,
Wrote on September 25, 2009 @ 13:02
@Robert – I am referring to backlinks from other blogs that are indexed with Afrigator, not just any backlinks – Sorry, I should have been more specific..
Robert Bravery said,
Wrote on September 26, 2009 @ 15:30
@Chris,
Ah, that makes it more specific. I would then suggest that the ranking should be qualified some how. For, there could be back links from blogs that are rated highly via some other method that are not registered on Afrigator.
Perhaps a more Qualified Afrigator Ranking, “Top 20 blogs in the Afrigator Universes” or something similar. This then gives some kind of context to the ranking system. Although it is infered, being more specific, will ease the hearts of those who are generally ranked higher on other systems but not so on Afrigator.
What do you think?
Stii Pretorius said,
Wrote on September 28, 2009 @ 11:22
FYI, sanity is restored. I’m still working on improvements and tweaks to get it better.
Just a note on the linking. Our reason behind this was that if you write good posts and your peers link to you, it is an indication of authority. If you get craploads of traffic of which most is bounced visits, it does not mean that you’re very authoritative and it means the system can easily be fooled into thinking you’re popular. We’re trying to avoid that by taking a number of things into account to get the best mix.
Chris M said,
Wrote on September 28, 2009 @ 19:35
Brilliant Stii, now when you look at the top 20, there are some great blogs there. Naturally I’m going to be biased because mine’s there, but that’s simply a by-product
Robert Bravery said,
Wrote on October 2, 2009 @ 22:38
Great Stii, I appreciate what you do. But how do you account for, if at all, for links from outside the Afrigator universe. There are some great blogs out there that perhaps peers linking to them, but perhaps they are not in Africa or registered with Afrigator.
I believe that one needs to qualify you ranking, just so that things are clear. I’m sure it will clear up a lot of missunderstandings
Emmanuel.K.Bensah Jr. said,
Wrote on October 7, 2009 @ 19:23
Many thanks, Stii, for making clarifications on my blog. Much appreciated; now await with bated breath on the future from hereonin…
Carlos Serra said,
Wrote on October 8, 2009 @ 18:19
My site, written in portuguese and number 1 in Mozambique, is now out of the ranking. Also due to the changes? Regards.
Chris M said,
Wrote on October 12, 2009 @ 10:27
From what I can tell, everything is back to how it was before this thread..
Wonkie said,
Wrote on October 12, 2009 @ 15:28
Stii – just a quick point I want to raise with you again re incorporating feed subscribers in some way into your ranking and tracking please – Wonkie now has over 5000 daily readers through confirmed google feedburner email subscriptions practically none of which will be captured through the current Afrigator daily tracking stats (only those feed readers who actually click through to the site from the email feed to enter a comment would be recorded)
Chris M said,
Wrote on October 12, 2009 @ 23:20
That’s unlucky
What do you value more, a lot of feedreaders or a high rank on Afrigator?
Wonkie said,
Wrote on October 12, 2009 @ 23:43
Chris that doesn’t make sense – the 2 appear to be mutually exclusive when they should be correlated (which is an important oversight assuming an afrigator rank actually considers the number of people reading a blog!)
Chris M said,
Wrote on October 12, 2009 @ 23:47
It’s a tricky one Wonkie, because Afrigator won’t be able to take that into account, unless they can integrate with Feedburner somehow and then it’s a little unfair on those who don’t use feedburner. I feel your pain though, I just don’t think there’s a way for them to take this into account
Oluniyi David Ajao said,
Wrote on October 20, 2009 @ 11:39
The Truth About Afrigator Rankings…
A recent temporary change in algorithm for blogs ranking by Africa’s most authoritative blogs aggregator attracted a lot of debate and suggestions. After complaints by bloggers, Afrigator soon made a formal announcement via their blog: Blog ranki…
Yomi Adegboye » Another Look at Blogging said,
Wrote on October 21, 2009 @ 00:16
[...] easy for bloggers to get sidetracked in trying to get high rankings. I have the recent uproar over a temporary change in Afrigator’s ranking algorithm in mind [...]
Andy said,
Wrote on November 30, 2009 @ 08:22
This is Ok but backlink is very important in determining a site’s popularity.
Robert Bravery said,
Wrote on December 8, 2009 @ 21:14
Determining a blogs popularity is so difficult. For links even more so. What happens if there are links to ones blog outside of Afrigators universe. Does that mean it is not a top blog.
Also what is popularity, 1000 backlinks, or 20 000 page views a month. Back links are one time. So I can have a 10000 links in Feb of 1994, but none since and only has 500 page views now. Is that blog considered more popular than one who has 1000 recent links and 30 000 views a month , consistently for the last year or more.