NZ Blog Rankings FAQ

It’s almost time for posting the July NZ Blog Rankings. Every month after posting a get a rash of queries about the list, and requests from bloggers for inclusion. So here as list of frequently asked questions which readers can consult.
Don’t hesitate to ask if your question is not covered.

---

1: What is the NZ Blog Rankings?

Produced monthly, usually on the first of the month,  it is a list of NZ blogs, ranked by their activity.

2: Why bother ranking NZ blogs?

Because some people see a need for it. Here are some possible reasons for this

• Some will just use it as a list of NZ blogs with links they can investigate.
• Others are more interested in the blog activity.
• NZ bloggers themselves may be interested to see where they rank, and how well other blogs with a similar agenda, or speciality, rank.
• Some bloggers may use the list as way of advertising their blog – a list of links attracting readers

There are no doubt other reasons, but the fact that bloggers want to be included, or bloggers and readers keep referring to the list indicates it has a use. Every month I notice a surge of activity by readers checking out the blog links on the list.

3: How are blogs ranked?

Several different ranking methods have been attempted in New Zealand. For example, using the Technorati or Alexa ranking systems.  Each have their adherents and critics. In the end I concluded that ranking using actual blog statistics is probably the most useful and objective method. Blogs are ranked by visit numbers for the month, and page view numbers are also included.

4: Why are many NZ blogs not included?

The statistics used in the blog rankings are obtained automatically and need participating blogs to include a site meter to gather the data and to allow automatic access to the data. Many bloggers already do this for their own information. But not all blogs have site meters, or allow public access.

5: How do I include my blog

Just contact me using the contact form below or in About me. Let me know your blog URL and the URL for your sitemeter (this isn’t necessary if you have installed a link or widget on your blog that I can find).

I am happy to answer queries about the process but suggest that bloggers at least attempt to install a suitable site meter before proceeding.

6: What site meter should I use

That’s up to you – providing I can automatically access the data. Unfortunately, at this time the inbuilt Blogger and WordPress.com stat meters don’t allow access. Ones that do currently used by NZ bloggers include, in order of decreasing popularity):

• Statcounter
• Flagcounter
• Bravenet
• Extreme
• ShinyStat
• GoStat

7: How do I allow public access to my stats?

A few meters allow public access by default. Sitemeter and Statcounter need setting the access to public. It pays to read the instruction for installation.

For Statcounter:

Go to Config.>Control User Access and Public Stats.>Choose “All stats are public.

8: What about mistakes?

We all make mistakes – even with an automatic system. Contact me using the form below if you come across a mistake and I will attempt to fix it. Mistakes are most likely just after first inclusion in the ranking database.

9: Why do some blogs rank a lot lower than expected?

usually this is because the blog’s site meter has stopped recording and sometimes happens after a blogger has reformatted their blog. Eventually the numbers get really low and I check the blog. If the site meter has been removed I usually delete the blog from the list.

10: How do I exclude my blog?

I generally add NZ blogs with publicly available stats I come across. If you find you are included and you want to opt out just contact me and I will delete your blog from the database.

If you have another question or wish to include (or exclude) your blog on the ranking list  please use the contact form at About me:

Similar articles

NZ blog ranks – July ’09

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic

My latest attempt to rank New Zealand blogs in the tables below.

The methods used are outlined in Ranking methods for NZ blogs. The change is the change in ranking compared with May 09 (NZ blog ranks – June ‘09).

This time I have removed the Alexa NZ rank – with about 400 blogs I find that only around 30% actually have a Alexa NZ rank. I have also removed All the Web link count as it was producing some unrealistically high numbers (over a million links!). This has produced big changes in some cases.

So, briefly the current method involves ranking the blogs according to 9 different ranking indices – 3 page ranking (Google Pagerank, Alexa 3 month rank and Technorati rank), 4 linking indices (Alexa links, Google web links, Google blog links and Yahoo links) and 2 RSS subscription counts (Google reader and Bloglines). The average rankings for the 9 indices are then ranked to produce a final rank.

I also include a separate ranking for each of the 3 broad classes – Page ranking, Links and RSS subscription counts.

If you want a more immediate measure of blog performance have a look at the NZ blog ranking tool. This lists the performance of over about 90 NZ blogs based on actual sitemeter visit statistics. The data is for average visits/day over the previous 7 days. Obviously only the blogs which allow public access to the statistics are included. Data changes daily and one can watch blogs moving up and down the list on a daily basis.

NZ blog ranks – June ’09

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

My latest attempt to rank New Zealand blogs in the tables below.

The methods used are outlined in Ranking methods for NZ blogs. The change is the change in ranking compared with May 09 (NZ blog sitemeter ranking – May ‘09).

Briefly the method involves ranking the blogs according to 11 different ranking indices – 4 page ranking (Google Pagerank, Alexa 3 month rank, Technorati rank and Alexa NZ rank), 5 linking indices (Alexa links, Google web links, Google blog links, All the Web links and Yahoo links) and 2 RSS subscription counts (Google reader and Bloglines). The average rankings for the 11 indices are then ranked to produce a final rank.

I also include a separate ranking for each of the 3 broad classes – Page ranking, Links and RSS subscription counts.

NZ Blog ranks – May ‘09

I have again ranked New Zealand blogs using the methods described previously (see Ranking methods for NZ blogs). Briefly this involves ranking each blog using four ranking indices (Alexa Rank, Alexa NZ Rank, Technorati Rank and Google Page Rank), five link counts (Google Web Links, Google Blog Links, Yahoo Links, All the Web Links and Alexa Links) and two RSS Subscription Counts (Google Readers Subscriptions and Bloglines Subscriptions). Aggregate ranks are then calculated for each category (Ranking index. Links and RSS Subscriptions) and a total rank combining all eleven indices.

The aggregate ranks are given in the table below. Ranking for the individual indices is available as a pdf document. This time I included 246 New Zealand blogs but details for only the top 100 are given and the rest groups in alphabetical order. The full ranking data for each of the 11 indices is available as a pdf document.

Ranking NZ blogs with sitemeter data

There’s a school of thought that the only reliable way to rank blogs is by using actual sitemeter data for visits. Unfortunately, most blogs don’t make this information public. Perhaps if more did bloggers could compare their statistics with those for other sites or have a listed ranking. This would help their interpretation.

I have managed to identify 37 New Zealand blogs with public sitemeter stats, or who self report this information – mostly from Tumeke’s blog ranking reports (see nz blogosphere rankings : March 2009). So how do these sites rank amongst themselves? Have a look at the table below for the April ’09 data. And for those interested in comparing sitemeter data with the traditional blog ranking indices, and with the rankings of Tumeke, Halfdone and Open Parachute – look at my analysis below the table.

Update: Homepaddock has passed on (see Naked Stats) that her stats are also public so we now have 38 blogs on the list.