Technorati: Blog Quality Guidelines

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We include or exclude blogs based on the evaluation of the criteria listed here and other systematic factors. We do not disclose all of these factors to prevent sploggers and others from gaming the system.</p> <p>We’ve compiled the Blog Quality Guidelines to help you understand what criteria we use for indexing blogs. Use of Technorati is subject to these guidelines and our <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/about/tos.html">Terms of Service</a>. <ol> <li><a href="#what-does-technorati-look-for">What does Technorati look for in a blog?</a></li> <li><a href="#dos">DOs</a></li> <li><a href="#donts">DON’Ts</a></li> <li><a href="#whats-a-blog">What’s <em>not</em> a blog?</a></li> <li><a href="#reporting-spam">Reporting Spam or Inappropriate Content</a></li> <li><a href="#reporting-copyright">Reporting Copyright Infringement</a></li> </ol> <p>Please read these guidelines carefully.</p> <p>There are four indexing states a site may be in:</p> <dl> <dt>Active</dt> <dd>When the blog pings, its URL is forwarded to the Technorati crawler</dd> <dt>Pending</dt> <dd>The site URL is new to our systems and is being reviewed prior to indexing.</dd> <dt>Suspended</dt> <dd>Manual or automated systems have determined that the site may be in violation of Technorati’s quality standards. Indexing is not restored until an administrative review determines that the site should be returned to an Active indexing state.</dd> <dt>Removed</dt> <dd>The site did not meet the Technorati Blog Quality Guidelines.</dd> </dl> <h2 id="what-does-technorati-look-for">What are some of the things Technorati looks for when indexing blogs?</h2> <ul> <li>Posts listed from newest to oldest <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permalink">Permalinks</a> for each post</li> <li>Original content</li> <li>Posts structured with date, title, body, author, clear post boundaries (beginning and end) and (optional) tags, categories, and comments</li> <li>Feed URL for the content of the blog</li> <li>NOTE: comment feeds should not be listed as alternates for the blog as they do not represent the blog content, but rather, the comments (see best practices below).</li> </ul> <h2 id="dos">DOs</h2> <p>By following these common sense practices, legitimate blogs typically provide sufficient criteria for us to ensure their successful indexing. Best practices for getting indexed include:</p> <ul> <li>Publish feeds that are discoverable by using <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/developers/help/tags/link_alternates.html">feed discovery</a></li> <li>Publish full content (not summaries or excerpts) in an <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_%28standard%29">Atom 1.0 feed</a></li> <li>Sign in and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/ping">ping Technorati directly</a> with your claimed blog URL</li> <li>Write posts with original content. One of the biggest differences between blogs and websites is that blogging is about being part of the online conversation. We’d like to hear your opinions and comments in your blog posts.</li> <li>Write often. The more you write, the more you are a part of the conversation.</li> <li>Cite your sources. Provide attribution by quoting and linking to the source.</li> </ul> <h2 id="donts">DON’Ts</h2> <ul> <li>Engaging in the following types of behavior increases the likelihood that your blog will be Suspended or Removed.</li> <li>Do not republish content from other sites without adding your original commentary or reaction.</li> <li>Do not publish with excessive Commercial Intent. We understand that many blog to make money. However, sites that include a high proportion of content and links solely intended to promote ad networks, affiliate system bounties, or other transactions are not considered blogs.</li> <li>Do not tag exessively. Make sure the tags you use to describe your posts really do describe your posts. If we see high occurrences of unrelated, variants and synonyms, or over-use of tags in your posts, we may conclude that your site is trying to game the system.</li> <li>Do not promote or participate in viral linking schemes.</li> <li>Do not ask us to index objectionable, obscene, offensive content or content that promotes or displays pornography. Use of Technorati is subject to our <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/about/tos.html">Terms of Service</a>.</li> <li>Do not publish posts with nonsense text intended to boost keyword matches in search engines.</li> <li>Do not be overly repetitive. If we find that your posts all contain the same content and/or links, your site may be considered gaming the system or <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_spam">link spam</a>.</li> <li>Do not be misleading with inappropriate redirects. Do not use links that take the reader to completely different content than what is expected.</li> <li>Do not promote malware or objectionable content. Do not promote downloads to view objectionable content, promote malware or spyware of any form.</li> </ul> <h2 id="whats-a-blog">What does Technorati consider as a blog?</h2> <p>We do NOT consider the following as Blogs:</p> <ul> <li>Forums, social networks, chat streams, web pages or standalone feeds.</li> <li>Aggregation Sites that are aggregation of blogs or posts from other blogs, planet sites, feed splicers, etc. However, each blog can be indexed individually under its original blog URL.</li> <li>Standalone Feeds: Technorati indexes blogs via the blog home page with assistance of feeds only</li> <li>Permalinks: please do not ping with your permalink URLs</li> </ul> <h2 id="reporting-spam">Reporting Spam or Inappropriate Content</h2> <p>We try our best to filter out spam and inappropriate content. However, some content may slip through. If you find such content, please submit the URL to our support staff in our <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://support.technorati.com/support/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting Section</a>.</p> <h2 id="reporting-copyright">Reporting Copyright Infringement</h2> <p>If you see your blog posts indexed under another blog, don’t panic. This may be just a misunderstanding and not malicious. The first step is to contact the blogger and politely ask them to remove the copied content. If that doesn’t work, you can file a <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/about/dmca.html">DMCA Notice of Infringement</a>.</p> </div> </div> <div id="footer"> <div id="footer-links"> <ul> <li class="first-child">© Technorati, Inc.</li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/ping">Ping Us</a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://m.technorati.com/">Mobile</a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/weblog/">Technorati Blog</a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/developers/">Developer Center</a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/tools/">Technorati Tools</a></li> <li><a href="/web/20090416183006/http://support.technorati.com/">Support</a></li> </ul> <ul> <li class="first-child"><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.jp/">Technorati Japan</a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/" rel="license" title="Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License">CC License</a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/about/dmca.html"><acronym title="Digital Millenium Copyright Act">DMCA</acronym></a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/about/privacy.html">Privacy Policy </a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/about/tos.html">Terms of Service</a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/about/contact.html">Contact Us</a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/about/">About Us</a></li> <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/about/media.html">Advertise</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div id="dialog-overlay" class="hidden"> </div><div id="signin-dialog" class="hidden dialog"> <div id="signin-dialog-login" class="subdialog"><div class="inner"> <h2>Member Sign In</h2> (<a class="toggle" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/account/signup/">Not yet a member?</a>) <p>Please sign in to participate!</p> <form action="/web/20090416183006/http://support.technorati.com/login.php" method="post"> <div> <label for="signin-membername">Member name</label> <span class="text-field"><input id="signin-membername" name="username" type="text" size="16" maxlength="255"/></span> </div> <div> <label for="signin-password">Password</label> <span class="text-field"><input id="signin-password" name="password" type="password" size="16" maxlength="255"/></span> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/account/lost-password">forgot your password?</a> </div> <div class="base"> <input type="submit" value="Sign In"/> <a class="close" href="#">Close</a> </div> </form> </div></div> <div id="signin-dialog-join" class="hidden subdialog"><div class="inner"> <h2>Join Us, for Free!</h2> (<a class="toggle" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090416183006/http://technorati.com/account/login/">I'm a member</a>) <p>Your vote counts! 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Technorati: Blog Quality Guidelines