How I Pushed My Blog from PageRank 0 to PR4 in 37 Days

Here’s my tale and a journey from no-blog to PageRank (PR) 0 blog and on to PR4 blog in 37 days. If you take out the slow beginning and other breaks, you could say it all happened in one month.

PageRank 4 in One Month

On June 23rd 2009, Google updated their PageRank statuses and my PR jumped to 4!

What a glorious day. Yay me!

I am not an SEO expert or a professional blogger, but using all the free information out there and just a couple simple strategies all this was way easier than I thought. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed, unless at DailyBlogTips.com’s Daniel Scocco had made a post about the Google PageRank update yesterday.

Actually I still believe it’s all a mistake, and I will be back at PageRank 0 when someone notices..

But now, let’s backtrack to 19th of May 2009 and what I have done since.

The Initial Steps for the Blog Kick-Start

I had two blog in blogspot, PageRank 0, couple of incoming links, so not much for blog that was there since late 2005 and another just couple of months old. The blogs were random ramblings about the games I love and played (World of Warcraft, Eve Online and Poker).

The foundation I had from these old blogs could have affected the results I achieved during the last month, but I doubt that they had big impact in the end. For my traffic the impact was clear, as the some posts of the old blog were ranked high in Google, but the PageRank was still at zero with only a couple of incoming links, if any.

Anyway, I wanted to start a real blog, instead of the occasional and random posting to a Blogger blog which I couldn’t do all the things I wanted. So it was time for own domain and WordPress!

I registered my own domain name on 20th of May 2009
I started a WordPress blog on the same day. The installation with the one-click install was super easy and I didn’t read any guides about it.
I installed and configured this WordPress blog to support great Search Engine Optimization using the optimal permalink structure and the best, essential plugins for WordPress. The settings and plugins I used at the start are described in these two articles:
- WordPress Settings for Every Blog
- The 5 Most Essential WordPress Plugins

On May 21st, I imported my two blogspot blogs to WordPress. Here’s how you can do it too, if you have a blog in Blogger: Blogspot Blog Migration to WordPress and Blogger WordPress Import Anyone Can Do

I re-directed all the traffic that the blogspot blogs to the new blog and created a guide for it.
I planned the category structure for the new blog and I used couple of hours to re-categorize and re-tagging the imported blog posts.

New Blog, New Beginning

I decided to blog about things I do, so the blog topic evolved into blogging, WordPress, Internet marketing, affiliate marketing and related topics.

The blog’s name was clear, it was Zemalf, my online nickname, which later evolved into @Zemalf, inspired my Twitter usage. Blog’s tag line formed into “Technology Alchemist’s Trek in the Blogosphere”. There’s more about this “Technology Alchemy” and my background in my About -page.

On May 23rd, I started writing about what I had done in this, now shiny and new WordPress blog, with topics varying from Social Media, WordPress tips, Plugins, various How-To guides, Internet and Affiliate marketing and even one gaming FAQ I had forgotten to the “drawer”.

Between May 23rd and June 23rd 2009, my PageRank has gone from zero (PR0) to four (PR4)

Did it come easy? Sort of. Did I work hard for it? You bet.

The Content is King in Blogosphere

In the last 30 days, I wrote 36 posts with average of 1303 words per post. In total I wrote 46892 words in all those posts. Plus there’s 2-3 posts made on the one day not counted on that.

In total, the blog has 125 posts at the time I’m writing this (so this will be 126th) with 85410 words in them (blog stats are from Blog Metrics -plugin btw).

As you can see I’ve written more in the last 31 days than I wrote to my old blogspot blogs in 3 years :) And I write long posts, I’d prefer something in the 500-700 word range, but somehow I always end up doing these 1000+ monsters..

Here are some of the “highlights” from the last 31 days:

Blogging Guides and WordPress Tips

Internet and Affiliate Marketing 101

Twitter and Social Media

So I wrote a lot and I wrote some more. I don’t go and judge if the posts and articles are any good, but I wrote each and every day during the last 31 days. I didn’t publish every day, but I was planning or writing the posts on a daily basis.

Blog Commenting and Back-links to Build a Solid Foundation

Search engine rankings and PageRank and getting traffic rely on solid back-links. I don’t have that many for my blog yet. Most of my back-links come from the blog comments I leave every day and from my own links from social network profiles.

Note that I didn’t do all the commenting to build traffic or get back-links, I just did what I always do, interact with the wonderful blogging community via blog comments.

I love blog commenting and I don’t like to leave comments with “Thanks, Great Post” type of contents. Instead I like to say what I think or add something to the post I’m commenting on – if I don’t have anything meaningful to say, I usually don’t say anything and go on to the next post on my RSS.

I read about 20-40 RSS Feeds – some I read daily, some I check once a week. The blogs and topics I follow are closely related to what I write about at any given time, as I want to read about things I’m interested in (of course), just like I want to write about things I’m into.

If I read a interesting post from the feed, I jump to the blog and leave a comment if I feel like I have something to say. If I don’t, it’s on to the next post.

During the last 31 days I made about 40-60 blog comments, I don’t know the exact number as I wasn’t tracking them apart from some which I subscribed to replies for. In case you are interested in what I’ve been saying, you can see my Comments by Zemalf in backtype.com and IntenseDebate – Zemalf (not much there as not too many blogs I read use it and I registered only recently when I tested in on my blog).

Social Networking and the Power of the Profiles

In addition to writing a lot and daily/frequent commenting, I added my new site to all my social bookmarking profiles (MyBlogLog, Twitter, Digg, Technorati and StumbleUpon to name the most important ones) and joined a couple more.

If you want to visit and follow/friend me, here are the links:

Does PageRank of 4 Gain a Lot of Traffic?

To be honest, I have no idea at this point.

But I can say that you can get to PageRank 4 without much traffic :)

At this point this blog of mine isn’t that popular and I receive something between 40 to 130 daily visitors. But all that aside, I’m quite proud of the PageRank I got now and it provides a great foundation for me and this blog to push onwards and continue this trek in the blogosphere.

For the Love of Blogging and Everything In It

I hope this post has inspired you and showed you that you don’t need magic tricks or by-the-book SEO or even “keyword planning” to get ranked in the search engines (or “PageRanked” at least). Search Engine Optimization and clear search engine strategy and all the help (especially the magic tricks), but average blogger can do all this without investing money into it.

Of course, getting professional help and SEO experts to assist you, you can have even bigger results, but as your average geek can do it in a month, just imagine what you can do in a year!

Here’s to all of you and thanks for all who have supported me on this effort!

p.s. since the mid-2009 and PageRank 4, my PageRank has jumped up and down. Here you can see the current PageRank for Zemalf.com (Homepage)

Share and Enjoy:

Timo Kiander

Hi Antti!

This is great, hard and consistent work always pays off! I just found your blog and I'm about to start a blog myself too. It seems that we are going to blog about same topics whereas I'm going to concentrate to internet marketing side of things (on a beginner level :) ).

Anyway, I'm just wondering how many articles you need in order to get started in blogging in the first place. I see that you imported your Blogger posts to WP so you already had some content in your new WP blog. I have brainstormed some article topics myself, but still haven't written any single one yet. What do you think, should I do some work in advance?

Antti Kokkonen

I think a blog needs the assisting pages in place when starting, meaning the About- and contact -page, in addition to the possibly Privacy policy and disclaimer pages. The about-page is the only one requiring more time, the others are usually pretty standard.

The actual blogging begins with the first post. I don't think it's necessary to create content in "advance", you create it over time. However, it's important that the blog has great content right from the start and you shouldn't promote the blog too much until it has maybe 5 posts already. The first posts set the tone of the blog, so they should be really good, sort of core articles for the blog and the topic.

Latief@AnotherBlogger

Great bro! I just made 2 with my blogspot blog, but it was really brand new blog :)
Now I have a new blog and I'll try your tips to get my 4! lol!

John Gaddis

I am glad to see you can get a good PR in a short period of time. I am new to blogging and hope have some success with my blog like you have had with yours.
.-= John Gaddis's last blog ..You too can be a successful Internet Marketer =-.

Paula

This was very interesting to read. I also reader Kellers post over at fresheventure and they sound very similar. Both of you attribute your pagerank to regular blog posts and comments.
.-= Paula's last blog ..Blogging Using the Wordpress iPhone Application =-.

Antti Kokkonen

Hi Paula! I think both me and Keller wrote about similar "tactics", as regular blog posts and comments are great way to get that initial PageRank, which is perfect as both are kinda fundamentals of blogging -- great content and collaborating with other bloggers.

But I still think that PageRank is just a number, and it's far more important to do a little optimization on the SEO onpage factors -- at the basic level, use SEO-friendly theme and utilize plugins + do a little keyword research and optimize your blog posts, namely the post titles. PageRank alone brings zero results and traffic...

Using low-competition keyword phrase on the post title brings results almost instantly. Getting/Building links and other offsite factors for SEO is all additional bonus after that.

Dennis

Congrats on the PR. I've been working hard to try and get my blog indexed and ranked. I happened across your blog here and really enjoy it thank you. After reading your article it rose a couple of questions like, How do you find good blogs that you like and want to participate on that have do follow links? It seems like that's tough. Isn't this important for rank? Seems so far all the blogs I would like to be a regular on has no follow for links. thanks again

Antti Kokkonen

Hey, I haven't specifically looked for blogs that have follow links. There are custom search engines around but none of them are very accurate. I think you can find them if you google 'follow blog search engine' or such.

Probably a better way is to look for forums and/or blogs where someone has listed blogs that follow.

Petra Weiss

I just checked, you are still PR4!! ;) Congratulations, I know the feeling! I had my site about Beach Theme Home Decor go to a PR3 in a very short period of time at the beginning with very few visitors. I now have a lot more visitors, but Google decided to take my PR down to 2 :(
I don't know how you do it with writing so many posts though, I have trouble writing all the time! I like what you are writing about and will surely be back more often. Thanks!
Petra
.-= Petra Weiss's last blog ..25 Things You Should Know About Me… =-.

Antti Kokkonen

Thanks Petra, I wish I'd been PR6 already, so I could've written another article about that :) Seriously thou, I'd say that writing regularly is something both Google and your readers appreciate. With your blog readers being way more important. PageRank is just a number after all.

p.s. if you haven't check Keller's post / podcast she mentions there in there in the 2nd comment.

Jackie

It's impressive to get to PR4 in 37 days. I have a couple of blogs, they are older than 37 days but still at PR0. I understand now how one can get there. Content, content, content... Thanks for sharing your journey.
.-= Jackie's last blog ..Party Ideas For Adults and Kids =-.

Dharmesh

Dunno wht goes wrong with the goole PR algo. Hope to see a PR for my new blog as well :-)

liz

This is one subject that has always been a bit of a mystery to me. Thanks for sharing your success here and presenting this informative post.

Keller Hawthorne

Hey Zemalf!
Coincidentally, I just wrote a post and created a podcast about how I achieved a PR of 6 within 7 weeks of launching my blog. It's interesting to compare notes with you.

I truly owe my PR to my content - updating my content consistently and often and writing fairly large posts (2500-4000 words). I've achieved some very good search rankings due to my PR so far!

I listed all of my methods on my blog, but I didn't include commenting on other blogs. I figured most blogs used no-follow, so this wasn't a factor in my PR. What do you think about that? Do you only post with blogs that have do-follow?

You can check out my podcast/article here:
http://www.fresheventure.com/1130/how-to-get-go...

If you have the time, check it out and let me know your thoughts!
.-= Keller Hawthorne´s last blog ..Blog Mastermind vs. Become a Blogger: Review and Comparison =-.

Antti Kokkonen

Thanks for your comments Keller, I'll be checking your blog and that podcast for sure.

As I mentioned in the post I was not doing blog commenting to get PageRank and it was great surprise to me that it was even possible. I more and less commented just on the blogs I was reading anyway, because I like blog commenting, even that most seem to do it "to get the link, and maybe some traffic".

I think your comment, and that podcast will make me write a followup, as this comment starts to get longer.

Keller Hawthorne

Hey Zemalf! I tend to comment on blogs in order to form relationships with the owners. I then drive a little traffic to mine in the process.

Let me know your thoughts on my post and thanks for your insights here!
.-= Keller Hawthorne´s last blog ..Blog Mastermind vs. Become a Blogger: Review and Comparison =-.

Jesse

Congrats on the PR4, I saw your comment on my site so I thought I would drop by and check out your site.

Biggest thing to remember when building your site is to not stop doing what works, keep doing what you have been doing and you will continue to grow your site.

Antti Kokkonen

Thanks Jesse.

I had some problems with getting the comments right on this blog as some anti-spam plugin was overreacting and blogging pretty much everything, but I salvaged the comment so it's all good now :)
.-= Zemalf´s last blog ..How I Pushed My Blog from PageRank 0 to PR4 in 37 Days =-.