Reasons to Have a Blogroll

My analytics show that someone found this blog at some point searching on something related to why you should blogroll. There isn't anything on the site to answer that question, and I thought it was a good one, so I thought I'd take a shot at it. So here are 5 reasons to have a blogroll on your blog:

1. Because your readers are interested in what you're reading, what inspires you, to put your work into more context.


2. Because your readers want more good content; why not be the one to help them find it?


3. Because the third "W" in WWW stands for "Web"... as in a network. That's the whole point of the intar-web now, ain't it?


4. Because bloggers like showing up in blogrolls and maybe (just maybe) they'll link back to you and send you some new readers.


5. Because outbound links can help search engines figure out what your pages are about.

So why don't I have a blogroll? Another good question. Where would I put it? My site isn't really designed for more links in the template. I could get rid of my "What Am I Reading" list, but I think that serves a very similar purpose -- to provide up-to-date, related content.

If you read this blog and think "this blog is fabulous, but would be so much better with a blogroll!" let me know. If you're a reader of this blog and think "this is the worst SEO blog ever!" ... well, I've got a 3-point rebuttal: 1) shows what you know -- that honor is already claimed by this blog. 2) Why do you read it if you think it sucks? That's not very smart. 3) Keep it to yourself. I don't like to hear from not-smart haterz.

Labels: link-building, navel-gazing

Posted by Melanie Phung