Is the Blogroll Dead?
This is a question we’ve heard before. Is the blogroll dead? Perhaps a better way to phrase the question is to ask whether or not your blogroll is an effective use of the valuable real estate on your blog. In other words, is your blogroll bringing in an adequate return on your investment (in this case, the investment is your time and the space allocated to it)?
Let’s face it, if your goals for your blog include monetization and growth, then every pixel of space on your blog should be filled with something that adds value either to your user experience or to your overall business plan for your blog. Think of it this way - if you had an ad on your blog that wasn’t bringing in revenue, you’d probably replace it. Shouldn’t the same theory apply to your blogroll? If your blogroll isn’t helping you reach the overall objectives for your blog, should you replace it?
Take some time to evaluate your blogroll. Ask yourself the following questions:
- How many people actually click on the links in my blogroll? Check your stats. If no one is clicking on those links, then they’re may not be the most effective use of that space.
- Are you getting more incoming links from contextual linking or blogroll links? Check your stats. This will show you how helpful links are in driving traffic to your blog versus your presence on blogrolls. Chances are, other bloggers are seeing the same results from their presence on your blogroll. It gives you an idea of how important it is for you to spend time trying to get on blogrolls versus getting other bloggers to link to your content from their posts.
- How often do you look at blogrolls and click on the links in them on other blogs? What percentage of links do you follow within posts versus through blogrolls during your daily blogging activities? A significant imbalance can help you understand the degree of focus you should put toward blogrolls in your overall blog marketing plan.
- How up-to-date is your blogroll? When was the last time you checked the links on your blogroll to make sure they’re still working? Is your blogroll cluttered with blogs that are not relevant to your blog but that you linked to out of reciprocal linking courtesy? Does your blogroll add value or does it simply clutter your blog? If it’s not ading value to your blog now, can you change it so it does enhance the user experience?
So is saying blogrolls are dead too strong? Probably. Blogrolls still provide incoming links, and everyone wants more links, particulary from popular sites. Interestingly, I’m seeing more and more blogs everyday that have eliminated their blogrolls completely or replaced them with a single, separate page of recommended reading and links. Could this be the new trend?
I’m sure blogrolls will stick around for awhile, but do take some time to review the role of your blogroll and its usefulness to your blog in terms of meeting your short and long term objectives. You just might be able to use that space more effectively.
Rob O. | March 10th, 2008 at 2:20 pm #
I agree - the blogroll is dead. Or at least thoroughly obsolete…
I still maintain a fairly simple static blogroll-style Favorite Sites page but I get significantly better click-thru and just general response from in-line links. Using inline links within my blog posts gives me the opportunity to not only offer a link to my readers, but also give them some idea of why I think the link is worth clicking. It’s a much more meaningful alternative.
Michael Martine, Blog Consultant | March 10th, 2008 at 2:46 pm #
The blogroll is not dead. Google’s social graph API just resurrected it. More than ever, understanding the relationship between links will be important. If there’s one thing the WordPress blogroll allows, it is the use of XFN data to signify your relationship with the links in your blogroll.
Kevin | March 10th, 2008 at 3:05 pm #
I think it depends on the site. I usually associate blogrolls with personal sites.
I have been considering adding a blogroll to bloggingtips but I’m not sure whether it would be a good idea - perhaps a dedicated page to recommended links would be better.
On the other hand, on my personal blog I have added a blogroll and I am going to continue to expand it with sites I visit and friend’s sites. It’s a way of passing kudos to those sites and letting readers know the type of sites you read.
Sue @ TameBay | March 10th, 2008 at 4:34 pm #
I’ve been aware for a while that few readers were clicking our blogroll links, but I’ve been thinking of them more as a hat-tip to others in our niche. You make me wonder if I shouldn’t move the links to a separate page, or at least to below the advertising
Easton Ellsworth | March 10th, 2008 at 5:15 pm #
“The” blogroll ain’t dead. But many blogrolls are. If you have a list of favorite/related links, just keep it fresh and put it where it belongs. Easier said than done, of course, but it’s still a simple thing to do.
Andy MacDonald | March 10th, 2008 at 11:47 pm #
Yeah i couldnt agree more with you on this one. I actually don’t like to have a long blogroll, for me, i only have 5/6 links at max in my blog roll because too many links looks too cluttered. I make a point of clicking each link once per week to ensure they are still all active, but are blog rolls dead? Well,
i think i agree again on that note. they probably are dead, and the idea of a single page of recommended reading is a good idea in my opinion. With a separate page you can add additional information which relates to each link, which then makes that page look like a standard page of content, and not a page of links, but its worth keeping an eye over the next few months/years at how many people ditch the blog roll altogether.
Wayne Liew | March 11th, 2008 at 7:22 am #
I used to make them as my online bookmarks. However, with the development of RSS feed reader, especially the great Newsgator FeedDemon that I am using, I don’t find the blogroll useful any more.
Zhu | March 11th, 2008 at 2:07 pm #
I personally find my own blogroll pretty useless but I leave it alone, since most people appreciate a link. I built a page (”the world”) with a screenshot of each blog I like though, and it gets way more hits…
Susan Gunelius (Post Author) | March 12th, 2008 at 4:01 pm #
Thanks for the great comments, everyone! Looks like this debate will continue although the blogroll does certainly seem to be losing its value. I think we’ll see less and less of it (particularly on large, popular blogs) over time.
Dusty | March 14th, 2008 at 10:11 pm #
As more and more people try and make money online, the blogroll has become less important to the reader. It is hard to tell a paid link from a link posted because the author actually liked the site and what it has to offer.
On most of my blogs, I add friends to my blogroll and I always appreciate it when they do they same for me.