Linkies, blogging, community – what does it all mean?

There’s a proliferation of Mr Linky style posts out there, and I’m beginning to go off them as a concept.

If you are stuck for a post idea, it is great to have a handy prompt I’ll admit. And I’m a big writing workshop fan as some of you know 🙂 But they are all over the place now. And I can’t help feeling that some of them might just be done with ooh, I don’t know, profile raising in mind.

See, the thing is that most of the time when ppl take part in a linky style post, they link back to where they are writing the post for. That’s lots of lovely link love for the hosting blog. While the blogs in the linkie get precisely no link love, as the linkies are javascript, and search engines don’t follow javascript.

I’m not saying no traffic mind, that’s a different thing entirely, as I’m sure that ppl follow the links, but they aren’t worth anything in terms of increasing your site visibility in a search engine. OK, in terms of google, let’s be honest.

So surely actual real links in blog carnivals are the answer?

It’s not so straightforward. Imagine, if you will, lots and lots of ppl writing posts about one topic. And each one of them links to *the* site about that topic. And then, that one site that is so highly rated links to one single obscure blog…well, that blog is going to look pretty special to a search engine. Fantastic! Job done.

Imagine then, that that blog writer does some research and links to all those other ppl who wrote about it in the first place – suddenly that little blog isn’t nearly so important in the search engine’s eyes.

So we think, anyway, as Google doesn’t actually disclose how all this stuff works. But it’s fair to say that a site with lots of relevant links in (ie from sites really about the topic under discussion instead of just a whole bunch of spam comments forced on to ppl’s blogs) and few links out will rank higher than a site with few links in and lots of links out.

So, does that mean you should go round desperately trying to get links and refusing to give any out?

Nope.

Because search engines aren’t the most important things out there.

Community is. Real ppl, readers, commenters, friends. And community on the web is built via links. Via blogrolls, via hattips, and yes, via memes. But I preferred real proper link carnivals, instead of mr linkies.

My real life community is built mainly around a family of blogs, and we do a whole lot of linking to each other. We spend real time with each other, and virtual time – in forums, messaging sites, each other’s comment boxes. To me blogs are about sharing the best and worst of parenting, and having virtual shoulders to lean on. And that’s why I like to link to my friends, to introduce them to you, so that you can make friends with them too.

(This post partly written for the Notes at Home Blogging and Parenting carnival, but mainly just because I wanted to.)

Here are the other entries in the blogging and parenting carnival:

Frugal Mom at The Diary of a Frugal Family writes about why she started her blog and the support and advice from the mummyblogging community.

Chic at Chic Mama writes about how blogging has helped her be a better parent during tough times.

Jen at Table for Eight writes about her love of reading parenting blogs and her goals for blogging more.

Ella at Notes From Home writes about how reading blogs and writing her own blog helped her cope with motherhood.

Michelle at Mummy From The Heart writes about the bloggers who have made a real difference to her over the last few months.