This planet was just barely one month old when I first used a free online tool called “The Website Grader” (owned by The HubSpot Company). The grader analyzed my site and gave it a grade. The result was expected: a low mark. Two months later — I’m posting my site’s grade again.
As of writing, this blog is graded 72%, still low if you base it on the “academic” grading standards; but allow me to brag a bit — that is a major improvement, considering that my previous grade was only 41%. My goal is to reach a grade of around 80%-85% before the year ends.
The rest of the post contains technical terms and blogging-related jargons, so if you are one of my non-technical and/or non-blogger readers, feel free to skip to the conclusion below.
What is Website Grader?
This is according to their website….
Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.
If you are a new blogger, this is a good start to learn about SEO, internet marketing, and traffic.
What I Noticed
There are a few things I noticed. It’s normal to get a low score if your site is new. Your grade will gradually increase if you regularly update your blog. I learned this by checking my site a few hours after I post an entry. In simple words: More Content = Higher Score.
I also noticed that my Google PageRank (PR) went up to 3 from 0. I was kind of expecting it. New blogs/sites start with a 0 PR. If your site hits 3 months and Google updated the PR, you may be given a ranking, like what happened to this planet.
I also found out that the Delicious Saved Count remains at 0 even though I saved some of my pages in my account. The Subscriber Count is also reading 0, mainly because they are using the WordPress built-in feeder as the basis, not the FeedBurner, which is what I am using. It is minor, though, since I have access to that number.
Checking Out Popular Social Sites
Out of curiosity, I checked out some of the most popular social sites among bloggers. You will find below their scores as of this writing: (click on their names for full report)
- BloggingZoom.com - 95
- Digg.com - 99
- StumbleUpon.com - 96
- Reddit.com - 86
CONCLUSIONS
My score is increasing simply because I am updating my blog on a regular basis. The more content I post, the better grade I get. But is that what I really want?
If you are a blogger, this grading system is a good motivational tool to improve your technical blogging skills and social strategies as it also reports your traffic ranking and the number of sites that are linking to your blog. If you want to be in the thick of serious bloggers around the blogosphere, then use this tool to find errors in your site and try to correct them if you can.
However, this is not the only tool available for learning. Broaden your perspective and read a lot. If you are serious about SEO and related topics, there are other good websites and blogs that offer excellent tips to increase your scores and traffic. Also, getting a high grade doesn’t mean you have to be complacent. Don’t jack up your blog with meaningless posts for the sake of increasing your score. Remember, quality content is still the champion in the hearts of your readers.
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i think i am gonna wait until my presence of the internet is a little stronger before i go for a grade. i am really all about building my presence right now. as long as my numbers are looking good and they seem to be moving in the right direction, then i am satisfied with that.
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Thanks for using WebsiteGrader (I’m with HubSpot, the company that developed it).
One of the best ways to increase your effectiveness online is to product great content as frequently as possible. Posting unique content is *the* best way to drive better search results, better traffic, more subscribers, more social media visibility, etc.
So, my advice would be: Continue to write content! It has a long-term payoff.
Great post Saedel! I already checked my score and compared it with yours. Yours is 4 points better than mine
Congratulations!
I also found some errors related to my blog, such as Permanent Redirect Not Found. The good thing is they also suggest me what to do from now on. Great!
For SEO, i suggest you to read below posts; they are really amazing source of information:
http://www.seobook.com/bloggers
http://andybeard.eu/2007/06/wordpress-seo-masterclass-for-competitive-niches.html
Interesting site. I got a 91. Which I’m pretty much amazed by.
http://www.websitegrader.com/wsgid/466674/default.aspx
OpTempo got an 82.
My VB.NET blog got a 92!
I was talking about this Mike from amikelife.com and realized that it’s not calculating everything properly. He put in my site as a comparison for his and got back for my site (jasonaclark.com) this information:
Website Grade: 66
Google Inbound Links: 41
Yahoo Inbound Links: 822
Google Indexed Pages: 0
I ran the tool for just my site and got back for my site this information:
Website Grade: 88
Google Inbound Links: 42
Yahoo Inbound Links: 7482
Google Indexed Pages: 603
Already the numbers don’t correspond.
If you go and figure out the numbers manually you’ll get even different information.
You can check Google yourself for the indexed pages by using the search site: jasonaclark.com
Now, what’s interesting is that if I don’t put a space between the : and the j I get back that I have 604 pages indexed. If I do put the space in it comes back that I have 1310 pages indexed.
You can do the same thing with the Google inbound links by using link: jasonaclark.com
Again, using a space results in better results for some reason. In this case it goes from 47 to 1730 inbound links. That’s a lot more than what the tool said.
You can check your Yahoo indexed pages and inbound links at http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
It says that I have 1510 pages indexed and 6050 inbound links.
I’m not sure what’s going on there, but the tool obviously isn’t working correctly for some reason.
Thanks for the comments guys. After I made this post, my grade went up by 1 pt.
I consider the tool as a “basic” measurement, and I think novice bloggers will find it useful. My first hint that the tool was a little buggy was when it’s not reading my correct delicious count. Also the first time I corrected my meta tag, it took time before it was reflected on the report. Dharmesh Shah (above) is from with HubSpot (owner of the Website Grader), I’ll try to email him about jason’s findings. Hopefully he responds and clarifies some things. (He’s subscribed to this post, but I’ll still email him to be sure)
Anyway, in general, the tool is a fun way of checking your blog.
But for seasoned ones, they have to use a more comprehensive tool.
Thanks for commenting!
I checked my grade a few days ago there were quite a few differences to yours. I think yours is doing better.
Re your comment:PS. Do you know what happened to blogger comment? I couldn’t find the URL box anymore.
I am not quite sure what you mean by URL box. I seem to be missing my Feedburner stuff that was on the bottom of each post but haven’t figured out why as yet. Can’t find anything else that is different.
@Everyone
I already emailed Dharmesh Shah (see above), hope he replies back.
@Vic
I already found out why. Blogger/BlogSpot changed their commenting system by disabling the URL box of non-blogger readers.
Jason,
Apologies for some of the inconsistencies you are experiencing with WebsiteGraer. The most likely reason is that the calculations are dependent on some of third-party services (like Google and Yahoo!) and we don’t always get data back reliably and this can impact the grade.
One quick note: The proper syntax for using the link: and site: commands in Google is to *not* use a space. Putting a space in does not run the correct query.
Interesting calculator…I tried it and it gave me a grade of an 83. There’s also an app that calculates the worth of your blog in cash…it’s made by or based on technorati (but don’t quote me on that one), but it’s calculations are probably only for fun and not a realistic number.
One of the best ways to increase your effectiveness online is to product great content as frequently as possible. Posting unique content is *the* best way to drive better search results, better traffic, more subscribers, more social media visibility, etc