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Teach 100: Building Better Blogs

April 10, 2013 by Michelle Manno

It’s been an exciting few months here at Teach.com since we launched the Teach 100, the first tool of its kind to rank the best educational blogs according to vital metrics that assess a site’s performance. Because the Teach 100 updates daily, the rankings are always changing depending on how the blogs are doing. The result is a current, comprehensive assessment of the blogs in comparison to one another.

We’ve received overwhelmingly positive responses from all of you in the educational blogosphere. Each day we see new submissions from around the world, so our number of rankings continues to grow. We began with 127 blogs at our launch, and we now rank 280 blogs. Readers and bloggers alike are using the Teach 100 as a place to connect with some of the most vocal minds in education for multiple reasons: to learn more about emerging technologies, to discuss best practices, to share useful resources, and to give and receive advice.

People are using the ranking as a tool to learn more about a particular topic, as Jackie Gerstein (User Generated Education, Teach 100 blogger) demonstrates in this great post about Teach 100 bloggers who are writing about the flipped classroom resources. Others have used the Teach 100 as a bridge to collaborate with Teach.com on great content, as Peter DeWitt (Finding Common Ground, Teach 100 blogger) did in this inspiring video about protecting LGBT students from bullying.

Own Your Ranking

Some of the best feedback we have received is from those who recognize the Teach 100 as a powerful resource to help improve their sites and become the best bloggers they can be. The factors considered by the Teach 100 are influenced by the blog’s performance. The Social component accounts for 40% of the score, and determines how active a blog is on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Activity --- how frequently the blog is updated --- comprises 20% of the score, and another 20% is drawn from the “overall authority and influence” assigned to a page by Google.

Finally, we at Teach.com assign a subjective score that comprises 20%. This subjective score assesses the visual presentation, the use of varied media, and the author’s handling of different topics in education. This is the only subjective component of the score, and is assigned while a blog is being reviewed.

Many bloggers have reached out seeking to understand how these factors work. They want answers to questions like “How is my blog doing?”, “Why is it ranking where it is?”, and “How can I make it better?” They know the Teach 100 is updated frequently, and they want to know how to make the ranking work for them. When we first launched, the folks at The Core of Education (Teach 100 blog) were curious about how to improve their score. We worked closely with them to assess the different components and isolate areas for improvement. The Social score is perhaps one of the easiest opportunities. We suggested they become active on Twitter, and immediately they saw improvement. Any blogger who posts frequently on their site is guaranteed a higher Activity score, so one of our most common suggestions is to update at least twice a week, if not more.

People often ask about their Google Authority, which is pulled from Google based on the level of influence and value they assign a website. Google Authority is a measurement of how reliable, useful, and engaging a site is. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a practice that we encourage bloggers to utilize that strengthens their site’s credibility in the eyes of Google. The correct and proper use of certain keywords, ensuring that a site is linking to other credible sources, and tagging blogs properly are simple SEO tactics. For Teach 100 bloggers looking to increase their Google Authority, we often point them to this handy Beginners Guide to SEO.

The Teach 100 has become more influential than we’d ever hoped. In becoming a network for the exchanging of ideas and resources, it has done more than transform the online educational space. It has become a tool for helping those voices in education shape and improve the way they share their knowledge with readers.

One especially motivated blogger was JD Ferries-Rowe (Confessions of a Jesuit School CIO, Teach 100 blogger), who wanted to improve the subjective Teach.com score. Because the Teach.com subjective score is based on our initial impressions of the site, it does not update daily along with the other components of the score. Teach 100 bloggers should always feel free to alert us about any major updates to their site, so that we can factor those changes into their subjective score.

That’s precisely what JD did. He informed us of two outstanding posts he had published, “Ten Rules for a Successful #edtech Program That Have Little to Do with Technology” and “The Information Skills for the 24/7 News Cycle Age: An Analysis of the Reporting of #theatershooting", that he felt warranted a reevaluation of his blog. We found his posts to be great pieces of content and increased his Teach.com score by 3 points. That simple reevaluation bumped him up 18 spots in the ranking overnight!

For the complete daily ranking of the best educational blogs on the web, visit the Teach 100. To learn more about the Teach 100, or to work with Teach.com, email [email protected].

 

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