Every month, Wikio compile rankings of UK blogs by subject, one of which is Gastronomy. Wikio explain that the position of a blog in the rankings is determined by the number and weight of incoming links from other blogs. Then there’s some stuff about RSS feeds and algorithms which many of you probably understand but which to me is just a noise. But the result is what they can authoritatively describe as the ‘most referenced’ blogs in a particular subject area.
I remember months ago Stonch was contacted by them to give an exclusive preview of that month’s rankings, because his blog featured in the top ten. Of course, I had to have a look to see if I was in… and I crept in at number 48. I was quite chuffed at having the 48th most referenced food and drink blog in the UK because it allowed me to make self-deprecating comments about my ‘success’, which are the only kind Mrs Pete Brown’s Beer Blog will tolerate.
Well, I can’t make them any more. This month Wikio asked me to unveil the new figures, which I was very surprised by… then I saw I was up to number 6!
I’ll admit that when I saw I was only number 48 it did spur me to write a bit more frequently, but I’m blown away by this. Thank you so much to everyone who links to my blog, for both your frequency and… um… weight. Here’s the top twenty, due to be published tomorrow:
It’s great, considering that this is all food and drink, and that the top one belongs to The Guardian, that beer blogs feature so prominently. It shows that despite a tendency to moan in this medium, blogging has been a revelation for the beer community, and has allowed enthusiasts to gain a genuine influence in the world of not just beer, but broader food and drink coverage. I’ve only just broached the top twenty, probably due to Hops and Glory buzz, but Stonch and Tandleman are there every single month, hovering around the top ten. When mainstream media continue to meet pitches from beer journalists with “I’m sorry, we just don’t cover beer, we don’t have room,” blogging reveals that there are talented writers, issues to be discussed, and an audience that wants to read them in the beer world.
And fair play to Wikio UK for categorising this area as ‘gastronomy’ – the US site follows the annoying trend that bookshops do and refers to ‘food and wine’, which always makes beer feel like a guest invited at the last minute to make up the numbers. By accident or design, no beer blogs feature in the top 100.
Well done Pete, Jeff and Tanders — well deserved.
But still bucketloads of Irish wine (and ice cream) but no Irish beer. Did Wikio ever get round to explaining that one?
And it appears that among them PBBB is the top drinks blog.
My fall from from grace on that list came as a result of posting the rankings myself – it means you give loads of extra weight (i.e. your own as one of their leading blogs) to all the others, thereby moving them up and yourself down! Or something like that.
PS. With a comment like the one I've just left, perhaps I should be the blogger currently at number 17! 😉
well done everyone, Maybe beer is ahead of the game as the print media dies on it's arse all the winey writers will be scuppered and hop heads and barley sniffers already be set up on the web. Also beer drinkers are more sociable so like a natter even in virtual tap rooms.
Thanks for the mention Pete. I only became aware of Wikio fairly recently. I can't say I understand how it all works though.