About 4 years ago my blog “Howto Spotter” went from visual page rank 5 to page rank 3. Google “Love” seem to have run out for me at that point. And while it actually didn’t impact my traffic or ability to rank for keywords – it did kill my ability to sell advertising space on this blog and since than I was primarily using affiliate ads on my blog.

While I did signup for “Text Link Ads” marketplace network, and it was one of the more popular and one that got hit by Google when they decided to punish link selling – I never actually participated in selling, kind of lost interest in it before I could sell anything.

Since then I have tried multiple things to address the ranking all to no avail as my page rank remained unchanged. While as mentioned above – my ability to rank and my traffic didn’t get impacted – growth did slow down, although it could be attributed to other factors as well. This post is a recount of my attempts to re-mediate the problem, perhaps it will help you if you are in same situation…

Blog Page Load Speed is one of my personal obsessions And not only because Google have decided to use it as one of the ranking factors but also because I KNOW that it impacts how your blog manages to retain the readers.

Obviously it helps if content on your blog also presents some information useful to your readers but hey, that is non-technical aspect I will not be talking about right now! What I’m concerned with is how to Decrease Your Blog Page Load Speed using technology and still retain functionality!

On April 9 Google has officially announced that site speed is now part of the web search ranking algorithm. This wasn’t really a big surprise for anyone who was paying attention to what was happening. First Matt Cutts announced that Google is “considering” to start using Page Load Speed as one of the ranking factors during his November presentation at PubCon, then in December Google has added a nifty little tool to the Labs Section of Webmaster Tools – Site Performance.

I don’t know about you but when Google ads a tool that allows you to see how your blog is seen by others, better yet – how it performs compared to others – I pay close attention, as they don’t just do it out of whim. And it actually makes sense as faster sites (blogs) provide a better visitor experience and I have covered the topic in several of my older posts:

• WordPress Guide: Howto Force Your Blog Load Fast
• Turn WordPress Into Speed Demon
• How To Get More Traffic To Your Blog By Getting Rid Of Bloat

And a few more posts you can find by searching for “page load speed” but I leave that option to you! Instead I want to concentrate on what is happening now and how your WordPress blog Page Rank is impacted by site speed.

At the end it all comes down to one thing – Targeted Traffic! But how you get there can be quite different and in my personal experience proper Search Engine Optimization is one of the simplest ways to get your own UNFAIR SHARE of the visitors.

Problem is – there are just as many experts as there are opinions on what need to be done in order to rank well and win the page rank war. And if you start to listen to them one-by-one you will soon start running in circles.

Luckily, guys at SEOMoz have compiled a Search Engine Ranking Factors Cheat sheet that combines the answers from quite a few industry recognized SEO experts and presented it in a simple to understand and follow format. Bookmark and print it!

BUM Marketing method spread like a virus in the beginning of this year and popularized Article marketing, bringing it to the masses. Many people have gotten their first taste of success using the methods described in the system not only because it was simple but also because it was COMPREHENSIVE and ACHIEVABLE.

Two major ingredients that make up successful product and when you add to it excellent price (FREE) – it made for an irresistible value. But what does this strategy has to do with blogging? Actually quite a bit and I personally think that anyone is not familiar with the method should check it out. But here I want to outline WHY you should do it …

There are many arguments on importance of page rank to your blog but the fact still remains – higher your page rank, more chances you have to monetize your blog. It is not something we need to agree or disagree on as it is simple statement of facts. Unfortunately Page rank is still considered one single most important factor that affects your earnings, especially for a blog.

Don’t believe me? Try signing up with ReveiwMe, TextLinkAds or PayPerPost programs … page rank of your blog is most surely taken into consideration. In fact this very blog is a victim of that. It has been discussed on several prominent blogs that Google has stopped updating Page Rank, at least the way we see it represented in our browser Google PR indicators. A few days ago I read an article on Yaro’s blog that they might be resuming updates but personally I highly doubt it, as my blog is coming into its 6th moth and still No Page Rank!

But I also think they have something else cooking for blog ranking and here is why …