Keywords, search engine optimization,

I am editing the template...Again. Blogger has been a pain , not aiding my pursuit to have a less cluttered template. The thing which bothers me most is the fact that I will edit my template -- viewing it in the "preview" mode and it will look beautiful, the CSS working it's magic, but when Blogger finally publishes it --- it looks distorted.

I can always go back (I save all my template designs)if things look less than satisfactory.



*Ring News*

We have 210 blogs listed. 8042 Total hits/views for our main memberlist on ringsurf.com

I have had some recent applicants who have added the code just to be listed and approved, then remove the ringcode.

I frequently check all blogs in the rotation. Your blog will be removed from the member list, put back into the queue.

This is stupid, in my opinion, not just from a ring owner's perspective, but as a blog owner.

When you remove the code you limit the traffic views to your blog to just one source: ringsurf.com. No one else can visit your blog from the othe 200+ blogs. And who is to say they will click on your blog, when going down the list ?

Which brings me to another concern : When submitting your blog to join , please add a description, the more specific or Original --- the more distinct your blog becomes. There are millions of blogs on the internet --- showcase your blog as something different.

Also please Add keywords --- come on kids, we are flickr'ites, don't tell me you don't know what tags are?? That is hard to believe.

keywords (tags) help your entry in the list become searchable. All ringsurf rings are indexed by google and other search engines. Not only can people search our ring, but the more popular the ring becomes, the more crawlable it becomes. I have googled "Blogs That Flickr" and the sites which come up first are those blogs that have keywords, that ping regurlarly.

When your are blogging your thoughts, your words become keywords, but more importantly your titles become a tag of sorts. In the ProBlogger article "SEO Tip 1 -Use keywords in titles" Darren goes into this further:

"One of the things IÂ’m constantly amazed at is how many web publishers miss one of the easiest ways to maximize their positioning in Search Engines by simply including the keywords that theyÂ’d like to be found for in their post titles... ....To put it bluntly - when it comes to blog SEO I believe that your page and post titles are incredibly important. Google in particularly seems to value the words in your title incredibly highly. ...Keep in mind that research shows that people search the web a lot for names of products and people and that they are often quite specific their searches. If youÂ’re writing about something specific make your title reflect this."

A true lesson if you want to increase your site traffic --- embrace the internet and how it functions, and it will embrace you.

Want more tips on better blogging ??Read this great list of articles "31 Days to Building a Better Blog Headquarters".