Does your blog ping?

Pings are a quick way to spread your blogs posts around the internet. A ping is a notification that is sent to a website. You have probably gotten them before when someone links your blog. There is a long list of Ping services that aggregate lists of new blog posts or website content.

There are several ways to get you URL on these lists. Spending an hour to sign your blog on to some update services will give you an edge on search engine page rank.

In your WordPress blog :  to Settings > Writing >; and scroll down to Update Services. You will see "rpc.pingomatic.com/" in the box. Take a minute and add the below list into the box to bulk up your update notifications.

rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
ping.feedburner.com/
api.moreover.com/RPC2
rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
bulkfeeds.net/rpc
pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/
services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx'
blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
blogupdate.org/ping/
feedsky.com/api/RPC2

For Blogger users, you're SOL for the automatic notifications. It all has to be done manually or through an external service. I hear there is a script in the works to add in.

3 easy search engine optimization modifications for your Wordpress blog

If you are in the blogging majority, you want to include your page rank. There are a few things you can do from your dashboard with few technical skills. This is search engine optimization that only needs to modified once.


Get rid of your Uncategorized category
Naming all your categories gives search engine crawlers one more scent to sniff you out better.
Go to Settings > Writing > Default Post Category and choose a new default category.
Then go to Posts > Categories > delete "Uncategorized" from the list.

Add metadata to your site
I've explained this in detail on another post.
Basically, go to Appearance > Editor > header.php and replace the existing metadata:
<meta name=”list of keywords relating to your site- TIP: check your analytics tool to see what brings people to your site” content=”keywords” />
<meta name=”short description of your blog” content=”name” />

Dump your admin username
Admin usernames are both security risks and anonymous. Give search users a chance to find you by your handle.
If you want to use the email listed in your admin file for your new username, go into Users > Authors & Users > and change the admin email to another. Then, create a new user profile in Users > Add New. Be sure to make this one Administrator.
Then you must logout, login with the new username and go back to Users > Authors & Users > and delete the admin.

use your photos to bring in traffic

There are 3 keys to making images SEO friendly.

Naming: Use your keywords in your image title. Use hyphens between words. This image is "baby-rabbit-in-grass.jpg", get it?
Title: This is for visually impaired viewers using screen readers and those who have dial up. It's the placeholder text for your image. This one is title="baby rabbit in grass", spaces are allowed. Keep it to less than 5 words.
Alt: Keywords! Use words that relate to the image and your post.  I added alt="using images for SEO" and we're done!

The instructions are for WordPress users, but it's pretty much the same in all blogging platforms.

Upload your image into WordPress, insert it into your post and click the Edit Image button.

Go to the Advanced Settings tab

Add your text to "Edit Alternate Text" and "Title"

Or just code it in from the HTML tab
<img title="images html code" src="site.com/images/wordpress/code-for-image.png" alt="images search engine optimization" />

put permanent metadata in your site

I am sure you have heard all about the importance of include keyword tags in your blog posts. It's a great way to get those search engines to bring more readers to your site.

When you create your blog in WordPress or Blogger, it creates metadata with your title and tag line. This is good, but put a lot of importance on that tagline. It throws out all those witty quips you wanted to use.

Now you can do both with a simple code embedded in your template. A little copy and paste will help you add common keywords that relate to you. Change the italicized and keep everything else.

<META NAME="description" CONTENT="slacker stay-at-home mom">
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="stay at home mom, special needs children">
<META NAME="Content-language" CONTENT="en">
<META NAME="author" CONTENT="mamikaze">
<META NAME="creation_date" CONTENT="November 19, 2006 21:09:01">
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="all, index, follow">
<META name="copyright" content="&copy; 2006-2010 mamikaze">
Wordpress (self-hosted)
Go to Appearance > Editor > header.php > Insert the code before the tag

Blogger:
Go to Layout > edit html > insert the code before the tag