Archive for » August, 2007 «

27
Aug
Plugin – WordPress.com Stats

WordPress.com Stats is a great plugin for checking your stats. The WordPress Stats plugin, does not count the visits you make to your site(s).

Like Akismet, with the WordPress.com Stats plugin, you need an API key. Once the API key is entered, the rest is automatic. You will then find “Blog Stats” on your WordPress Dashboard.

The WordPress Stats plugin, shows your most popular posts, the number of daily views, what key phrases readers used to find your site, what they clicked on while visiting your site, plus other useful information.

If you have more than one blog, you can toggle between the stats for each blog. The WordPress.com Stats plugin, also allows you to check your stats as often as you wish, by clicking on the “Switch” key.

The WordPress Stats plugin, provides graphs for your traffic, by daily, weekly or monthly. You can also check to see which were your most popular posts, for the last week, or the last month.

For such an easy installation (no coding), this is a great plugin for stat checking.

This is another free plugin. It can be obtained at WordPress.org.

Many thanks to the author of WordPress.com Stats, Andy Skelton.

Category: Archives, Plugins and Widgets, Stats  Tags:  2 Comments
24
Aug
Google Sitemap Generator

If you have a new blog, and want to get indexed by Google, Yahoo, plus other search engines, thus improving search engine optimization, it’s apparent that a site map is imperative to install.

What is a site map? Think of a site map as a blueprint of your site. When you first generate a site map, it sends a message to the search engines, and the spiders, crawlers, and bots, “come and take at look” at what your site “looks like”, and what it includes. Each time you write and publish a post, a new site map is generated, and a new message is sent to the search engines, that you’ve “changed your blueprint”. This generates another visit from the search engines. In turn, your site gets updated in the search engine “files” and getting indexed, is the result.

Some reports claim, if you’re already getting indexed, a site map may not be necessary. However, why take a chance that a new post may not get indexed in a timely fashion.

Here’s a link to the site where I got my Google Site map Generator: Google Site map Generator by von Arne Brachhold

It’s free, easy to download, and a cinch to activate. After you have activated the plugin, and are looking at the “options”, if you’re not sure which boxes to check, just leave them the way they are. You can always make changes later.

I downloaded the 3.0b7 version, which includes the latest updates.

Thank you, von Arne Brachhold, for this great plugin.

Category: Archives, Plugins and Widgets, SEO  Tags: , ,  Comments off
23
Aug
3 Things That Can Make Your Blog XHTML Uncompliant

Is your site XHMTL compliant? Don’t know? “Run it through” the “Validator” at w.3.org.

It’s not uncommon for a site to contain many errors. Three reasons you may get errors are:

1) Your theme contains errors

2) Your plugins or widgets contain errors

3) Your advertising code contains errors.

To find out if a new theme you’ve uploaded contains errors, run it through the Markup Validation Service, before you add any plugins or posts to your site. If you find errors in a theme you’ve just uploaded, and you’re comfortable with HTML, try fixing them. If not, you may be better off, finding a theme which is compliant.

As you’re adding your plugins, test them one by one. If a plugin creates an error, you may decide not to use it.

As you add your advertising HTML code, check to see if it’s compliant. If it’s not, try a different ad format, or don’t use the ads from that particular advertiser.

If you correct the HTML code, remember to retest your site.

Remember to always keep a backup of your pages.

In the event you create problems on your site that deems it inoperable (and you didn’t keep a backup), go to your FTP client file, where you can “re-upload” the respective pages. If you’re not sure where you’ve messed up, delete the respective theme, and upload it again. You’ll have lost any changes you’ve made, however, your site should be back up and running.

If your site has a lot of posts, save a copy to your hard drive, before you start trying to correct HTML code. If you don’t save a backup, you could risk losing all of the hours you’ve invested in your blog development, plus your ratings and traffic counts.

BTW: When I first ran this site through the Validator, I had over 90 errors. I disabled several of my plugins and now am down to 23 errors.

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Category: Archives, Lessons Learned, Plugins and Widgets  Comments off
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