Tag-Archive for » spiders «

Jul

Over the weekend, I received an email from the owner of a website I “showcased” on my other blog. She had a question about “hits” on her website, Dare To Care – Alaska.

Her passion is to feed hungry children, who have fallen through the cracks for Federally funded school lunches. How her non-profit organization was formed, is a touching story. You can read it at: Hungry Children, In The United States?

In response to her email, I wanted to give her a simple explanation for the difference between “hits” and “visits”. Here’s what I wrote:

“HIts” is something I had to learn about, as it’s very misleading. “Hits” are not the same as “visits”. i.e. My first month of blogging, I was averaging 423 “hits” a day, but that was only an average of 34 “unique visitors” a day.

“Hits” are affected by the amount of graphics/images you have on a page. The more graphics/images, the more “hits” you’ll see for each “visit”.

My first month of blogging, I had a lot of ads on my pages. That drove up my “hit” count. Now I have moved those ads to a separate page “Sidebar Shopping”, so unless a reader clicks on that page, I’m not getting a “hit” for all of those graphics.

Now, I have an average of 652 “hits” per day, and my average visitor count per day is 139. See the difference? My visitor count is up-that’s what I’m looking at.

I don’t know what “statistics” program your webmaster is using. Some are better than others. From researching, and using different “stats” programs, I like AWStats the best. They do not count visits by Google bots, or any other “spiders” or “crawlers”, that are used to index your pages. These “visits” aren’t actual visitors.

To gain more extensive knowledge about “hits” vs “visitors”, many websites offer a detailed explanation, but for me, and the owner of Dare To Care – Alaska, , keeping it simple, serves us well.

Category: Archives, Lessons Learned, Stats Tags: Blogging, google, spiders 3 Comments

Jun

Newbie To Blogging?

Barbara Swafford

I’m not sure what constitutes being a newbie to blogging, but I think I’m still a newbie, as my two blogs are less than three months old.

When I first started blogging, I felt overwhelmed by everything I was reading. My head spun for weeks, and the learning curve was more like a switchback road going through a mountain pass. With every site I visited, I got more information, however, the more I read, the more conflicting the information became. What’s a newbie to do?

So, here I am, almost three months later, and I feel I’m getting a grasp of what makes for a “decent” blog. I won’t rank myself as “good” or “excellent”, but I do feel those rankings are attainable.

If you’ve done any research at all, you see it: You need links: deep links, back links, outgoing links, etc. Then I read how I should join the blogging community and leave comments on other blogs, get my name “out there”, sign up for online directories, use keyword density, use word tags, don’t use word tags, use meta tags, don’t use meta tags, add plugins, add widgets, check your stats, download, upload, robots, spiders, crawlers, learn about HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, pinging, trackbacks, post slugs, SEO, SERPs,carnivals, …Whew!…….the list goes on. Who would have ever thought, that just to write an article (or post), would mean that you need a higher education in computer terminology and technology?

What do I do? The most important thing I find is to write (or post) what I know. And, I post often. I’ve settled in with the thought, “If I blog, my readership will increase”. (Or as they say in the “Field of Dreams”…”If you build it, they will come”) I have lots of patience. so I’ve taken the time to learn some HTML, created some outgoing and deep links, utilize keyword density, joined a blogging carnival, and use a few plugins and widgets, etc. As time permits, I will increase my knowledge of what’s truly needed to create a successful blog, but I’m not going to beat myself up because I haven’t learned it all yet.

There’s something to be said about “Keeping It Simple”. So, if you’re a newbie to blogging, I say, “concentrate on blogging about what you know”. Don’t expect to be able to learn everything overnight. And…….most of all, have fun!

Category: Archives, Lessons Learned Tags: Blogging, Blogs, SEO, spiders 3 Comments

Jun

How To Rank High On Search Engine Results

Barbara Swafford

You blog. You want your blog to rank high on the search engines. The major question is, “How do I get my blog at the top of the search engine results?”. From my experience, getting your blog to the top of search engine results doesn’t happen overnight. This is what I’ve found.

1) Blog about what you are passionate about-don’t follow the crowd, otherwise you’re all competing for the same position.

On my OM blog, I did a post on How to Teach Children Basic Math With Cribbage. Much to my surprise, it comes up on the front page of Google’s search engine. Actually, it’s there twice, once from my post, and secondly, from “Digg”.

2) Use meta tags. I don’t know if they help or not, as when I researched them, I read that not all search engines recognize them, but I think they may give me an advantage.

3) Use keyword density. Do a search for what you’re going to blog about. Look at what results come up. See how they are keyword dense? A lot of people want to use keyword that rank high, but not everyone is searching for the same thing. When I did a search for “teach cribbage”, there were 94,800 results. I ‘m real proud of myself for being on the front page.

4) Have original quality content. Don’t copy what someone else is writing….unless a link to an article on another blog compliments what you have to say. Is what you’re writing about something that can help others? Look at your content from your readers perspective. Is it something you would like to know? Or is it just “fluff”? “Fluff” may get you a higher ranking for a short time, but that too, shall pass.

5) Create a quality site. Have you created a site that’s easy to navigate and invites your readers to come back often in anticipation of what you have to say? Or is it a site that filled with ads and lots of graphics? Again, pretend you are surfing and found this “site”. Would you stay and visit? Or would you click off of it? Analyze it. Ask your friends for their honest opinion about your site. Use what you learn to perfect your site. Do you need to change your theme? Then, do it.

On my OM blog, I created a category which I named Sidebar Shopping Site, for my readers who what to shop. It got most of my ads off of the post pages.

6) Post often. If the bots, spiders and crawlers “see” that you’re updating your site on a regular basis, the chances of getting your posts indexed faster, is greater. Remember…..quality content matters.

7) What’s your motivation for creating a blog? If you’re blogging in hopes of getting rich quick and making a kazillion dollars, and that’s your motivation, you may be left in the “sandbox” for a long time. Or, you’ll run out of patience, and all the time you spent trying to make that kazillion, will be wasted. If, on the other hand, you’re blogging to share what you know with others, in an effort to make their lives a little easier, the chances are, your blog will succeed and stand the test of time.

8.) Lastly, be patient. It’s said, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, neither is a good blog.

For an example of great blogs, check out my blogroll on my home page. These are sites I love to visit often. These individuals have put a lot of time and effort in creating sites that contain valuable information, are easy to navigate, and are proof that developing a great blog is attainable.