It is not just about integrity as said in Joseph McCullough’s article IE6 and the Starving Artist, it is about making people aware of how much safer it is to surf without a faulty browser. Funny how the update was missed as when IE7 was released, it came out as an automatic update!

Why is Internet Explorer 6 bad?

The program is not compatible with some css and javascript elements. It is also well known to have many security vulnerabilities.

It is not about being snooty or web standard compliant (okay, well, you should at least try to be W3C compliant), it is about safe surfing. No one likes malware or viruses. Some of them can be a pain to remove or even costly!

While I am not going to slap some code on my site to tell people to update, I am at least writing to tell people that IE6 is dead. As funny as it sounds, there was even a funeral for IE6 too! Google even started phasing out IE6.

So, why not upgrade to Windows IE7 and above? It is available and not really that hard to update. There are also other great browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari.

What browser do you like to surf the Internet with?

Related posts:

1. What Is The Best Resolution For Designing?
2. Google Chrome… fast???
3. Your Browser Choice to Surf the Internet

Of course, there are professionals and even plugins for content management systems that can assist in optimizing an article.

For some of the older bloggers, and I mean ‘older’ as in you have been blogging for more than 3 years, you might want to take a look through your posts. It might be a walk down memory lane, but you should check out your posts and see how you can change and insert the keywords necessary to allow the search engines to list your article where it should be.

However, for a lot of bloggers who are newbies…

Here are 7 things you should consider before applying SEO to your blog.

Writing Style. You do not have to be perfect. However, you should write naturally. If you are unsure of a word, look it up in a dictionary. Some people believe you have to write like you are a journalist for a newspaper. You do not. If you are passionate about SEO, then it will come naturally and you may not have to optimize your article much.

Readers. Your readers are extremely important. They are the ones viewing your content and judging whether it is useful or not. They will also be the ones that would turn away if your site is obviously in for just the money. This should be your main focus. The keywords can come in time. You might like to read Reader comment: counting keyword density and worrying about SERP’s by Marko Saric or even Jack Nguyen’s article – Writing For Traffic or Visitors? – Have You Been Doing It All Wrong?

Design. You can have a nice fancy design, but is it functional? Are your readers able to surf your site with ease? If not, you might want to look into revamping it.

Keywords. Keywords should be used wisely and not in overabundance. A lot of people try to aim for posts between 200 to 800 words. This is not a lot of words to work with when playing with keywords. This is why you should write naturally. If you are not sure on the subject, research it before writing about it.

The Article Title. The article titles can have keywords, but like newspapers have to kind of draw in your visitors. It is not uncommon that when a person goes to purchase a book, they are looking at the title and cover first. So – make your title pop. You can still use keywords, and write a naturally sounding title.

The Article’s URL. Because of the wonderful technology of some content management systems, it is possible to use “pretty permalinks.” While an article’s title might be longer, the URL can be optimized for keywords. For example, Joost de Valk talks a lot about WordPress SEO. Even though he has a subheader, he put ‘WordPress SEO” as keywords in his URL and his title. Of course, it was a simple decision, but he could have put WordPress SEO: The Definitive Guide To Higher Rankings For Your Blog, but he did not because it was much more important to draw in people looking for that term. (By the way, you should read Joost’s guide on WordPress SEO.)

Linkage. A lot of people know about different link programs. You can exchange links, and join web directories, but you can now do more than that. You can write article that might be related to other articles written by other bloggers. You might get a link back, and maybe a new reader!

Are there any other things people should think about when applying SEO to your blog? Or even to your site in general?

Related posts:

1. SEO 101: The Article And Its Content
2. Are You Tagging Properly?
3. Guest Post: Applying SEO To The Title Tag

For one, if you are comfortable giving out personal information – fine, but remember that you should probably retain something that only you know or nothing will seem special or sacred. Plus, even if you think people like to hear about how you went to the bathroom, details on how you have sex with another person (specifically naming that person), what was on your grocery list, or your minute-by-minute updates – you are wrong. There are a lot of people who will not say anything because they are kind and have a lot of reserve. On the other hand, there will be people who are turned off by that behavior.

Please note that there are sites that address intimacy issues and adult topics, so if your site is focused on this, great, but also remember to make sure your partner is okay with you divulging information about them.

Freedom of speech has always been a touchy topic for a lot of people. It is not that you are not allowed to say something – it is that you might want to not say it because it might be too much information. (Also known as the TMI, WTMI or WTMFI.) And no, this is not including profanity into the mix. This is including things that really have no business in public and could actually be hurtful if there is backfire.

Your readers are important, but in the case of putting decisions of your life in their hands, you are not being true to yourself. (This is what happened in the House M.D episode.) This is not the type of person that shows leadership qualities and how they influenced so many people. Doing this will probably turn away readers faster than anything else.

Have you read blogs that had a little too much information? What are your thoughts on this?

Related posts:

1. The Art of Blogging: Part 2 – What is Your Site’s Focus?
2. Guest Blogging: Does It Really Help Your Site?
3. The Art of Blogging: Do Not Be Afraid To Leave Comments

According to Alexa’s FAQ How are Alexa’s traffic rankings determined?, traffic rank is determined by the number of uses of their toolbar. The uses are divvied between page views and reach. Even if you visit a site multiple times, your visit is only counted once. Again, this is solely based on Alexa users.

So what could this mean for some people who want to improve it?

This means that you should probably encourage your visitors to download the Alexa toolbar. For those who have websites already, it might be a good thing as there are plugins for Firefox that you can install and monitor your Alexa rank without even directly visiting the site.

Does Alexa Rank Really Matter?

Yes, it does. A lot of ad systems and advertisers look at these ranks to figure out how successful a site is and gauge how many people they could possibly attract through purchasing advertising. Others think of it as a site goal to make a certain number. That is fine too.

People need these type of systems to find some sort of progress. Please do remember that it does take some work to achieve these types of goals. Some webmasters will succeed faster than others due to their website’s topics and their influence within social networks as well as other online communities.

Dan Keller writes in his article How to Improve your Alexa Ranking. You might want to hop on over there and read his post. I do want to note that even though he mentions webmaster, you can pretty much exchange it with your target audience and you will do fine.

Do you know your Alexa rank? Have you already downloaded the Alexa Toolbar? Should website owners pay attention to their rank at Alexa?

Related posts:

1. Blondish.net rising in Alexa
2. Chatcatcher: Hit and Miss Plug-in

I understand what is said in the article (Un)Social Networking, but I cannot agree with it entirely. The article covers that people are basically losing interest in real conversation face-to-face and would rather turn to social network sites like Twitter and Facebook. Conversations are considered more shallow within the social streams.

As a person that writes for TwitterWatchdog.com, I have connected with quite a number of people. Some, I talk to via email, or they visit my site.

Some of the comments that I receive as well as the ones I give at other sites would be enough to write a blog entry alone. Some of my social networking conversations, especially on Facebook are lengthy and can go on for days.

So, here is what I am coming to as the point.

NO – Social networking does NOT break down real communication.

If you are finding yourself unsatisfied with shallow conversations in your social networking circle, then you have failed to know how it works, especially if you are also trying to attract visitors to your website to hopefully continue a conversation on your blog.

You need to find better conversationalists. You can also look up Tweetups in an area near you at TwtVite and meet these people that you have been talking to online.

I actually had a conversation with a guy at my local library while he was using Twitter. He expressed the same concern as Ian’s post that I linked to above. When I explained how he could enrich his social networking experience, his doubts were gone. He now actively meets some of tweeps from the area and hang out.

So, if you are looking to connect or influence others, you need to step out of the box and find people who might be interested in speaking more than a 140 characters.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think social networking encourages less real conversations in person?

Related posts:

1. Social Media 101: Your Business Cannot Rely On Only Social Networking
2. Search Engine versus Social Networking Traffic?
3. Social Network Sites And Blogging Are Hurting the News Industry?