Want a way to ping Google?
Yeah, I thought that would get your attention. 
Go get the Google Sitemap Generator for WordPress plugin and put it in and within minutes, you can be pinging Google every time you make a post.
As a bonus, Yahoo! and MSN use the same sitemap structure. Anything that calls Search Engines to index your sites is a good SEO tool.
Since I started using Ultimate Tag Warrior 3 I have been very pleased with this plugin for creating Tag Clouds.
Of course, there are things I would like to see added or changed, but I didn’t spend the time writing the plugin or its well laid out documentation. I have no complaints!
What I do have are a couple of pointers for its’ use for a new user.
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Tag Clouds according to Wikipedia: “A tag cloud (more traditionally known as a weighted list in the field of visual design) is a visual depiction of content tags used on a website. Often, more frequently used tags are depicted in a larger font or otherwise emphasized, while the displayed order is generally alphabetical… Selecting a single tag within a tag cloud will generally lead to a collection of items that are associated with that tag.”
For a live example of them, take a look at the end of this post and also on the bottom of my sidebar.php.
Simply put, a Trackback is a way for sites to link to each other automatically.
For an example of a Trackback in action, take a look at what happens when I link to this inspirational article on how nothing is impossible.
WordPress has all sorts of plugins. Loads and loads of them. A lot of work is put into them, both on the development side and the utilization side. Usually, they are nice and slick.
Sometimes, that is just too much to hope for. Lately, it is even getting worse and only exacerbated by my using the WordPress MU engine.
Sometimes, a simple and crude hack is a better solution.
IMNHO, here is such a hack.
In order for a blog to work fully as a viral web site, you need to utilize the comment system. Getting people to post comments helps bring people back and make them feel as if they are a part of the site and help set the direction it is going. This leads to telling other people about your site and getting even more people involved with your site and gracing you with traffic. Comments also are free content for your site. More key words, more updates, more links, more of everything a blog is supposed to have.
WordPress has the comment system enabled by default but that does not mean you will actually get comments other then spam. Before we go further, enable the WordPress spam filters and look at and install comment spam tools. I will write about them soon.
As of this moment, you will notice that I still have the default theme on this blog and on the other blogs on this domain that I personally run. The reason is because it really does not matter much.
As a visitor, you are here to see the content, not the presentation.
Does the site work? Is the content easy to navigate? Do all the usability needs get met? Is the advertising (if applicable) in the right spot(s)? Is your SEO in place and being worked? Is the content worth the visitor’s time? These are the important things (in no particular order) that you need to address with any site.
Don’t get me wrong, a FUGLY site is bad! But with blogs, there are themes to start with. Pick one and run with it.
