SEO by Chris Estes

It is official I am a twitter troll. But what makes me a twitter troll?

A while back I posted about twitter and how I was beginning to use it. As many plans with social media, I failed on my initial trial.

So what makes me a Troll? I always have the nifty Twhirl* twitter console/application open. I never update about what I am doing as I don’t think people are interested in what I am doing. I wish I was as entertaining as these characters. Brian Wallace post about everything, eating popcorn, going to the grocery store, and I bet he twitters in the Tub. Jennifer Laycock talks about what she is reading constantly. How can she be reading if she is Twittering? Kalena Jordan’s “bitch of the day” or latest ranting about who is messing with her in Australia are just out right entertaining. Then theres Matt Cutts’s posting about something that might as well be written in a secret hidden language only Nicolas Gage in Disney’s National Treasure can read.

My life isn’t interesting. I troll around the internet and read about others interesting lives. I haven’t found the greatest utility in Twitter but it is ever entertaining. It is like having a webcam view into the daily lives of ordinary people. The great thing I like about it is that spammers have not yet invaded me. Some of the basics of Twitter allow me to view only the people I want to anyway so I don’t have to worry about them.

So yes when I am on my computer my Twhirl app is open and I am watching you. I might not update often but you better believe I am lurking around.

* Twhirl is an application built around Adobe’s Air. For those of you who don’t know about Air yet you will. I have been watching Adobe Air for some time and super excited about the possibilities. It does have quite a few SEO problems but hey that makes life fun.

As indicated in my last posting about Helping Bloggers and Charity I talked about a guest post I wrote for a fellow blogger in need.

The post, entitled “Status Quo Blogging”, was about standard status quo blogging post. It is by far not a landmark post and serves as a working example of status quo blogging.

To read the post visit Social Desire, the blog “devoted to everything Social Media and Web 2.0.” You can view the post directly at “Status Quo Blogging“.

Bloggers have problems too. As much as living the life of avatars and behind the screen name there are real people. Earlier this week on twitter Shana of Social Desire requested help:

Then on her post she requested it again on her blog which you can read about on Social Desire. I submitted a guest post which if it makes it through the vigorous filters of Shanna you should see it soon. Stay tunned for the announcement of my guest blog post helping out a friend.

Around the first of this year I made a charity post and since I am in the feel of donating to an organization I would like to do another one here on the end of this post.

My charity of choice for this post is the American Sleep Apnea Association. The American Sleep Apnea Association is the only non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about sleep apnea and to serving people with this common disorder.

The American Sleep Apnea Association is dedicated to reducing injury, disability, and death from sleep apnea and to enhancing the well-being of those affected by this common disorder. The ASAA promotes education and awareness, the ASAA A.W.A.K.E. Network of voluntary mutual support groups, research, and continuous improvement in care.

From the ASAA Website

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes during sleep. In central sleep apnea, the airway is not blocked but the brain fails to signal the muscles to breathe. Mixed apnea, as the name implies, is a combination of the two. With each apnea event, the brain briefly arouses people with sleep apnea in order for them to resume breathing, but consequently sleep is extremely fragmented and of poor quality.

Sleep apnea is very common, as common as adult diabetes, and affects more than twelve million Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health. Risk factors include being male, overweight, and over the age of forty, but sleep apnea can strike anyone at any age, even children. Yet still because of the lack of awareness by the public and healthcare professionals, the vast majority remain undiagnosed and therefore untreated, despite the fact that this serious disorder can have significant consequences.

Untreated, sleep apnea can cause high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease, memory problems, weight gain, impotency, and headaches. Moreover, untreated sleep apnea may be responsible for job impairment and motor vehicle crashes. Fortunately, sleep apnea can be diagnosed and treated. Several treatment options exist, and research into additional options continues.

Meta tags are frequently talked about. Why? Meta tags are arguably the most important factor in Search Engine Optimization. There seems to be a meta tag for everything. But what do they really all mean?

The three primary Meta Tags for SEO and the others have little or no bearing for search engines due to past abuse or overuse.

1. Title – <title>The name of your page should go here</title>
2. Description – <meta name=“description” content=“The description of the content should be contained withing these quotation marks” />
3. Keywords (less relevant in recent but may or may not be read by search engines so should be used with less focus) – <meta name=“keyword” content=“keyword1, keyphrase2, keyword 3″ />

By putting these between the head tags in the html source code give significant help to Search Engines. Using these tags should describe the page. A page about cooking oil should look like these:

1. <title>Cooking Oil proper disposal</title>
2. <meta name=“description” content=“Cooking oil disposial done correctly is environmentally safe and has the least damage to our environment” />
3. <meta name=“keyword” content=“vegetable oil corn oil olive oil disposal” />

In the past there has been debate about whether to use commas or not in the keyword meta tag since they aren’t really all that important don’t get caught up in the debate. Do what ever flows or isn’t included in the other tags. Spend more time SEO copywriting the page than on the Keyword Meta Tag.

Meta tags are not required for display in a browser. Meta tags are invisible to the eye or at least relatively. You can see meta tags by right clicking a page and viewing it’s source. They are typically near the top of the page. So what makes Meta Tags important to Search Engine Optimization? The content in meta tags are displayed in Search Engine Results.

Displays:

In the case when meta tags aren’t used, search engines typically generate the description used in search results from text on page. For the obvious reason pages that don’t have the description meta tags don’t typically perform well.

Using the meta tags properly will come in another post later that you will be able to find over at Birmingham SEO.

I am coming to you live from a hotel somewhere in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. This will be a quick blog as I have to get to sleep.

This might be a day or so late but it appears Google has done a Toolbar Page Rank Update. This is great to hear as this blog moved up from a page rank 1 to 2. I am sure in the next couple of days there will be more Google Smack Down talk and chatter about Nofollow. Stay tuned for more updates on Page Rank updates as it is always a fun time!

I did notice this one post from our friend Kimberly over at yicrosoftdirectorygirl.com. Congratulations!