Blogs sure are great, and owners are doing everything they can to optimize them for search engines, but what about people? There are a few usability plugins that make it easier for visitors to interact with your site.

Optimal Title / SEO Title : Good title tags are not just for search engines. They also appear in the users history and possibly bookmarks. Title tags should be specific -> generic. So, don’t start all your tittle tags with your blog name please.

Subscribe to Comments : Getting comments is one trick, keeping the people up to date on the comment discussion is important. I can’t think of how many times I’ve posted and then I couldn’t remember where I made my comments. Email notifications is a great way to get updates on comments and keep your visitors connected.

Chicklet Creator : A big feature of blogs is the syndication abilities. Having a feed is great, but making it easy to subscribe to is even better. (This is one of my projects.)

Spam Detection : Reading a blog full of viagra and casino comment spam is not fun. Chances are, it’ll annoy your users too and they’ll stop visiting.
- Akismet
- Spam Karma

Matt Cutts, Google employee, has been taking search questions and answering them via video.  I wrote in and asked if Google treats blog sites any different than regular websites and he said no.

The thought behind my question was that with more sites converting from static HTML to Wordpress or MovableType, the sites are becoming more complex.  There are posts, pages, feeds, comments and comment feeds.  I wasn’t sure if Google saw these sites any differently than a static HTML site.

My question was answered in the lightning round and it appears at the end of the video clip.

Thanks Matt!!

[tags]matt-cutts,google,movable-type,seo[/tags]

Wordpress is great, but the default install isn’t as good as it could be. There are hundreds, if not thousands of Wordpress plugins available. Finding ones that work well and add to your site’s optimization can be tricky, but here is what I recommend.

1. Akismet or Spam Karma - Both plugins block spammers from automatically filling your comments with spam and links to unwanted sites. An anti-spam plugin is a must unless you like spending hours a day cleaning up after spammers.
2. Optimal Title - This simple plugin re-writes the blog post’s tile start with the post name not the site name. It’s best to always start title tags with unique information and then proceed to generic.
3. WWW Redirect - Technically, http://www.site.com and http://site.com are two different sites. It may be a minor deal to some search engines, but you are always better off making sure that you are only giving out one URL structure. This plugin redirects the non-www version to the www version, or vice versa, with a friendly 301 redirect.

Now I know that that’s a small list, but I feel those three are on my must have list. I’ll be following up with posts on should have plugins, usability plugins and fun plugins in the upcoming weeks.