First thing to consider is the fonts you use. Make sure the fonts you utilize are simple and can easily be read, not too small and straining to the eyes during prolonged exposure. A font size of 11 or 12 is best. Keep in mind that web users are fast surfers so you would not want them to change to a different web page right away. Fonts that are cool to the eyes and not difficult to read should be used.

For the titles of your websites and web pages, avoid using very colorful fonts. Better use a combination of black or dark grey or any dark due and a brighter color. Neon colors are a no-no. Choose darker or lighter colors if you must.

It’s best also to use just one font type for one whole page and even for the rest of your web pages. Arial and Verdana are highly recommended for fast reading. Readers usually go for the contents of your site but if at first glance they find the page barely readable because of your fonts plus a crowded page set-up, they will, no doubt, leave instantly.

Here’s something for you to think about: is it worth using Tumblr for SEO?

Recently, Tumblr has received a lot of attention because of their services being down for extended periods of time. (They have addressed this issue by taking on an additional data center service. They’re actually looking to open the new data center after the holidays.) Despite the down time, a lot of people are still using Tumblr, and yes, there is a huge potential for Tumblr to attract traffic.

There is the fact that Tumblr may not be the first choice for blogging. It does lack some features which are easily found on similar services, such as direct messaging between users. We also have to highlight the fact that Tumblr does not do well in organic search results. So why bother with it for SEO purposes?

There is also the fact that Tumblr is a platform that makes it easy to post different types of media. It is a good way to get the word out there, and it does have the potential to drive people to your site. We’re not throwing Tumblr aside as a useful tool – you just need to optimize it in order to get good results. If there is one thing you have to do, go to the Advanced Settings tab and enable “allow search engines to index your blog”. While you’re at it, choose “promote me on Tumblr” as well.

Other quick tips:

• Use alt tags, keywords, and the other usual SEO practices.
• Add Facebook “like” buttons to your posts.
• Utilize RSS.

One way to do this efficiently is by installing browser plug-ins. SEO plug-ins are very useful because they allow you to get a feel of what’s happening with just a glance at your toolbar. Note though that each plug-in has different strengths and weaknesses so make sure you get one that gives you not only a lot of relevant information but also a tool that you know gives accurate data. Since I use Firefox obviously the SEO plug-ins I know about are Firefox plug-ins. In following posts I will be giving a short summary of some plug-ins that I find to be personally useful.

Remember the time you spend checking data using different tools can be spent doing something else that brings greater value, whether to your work or your personal life. So make use of tools that frees you up to do things that actually need to be done by you.

So, what’s the best photo format to use for faster downloading and uploading? Computer engineers recommend using the JPEG photo format on the web instead of the GIF. The first good reason is photo compression which means that JPEG can make your image files smaller. This capability makes for faster transmission of files across networks and for storing of images. Since time and storage space are of the essence for most web users, the JPEG format is a win-win solution.

The other advantage of JPEG is its ability to store full color information approximately 24 bits per pixel or around 16 million colors. On the one hand, GIF can only take in 8 bits per pixel or around 256 or even fewer colors. And since this digital image retains all the information, what comes out on the screen is the real picture.

With full-color hardware now getting cheaper and more widely used around the world, the use of JPEG photos are far better. What’s more, JPEG is more useful when exchanging images with people using varying display hardware.

Some of the features of Google Analytics are given below.

Firstly, it is much easier to use. With the special AdWords feature, Google provides more flexibility with the keywords and also provides you immediate ROI results. It also provides good suggestions as to which keywords can make the site or product more attractive. Nextly, it focuses on only those modifications (in your website) which will gain you profits. As the service is available in many languages (English, German, Spanish, Korean, etc.) there is a wider scope for improvement of the site along with the marketing campaign.

As Analytics is powered by the same server which runs Google, it can be reliably used for even top corporate projects. Also, it is very much easy to use. For e.g. instead of purchasing or downloading some software or script, just pasting the tracking code in the web pages directly begins the tracking. Google Analytics also provides Executive summaries of the conversions, traffic directly to you so that you don?t have to hunt for the reports. You can then comfortably compare keywords, revenue & basically, the performance of the website. It also provides you the comparative reports of the performance, for e.g. if you need to compare this weeks performance with last week?s you can very well get the entire tabular data. This service extends so much that you can tally this winter?s reports with last summer?s reports. Google Analytics can also be used for e-commerce websites, as you can compare revenues, arrange & modify campaigns & get a whole view of the metrics.

Another special feature of Google Analytics is the Funnel visualization. Sometimes it so happens that a visitor starts exploring your site but quits in the middle. Mostly, it is due to puzzling or maze-like data or irrelevant information on the site that confuses the visitor. Google tracks the positions of the quitting & hence provides you the opportunity of modifying that particular area of the site. Google also provides you the segmented visitor report, which includes sorting of visitor information by location, by action, by new versus returning visitor, making it easier to compare the keywords and the traffic. Geotargeting helps in tracking the location of the visitor and also gives your information about markets in various areas & their potentials.

Hence, it provides you a better option of the market analysis & gives you more options of setting up or modifying your campaign in order to increase the market value of your website.

Blogs subscriptions are one of the things RSS feeds are most used for. In fact because of the popularity of using RSS feeds for blogs subscriptions a lot of blogging tools have a built-in function or feature for automatically generating RSS feeds or Atom feeds (in the case of blogger) so that their bloggers won’t have to bother themselves with the how-tos of making an RSS feed.

This means that as a blogger if you are using one of the common blogging tools all you need to do is indicate in the settings that you want an RSS feed to automatically generated for you and Voila! a no sweat feed for you.

If you are one of the hard headed bloggers who blog from scratch then you would need to use an RSS generator or in the spirit of making things from scratch, can make your very own feeds. It isn’t really that hard to do but again why spend time doing that when you can be focusing on other aspects of your blog…like the content.

Thanks to Google Alerts we have one of the most convenient ways of knowing if a hacker has got to your site. All you have to do is use Google to monitor queries for common spam keywords and phrases like credit, Viagra, etc. What will happen then is that Google Alerts will email you each time any of the keywords appears on your website.

The problem with this approach is that first of all you’ll only find out from Google Alerts after the fact the spam is already in your site. Second, you’ll probably overlook some spam phrases and not set up an alert for them. However, even with these issues using Google Alerts in conjunction with other methods of keeping hackers out can still be useful. At the very least you’ll find out fast enough when your site is hacked without having to check your site for hidden keywords every single day. As for the keywords and phrases you might miss make sure you prepare by compiling a good list so that you’re at least sure you remember most of the spam keywords.

One of the things that Bloglines likes to boast about is the easy sharing of your subscriptions to your friends and just about everyone else who uses Bloglines. There are actually two ways you can share your subscription to everyone – though your blogroll and through the Bloglines website itself.

Blogger’s, even non-Bloglines bloggers, use blogrolls, which are simply lists that link to other blogs. Bloglines makes it very easy to add links to your blogroll by providing a wizard that generates a small piece of HTML that you can add to your blog that will of course load a script from Bloglines showing your subscriptions as your blogroll.

For those who don’t plan on using blogroll’s your subscription list is always available for public viewing at the Bloglines website via the following URL:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/USERNAME
You can of course simply add a link to your subscriptions instead of adding a blogroll or you can just tell people abut it. People will not only be able to view your subscriptions this way but can also export them as an OPML file.

There are basically four things you can do when using Bloglines.

1. Subscribe to blogs, email groups, and websites.
2. Publish your own blog.
3. Search billions of articles.
4. Share your favorites (subscription favorites) to your friends.

However there’s much much more that Bloglines has to offer. According to their website this is the list of their key features:

* All-in-one Blog and news feed search, online subscriptions, news reader, blog publishing and social sharing tools
* Available in 10 languages
* Mobile version optimized for hand-held computers and cell phones
* Email subscriptions help manage your e-newsletter traffic
* Package Tracking (UPS, USPS & FedEx)
* Custom weather forecasts
* Quick Pick Subscriptions get new users started quickly and easily
* Personalized recommendations to find new subscriptions
* Bookmarklet for single-click subscriptions to any source
* Notifiers for all browser types to remind you when new articles have arrived
* Bloglines Saved Searches deliver future articles matching your key words and phrases
* Most Popular lists show the days hot topics and which blogs are getting the most noticed
* Handy add-on tools for bloggers such as automated blogrolls, subscription buttons

Like in most sites that offer good services nowadays, it is very easy to join Bloglines. All you need to do to create your account is click on the Register link found at the top right portion of the page or the big Sign Up link on the middle of the page, fill in the required information, make sure you’ve read the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and click on the register button. Of course you’ll need to confirm your registration by clicking on the link they send you at your email but other than that it’s virtually fuss-free. Filling in the information actually takes less than five minutes since all you’re required to give is your email address, your password, time zone, and preferred language. This means of course means that you don’t have to divulge any sensitive information.

After registering you can start blogging or arranging your subscriptions. You can also simply browse through other blogs and read some good articles.