A not so snappy or SEO friendly blog title

K. and I got to drive into the city for a second day in a row, this time for his post-op appointment with his surgeon. On the plus side, he has a clean bill of health and has been cleared for activity and eating whatever. As you can imagine, this is thrilling to him. On the down side, our appointment took about 10 minutes, tops, with nearly three hours of driving to get there and back. But, we don't need to go back... possibly ever, so that is something.

Now, I want to spend a moment thanking you, my faithful blog readers. In an idle moment today, I was perusing the interwebs and came across an article about things you absolutely must do if you want people to read your blog. This seemed potentially interesting, so decided to read it. Well, based on those things, I should have no readers what so ever. Yet, I know I do. I see the stats, I get the emails, even if you are all not big on actually commenting.

Now, I bet you're curious as to what I'm doing wrong, aren't you? I wasn't breaking every rule, but some of them were pretty significant. Probably the most significant one was length. One shouldn't be too wordy on a blog, I'm told. There should be lots of white space and headings and a limit to the number of sentences in a paragraph. Considering I wrote over 500 words yesterday just about my grocery shopping bill, this is one rule I just don't see myself ever being able to follow.

A couple of the others were snappy titles (hmmm... yeah, not so much), diligent proofreading (I usually write everything as a first draft, it's often all I have time for, though J. will sometimes swing through and correct the worst), good pictures which have been appropriately tagged for search engines to pick-up, and along those lines, a heavy emphasis on writing for SEO.

Anyone who works with the internet probably knows what those letters stand for, but I certainly didn't until I began doing freelance writing. They stand for Search Engine Optimization. The short explanation is that if you choose words or phrases carefully (ie the words or phrases most searched for), then your blog or website or whatever will be higher in the search rankings and receive more hits. My first freelance writing job required us to do SEO searches for appropriate words and phrases to be used in our articles. I hated it. And I can't be bothered. Oh, I'm also supposed to pin every post to Pinterest. Then there is the suggestion to be sure to share each post at least five times onto Twitter. Of course, this would require I actually get a Twitter account, which is just not happening.

This is why I am thanking all of you. You read my wordy posts (or at least pretend to). You are forgiving of the typos and poor photographs. You manage to keep coming back even though everything here isn't new or hip or trendy. Thank you for coming back. Thank you for reading and letting me know you appreciate what I wrote. Thank you especially to those of you who have told me that what I have written has been helpful to you and your family. Without readers, there wouldn't be a whole of reason for me to write. I'm glad your here!

Comments

Julie said…
I am one of those readers who never comments but after reading this post I felt compelled to let you know that I love reading what you write. I don't recall how I stumbled across your blog, but I have kept coming back ever since. I will take honest, open, insightful, thought provoking content and glimpses into real family life like what you post over a pretty bit of SEO fluff any day.
LG said…
I am another lurker. I'm not married, and have no children, so it's not as if I can really relate, except as a woman of faith. I read several other blogs that include international adoption, and yours was referenced on one of them. Your blog was so real, and so open, that I went back and read from the very beginning, so I could learn about how your family grew. Thank you so much for giving a glimpse into your life, and loves, and struggles.
Alicia Mae said…
I am so glad you ignore the prescribed "correct" blog post length. Your posts are always among the most insightful/interesting/well thought out things I read. And as someone who works in the school system with school psychology/special education, I always love your posts on brain stuff!
Aunt Ginny said…
Well, E, I can tell you that when I'm sitting here, almost every day, working on something I don't much want to spend more time on right then, I love to take a break and go to your blog. If I've missed a day I catch up. Thanks!
Hi. I'm from Australia and I enjoy reading your blog also.
Anonymous said…
I love reading your blog, too. Always interesting and edifying.

Thank you!
-Roxana
grtlyblesd said…
I think those things are more true for... how do I say this? typical? mainstream? more common blogs? I think that large family, bio and adoptive, homeschooler blogs are rather a niche market, and yours just happens to be one of the more interesting and well written ones.

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