Is "D" A Passing Grade?
Filed Under: Starting A Blog
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When I’m not writing on www.itsWriteNow, I’m reading about writing. Yesterday my friends over at Blog About Your Blog, did a great post about checking the health of your blog.
One of the tools they talk about is Website Grader. Along with their grade of 82, and a brief summary.
I couldn’t resist, so I entered my URL, and I found out I had a grade of 60. I believe that would be a “D”. That’s actually not that bad since, I’ve previously mentioned some SEO things, I need to do with my code, to improve my site.
According to Website Grader, these are the improvements I need to make:
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Add a description element in the meta data. This was not found in the HTML
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I have to many meta keywords - I’m using the “All In One SEO Pack” plugin, maybe I need to change that or use 1 keyword per post
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I have 7 font tags that need to be removed - for cleaner XHTML/CSS.
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Renew my Domain - Google sees short term domains (less than 1 year), as possible spam sites.
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I need a permanent redirect so that; http://www.itswritenow.com/ and itsWriteNow won’t be seen as 2 different websites.
I also have a Technorati Ranking of 540,306. Eleven del.icio.us bookmarks. An Alexa ranking of 932,518. One Digg submission. And a 6th grade reading level. I purposely try to make my writing conversational and easy to understand.
Yes, I have room for improvements. But I have learned a lot, and I am heading in the right direction. Anyone can check the grade on any website so there are no secrets here.
If anyone is feeling brave. Check your grade and post the score. Or if you have tips on how to fix these problems. Feel free to share.
It’s Write Now or Never, Emma
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uberdose | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
Hi Emma, I’m using All in One SEO Pack myself (obviously) and I’m using meta keywords but they didn’t complain about them being too many. Overall my site scored 98. How did they phrase your “using too many meta keywords”?
Btw., I see your title is broken, assuming it’s because of your use of quotes. Will look at it tonight. For the time being I recommend removing the quotes manually from the AIOSP title.
Dharmesh Shah | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
Greetings,
Thanks for using WebsiteGrader.com (I am the original developer).
To answer your question about the meta keywords, although the tool does suggest limiting the number of keywords (as this is considered “best practice”), it does not decrease your grade to have too many keywords as the impact of this is not that high so the factor is not weighted that heeavily.
Hope this helps.
Emma | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
Wow such professional responses.
@uberdose, I have a lot of work to do when is comes to SEO. Thank-you so much for the plugin, and for stopping by. I’m honored.
@Dharmesh Shah, WebsiteGrader.com is very cool. Thank-you for all of your hard work. Also thanks for clearing up the Meta keyword issue. And of course for commenting on my humble venture.
the frogster | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
i got a grade of 46. 4. 6. yikes. according to website grader, this gives me the marketing potential of an icicle salesman in the arctic. but i figure that’s ok, because i still think the entertainment value of watching someone try to sell icicles in the arctic is worth it.
Emma | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for stopping by Frogster. I like your quick wit. Funny is good!
Matthew | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
let me know if you need help with any of those things, we can get your score up
Emma | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
Thanks Matt. I just might take you up on that.
K-IntheHouse | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
Emma, thanks for linking to my article at BAYB. Dharmesh as you have found is very helpful and always answers any questions you may have about the tool.
You are, in fact, headed towards the right direction. I have found this tool useful not just as a way to improve your health once, but to make sure it stays that way after every upgrade and plugin changes.
uberdose | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
I released 1.2.5.8, which should handle quotes and the like more resilient, but I still don’t know why it capped *your* title. Did you set it explicitly (apart from your post title?) Because Wordpress handles the posttitle gracefully and so should the SEO pack.
Laura | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
I used this tool a few months ago and my score was also less than desirable. I can’t remember exactly what it was, but it wasn’t what I would have wanted.
However, I implemented some (not all) of the suggestion that the tool made and my score improved.
I think that’s the point of the tool. You can’t really look at it as a grade in the traditional sense, it should be viewed more like a learning opportunity.
Emma | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
@ K-KintheHouse Your welcome, thanks for the link and for stopping by my site.
@uberdose I usually type the title into the SEO pack title field. I edited it recently and retyped the title without the quotes. It’s possible maybe the first time, I started typing, got a distraction or something, then when I came back I didn’t finish typing it in.
So, I doubt it’s your plugin, it was probably an error on my part. You seem really conscientious, and definitely know what your doing.
@Laura Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be visiting your site, for writing tips. Feel free to vistit whenever you like. Emma
Kirk M | Aug 24, 2007 | Reply
Hi Emma,
I ran the tool through and I came out with a grade of 89. Not bad for doing the SEO myself I guess. One of the things that probably downgraded some was too many pages in Google’s supplemental index. This is passing strange since Google has all but phased out the supplemental index. I’ll have to run it again now that I have the most recent version of the All-In-One SEO plugin (1.5.9).
Thanks for posting about the Web Grader.
Kirk M | Aug 24, 2007 | Reply
Okay, I re-ran the grader and I picked up two points for a 90 which I can only attribute to the new version of All-In-One SEO.
I don’t believe the score is quite accurate since it didn’t pick up my Technorati rank and it said that my domain expires in 86 days when it actually expires in just less than two years.
It’s good to have around though.
Emma | Aug 24, 2007 | Reply
Wow a 90, your almost a problogger. Thanks for coming back, and I’m glad you like the “all in one SEO pack”. This post has generated my most numerous and most prestigious comments. Plus it’s a link to a cool tool.
Jen / domestika | Aug 28, 2007 | Reply
One easy way to do the no-www redirect is a quick WP plugin. There are probably several of them around, but the one I use is by Matthew Mullenweg. If you’re interested, you can get it at http://photomatt.net/2006/06/13/wordpress-no-www/
Emma | Aug 28, 2007 | Reply
Wow, Thanks Jen, I will get that plugin. Matt Mullenweg is one of my heros, and I think photomatt, is a very well designed site. But, we wouldn’t expect anything less.
Thanks for coming back and for all of your helpful info. Emma