Both should take should take you to the same place. If not there is a problem! Personally, I don’t want to type in the ‘www’ and I don’t really see the need for it.  For example, when I go to SpiderSavvy.com or JamesMcWhorter.com I don’t type in www.

This brings me to an important SEO and usability tip that is often overlooked in sites with regards to those who find your site by typing ‘www’ before the domain name. Search engines may think spidersavvy.com and www.spidersavvy.com are two different sites. To avoid dillution of your Web site’s SEO you should set up a permanent redirect (technically called a “301 redirect”) between these sites. Once you do that, you will get full search engine credit for your work on these sites.

It works like this.  When you enter www.SpiderSavvy.com the redirect will automatically take you to http://SpiderSavvy.com.  This effectively funnels all traffic through one place instead of two or more.

This can be done by finding the .htaccess file, on your Web site, and entering:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.(.*) [NC]

RewriteRule ^(.*) http://%1/$1 [R=301]

I’ve put together 8 posts that share tips and tricks to help you write blog posts, correctly.

• A List Apart: How to Write a Better Weblog

  At a List Apart, Dennis Mahoney outlines great ways to write good blog content. Dennis looks at proper writing structure, and how to make your sentences concise and to the point. The article also covers how to offer something new, and how to offer something unique.

• Problogger: How to Write Excellent Blog Content

  Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger is the premier site for blogging information, and how-to’s. In this post, Rowse looks back on his meager beginnings and points out things he wish he knew when he started. Darren posted 5 main points and then highlights comments from the blog that give great advice.

• Problogger: Ten Tips for Writing a Blog Post

  This post was not written by Darren, but instead is a Guest Post by Lyndon from Frockblog. The post creates a list of tips for writing a blog post, and is easy to read and understand. The points are not the most unique but it’s nice to have them all in one spot.

• Frugal Marketing: How to Write Killer Blog Posts

  On Frugal Marketing, this blog post outlines all the major parts of a good article. It also covers how to link properly, write good comments, and creates a step by step guide to writing a good blog.

• Seth Godin: How to Write a Blog Post

  Seth is a great marketer, and he’s mastered the idea that less is more. In this short post, he outlines 8 tips in 9 lines. Godin also goes on to link to an example blog post.

• Guy Kawasaki: Blog versus Book – How I Write My Blog Entries

  Guy is an exceptionally bright writer, and in this post he imparts a lot of his wisdom and experience. This is a nice post because he speaks about issues with reusing content.

• Copyblogger: Mr. Spock Guide to Effective Blogging

  Brian Clark of Copyblogger writes great posts but this guest post by Sonia Simone is absolutely amazing. Sonia explains how to logically write great content. One of the best parts of this post is when she explains how to appeal to emotion.

• Jakob Nielsen: Write Articles, Not Blog Postings

  Useit.com’s Jakob Nielsen has written, what I think, is the most comprehensive and useful article explaining how to make good content. The in-depth articles outlines one way to write good blog posts, and if you read other articles by Jakob, you’ll find the usability guide by him useful.

• Interference with web reading habits
• Detraction from valuable content
• Missed opportunity for better search engine ranking.

Interference with web reading habits

When searching on the web, people sift through information by skim reading for a broad overview and scanning for specific details.

When skim reading, people use visual attractors such as headings, highlighted words and hyperlinks to determine if a web page could be of interest to them. ‘Click here’ stands out but consists of redundant words instead of some worthwhile information required for the assessment of a web page.

‘Click here’ also slows down the scanning process. Each time ‘Click here’ appears, the reader has to pause and read the adjacent text to assess if the link is worth pursuing. Compare the following options:

1. Subscribe to SpiderSavvy to receive a complimentary ebook. Click here
   ’Click here’ requires the reader to read the sentence prior to ‘Click here’ to find out why one would take action.
2. Subscribe to SpiderSavvy click here to receive a complimentary ebook.
   ’Click here’ not only interferes with scanning and skimming but also disrupts the flow of information.
3. Subscribe to SpiderSavvy to receive a complimentary ebook.
   Whether a person skims, scans or reads, the destination and purpose of the link is clearly stated.

Detraction from valuable content

‘Click here’ states the obvious and is unnecessary. It takes centre stage by capturing the attention and detracting from valuable content. Compare the following examples:

Articles- Domain names

• WordPress 2.7.1 Released Click here
• Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing Click here
• Link Building: The popularity contest Click here

Note how your eye movement is drawn to ‘Click here’ rather than to the title of the article.

Articles- Domain names

• WordPress 2.7.1 Released
• Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing
• Link Building: The popularity contest

In the above example, the hyperlink bears the title of the article which makes the destination predictable. (My personal preference: I don’t underline hyperlinks to give a leaner look to my index.)

Missed opportunity for better search engine ranking

Search engines take into account anchor text in their ranking algorithm. By having keyword-rich links you can raise your relevancy score and search engine ranking for both the source and destination page.
(Link relevancy is a criteria used by search engines to ensure that results returned are the most relevant to a user’s query.)

Conclusion

Replace those ‘Click here’ by keywords or keyword phrases that will give people a clear indication of the destination or purpose of your links and provide indexing material for search engines.

Again, since Domain Names are Case Insensitive, you can do with them as you wish. You could literally have any combination of case in your Domain Name, the part after the www. and before the .com (.edu, .net, .org, etc.).

1. www.spidersavvy.com (Old School Media)
2. www.SpiderSavvy.com (New School Media)
3. www.SpIdeRsAvVy.com (Grunge example only)

As you can see, The first two examples would be the accepted methods with number one being the most widely used. Unless you have a Grunge Brand or have a requirement for Studley Caps, the last example (#3) may not apply.

Of the two accepted methods, which of these two are your eyes drawn to?

1. www.SpiderSavvy.com
2. www.spidersavvy.com

I’m going to take it one step further and strip the www. (Another topic in itself and one that I’ll be covering in greater depth.)

1. SpiderSavvy.com
2. spidersavvy.com

With the last two examples above, which do you find more visually appealing from both a brand and usability perspective?

Remember, domain names are case insensitive which means you can use whatever case you wish. Use that knowledge with prudence and best branding practices.

We have not perfected the technology to combat Spam emails. In fact I have Google’s gmail email that hit the Spam folder of my other gmail address. At one time many of my gmail emails went to the Spam folder of my old Yahoo email.

One way to lessen the possibility of your email landing straight to the Spam archive of the recipient is to avoid these 7 deadly mistakes in creating an email address:

1. Avoid at all cost using numbers in your email address. Hilarious34099@gmail dot com, for instance, would appear dubious in the mind of the Spam filter.

2. Avoid at all cost underscore. Some people thought it’s cute to create an underscore in their email address. Aside from the fact that it creates trouble to people who flanked in typing class, emails with underscore look bad in the eyes of the Spam filter. Forget your diane_cute@gmail dot com.

3. Putting a www in your email address will surely irk the Spam filter. I’ve seen some people who use www in their email addresses perhaps they wrote it this way so that they would sound a ‘dot com’ savvy. The email would appear like wwwsarah@gmail dot com.

4. Avoid putting periods in your email address. Aside from the fact that it would confuse your email recipient, it could send a wrong signal to the Spam filter. danica.cute.newyork@gmail dot com can be misleading.

5. Using raped spelling of words in email address can be disastrous. Are you the next Flickr? If you’re not, you better stick to Oxford’s spelling guide.

6. Using fantastic adjectives in your email will not only irk the recipient but may also send a wrong signal to the Spam filter. bobtheonlysuperman@gmail dot com is really questionable.

7. Any combination of the above deadly email mistakes is worse than any of the cited mistakes. wwwbobtheonlybatman.23900@gmail dot com will never be funny.

Build your identity in the proper way. Give yourself a decent name. If your name is Sony Lee (example only), why not create a sonylee@gmail dot com email address? Not only is this email easy to identify and remember, it also gives you a decent legacy in the digital history.