maximizing blog exposure

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  delianeal · Member · Mar 27, 2009 at 10:43 pm

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  I apologize in advance if this has been covered, I’ve been searching forums for over an hour for my particular issue(s) and I’m just stuck:

  first, I tried to search for my blog using some terms from my latest post (from yesterday) – I tried to use the more unusual terms, like the word “magistrate,” and although I got search results from as far back as last year, my post never showed up. So my first concern is that I have missed something in the setup process to make my blog “findable.” The highest number of visits I’ve had since I started this a couple of weeks ago was less than 20 . . . so is this related to me not being able to find my blog, or is it just too darn early to be whining about that?

  second, I have read a gabillion (actual number) of posts about tags, categories, etc. and I’m wondering, how general should categories be vs. specificity for tags? For instance, if I have “cooking” as a category, I would assume that tags could include words like “culinary” or “baking.” And should I add tags that may be used in only one post, but that may be less popular words in order to show up in a search for that specific topic? Like if I wrote about an “eleemosynary” institution, I would imagine I’d be the rare bird using that word and I would pop up pretty high in any search results for that word. am I right?

  Again, sorry if this has been covered (and sorry for the length, I just can’t help myself)
  delia

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  raincoaster · Member · Mar 28, 2009 at 1:51 am

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  Brand new blogs are excluded from the tag and category pages for awhile, and it can take external search engines up to six weeks to index a blog, so until then you won’t show up on searches. Just be patient.

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  feartheseeds · Member · Mar 28, 2009 at 6:05 am

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  Use categories which make sense with what you’re writing… you can also use those categories to find and attract other blogs / bloggers writing about similar interests. It happened mostly by accident, but when I started out blogging I found a bunch of people who were at the same blogging stage I was and we became fairly close friends. Now some of them, thanks to the support we gave each other, rank among the largest blogs for their topics. So, in terms of traffic, we helped each other attract new readers.

  Keep in mind the “humor” and “humour” categories lead to two totally separate areas, which means it’s generally a good idea to use both.

  http://en.wordpress.com/tag/humour/

  http://en.wordpress.com/tag/humor/

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  delianeal · Member · Mar 29, 2009 at 12:31 am

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  thanks both of you! WP is a great tool, there’s just so much to learn! Thanks for the fyi on the UK and US versions of humor – I’ll definitely add both to appropriate posts
  thanks again