SEO improvements, Upgrades, and Post Preview

It's that time again - we released another great update to TypePad for you with some very cool features and lots of fixes. We're going to highlight some particular elements of this release this week, starting with my favorite feature: enhanced post preview. This means that when you (or I) click preview for a post, the blog design is also part of the previewed post. Here's an example of my preview window for this post:

Here's just a little bit about some more of the work we did for this release:

• Everyone now has more HTML title tag options, which will help with your blog's SEO results
• Beta users: check out the new inline audio player for mp3s.
• We're still working on some complex migration tasks behind the scenes for just a few remaining bloggers with our TypeKey service.
• Giving some help to our men and women in the US Armed Services by improving the way we handle US Military addresses and the frequent changes with those.
• Improved how bloggers re-open accounts with TypePad. Know someone who wants to come back to TypePad? Let us know!
• Worked on a large number of your requests, from feedback we've received from help tickets and Get Satisfaction forum posts.
• More improvements to our tracking of operations issues.

This is another big release, so congratulations to all! There's more detail to come this week.

Comments

[David A. Porter]

Ginevra,

I like the new preview feature! Thanks TypePad!

[Catching The Waves]

The preview feature is now truly a preview. It's a huge improvement. Thank you. :)

[Tipper]

Love the updated preview window-and the SEO tags!

[Ginevra]

glad you're liking it too, David! :)

[Ginevra]

you're welcome! I'm glad we've got it for yall now.

[Ginevra]

Thanks, Tipper! We're going to be doing a more thorough post on the SEO tags later in the week, so that people will know how best to use them.

[Ali Edwards]

Thank you SO MUCH for the preview update.

[Ginevra]

you're welcome! :)

[Amy @Feasibly Fit Mom]

Love the "true" preview as well. Thanks!

[Chick1]

Preview still is bad here..not sure what you are talking about. I love Typepad but the WYSIWYG post preview really is horrendous.

[Ginevra]

let's open up a help ticket for you if you're not seeing true post preview. I can help you open a ticket if you want to email me at [email protected].

[sbpoet]

This is a comment test, to see if my avatar will link directly to my blog, or to my TypePad profile.

[Ginevra]

Looks like it works!

If you fill out the "website" information on "Around the Web", then the link will go to the website. WIthout it, the link goes to your profile. :)

more here:
http://everything.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/customizing-your-typepad-profile-.html

[sbpoet]

This makes me very happy!

[lara skripitsky]

Was there ever a follow up post with more details around the SEO improvements? Would love to read it.

[The Franchise King]

Ginevra,
I thought that the font looked bigger on the preview!
Thanx,
The Franchise King

[davidinnv]

I appreciate the constant work to improve TypePad. It's a much better product than when I started my membership three years ago.

BUT -- I agree with those who have commented favorably about Windows LiveWriter as a desired offline tool to create blog posts. It is much more intuitive and WYSIWYG in its functionality. For example, LiveWriter, which also upgrades periodically, has some great one-click options for images, including rounded corners, gaussian blur, and much more, including easy cropping of images.

My REAL ongoing gripe with TypePad is that we need more formatting control and other features for Comments, at least for comments by the blog owner. Spell-check for comments, to use just one example, is long overdue, as is the ability to format text and insert images into comments. -- I hope that Ginevra or someone else can tell us that these Comments upgrades are absolutely on the developers' agenda. -- Thank you!!

[Take Root Publishing]

Hey! I missed this post! I too want to know more about the...

'Everyone now has more HTML title tag options, which will help with your blog's SEO results'

I do not see any difference in my titles. I am excited to find out more.
I'm LOVING the new preview!!

Thanks Ginevra & typepad team!

[Ginevra]

yay, Amy! I'm glad you like it.

[Ginevra]

spellcheck for comments - do you mean spellcheck for your readers who are leaving comments? that might be an interesting one, but I hadn't heard that as a feature request before.

[Ginevra]

oh good! I'm so glad you like it.

[davidinnv]

I'm primarily interested in the ability of the blog owner to spell-check comments, not so much for the readers to be able to do it. I assure you I have submitted this request on numerous occasions.

In general, I think enhancing the comments feature has been somewhat negelected up to now in favor of such develpoments as new themes, improved formatting for original posts, etc. But I'd really like to see the comments feature bulked up if possible, primarily with spell-check, but also perhaps with the ability to do some of the creative formatting that one can do with original posts.

[Ginevra]

we're certainly making a lot of plans for enhancing comments. Is there a particular blog with comments styled the way you like that you would give me as an example? Or another service you know of that supports these features?

[davidinnv]

Unfortunately, Ginevra, I can't answer your questions because (1) I don't pay attention to services other than TypePad and (2) it's not a matter of styling so much as just asking primarily for two of the features that are already available in the post-composition features of TypePad: Spell-check and ability to use some of the formatting options such as choice of fonts and use of color, etc.

I hope this doesn't make my requests any less valid. -- Thanks.

[Account Deleted]

Thanks for the post :)

[Pay Per Click Management]

hey, I really think the preview feature is awesome too. Thanks for your post Ginevra and I hope you post every time there is an update. Thanks a ton.