And just like that, November is just about over, and December is just about to begin. I don’t know about you, but for me the Christmas season seems much more real and IN-YOUR-FACE upon the first day of December. As it stands, there are just 25 days until Christmas. Whoo hoo! Who’s excited?

Facebook and Twitter make it very easy for you to integrate them into your blog. Why might you want to show off your Facebook profile or fan page on your blog, as well as your Twitter followers? Well, it’s an easy way to let your readers know that you’re also maintaining an active presence on those social networks, which in turn may help you build more followers!

For Facebook, you can simply create a Facebook badge. The badge creation process is simple and offers you many customizable options, and at the end, simply take the generated HTML code and paste it into your blog’s source code wherever you would like the badge to show up.

For Twitter, simply create a Twitter widget. Like the Facebook badge creation process, the Twitter widget creation process offers you plenty of customization options, and at the end you simply grab the HTML code and paste it into your blog’s source code wherever you would like the widget to show up.

If you’re creating the layouts for your own sites but want to make sure that everything is on the up and up as far as search engine optimization is concerned, consider implementing these five basic SEO tips:

1. CSS (style sheets), extensive Javascript code and other scripts should be placed in external files, then called via includes in your main HTML page. This prevents bloat, which means your site will load faster — always favorable when considering your visitors as well as search engine bots.
2. Always use the ALT attribute for images. This’ll enable mobile device browsers and those users who turn off images in their browsers to know what the image is about. Also, the use of ALT attributes in images (and the TITLE attribute in links) has SEO benefits, particularly if you use keywords in the attributes.
3. In addition to using the ALT attribute for your images and TITLE attribute for your links, use relevant keywords or short descriptions for image file names and download links. This makes sense not only for your visitors, but also for search engine bots.
4. Use heading tags, particularly H1, H2 and H3. Highlight important text and distinguish sections of text from one another with heading tags, and emphasize any keywords that are in them to search engines.
5. Keep the use of Flash to a minimum. Or, if you absolutely must use Flash, make sure you have plenty of non-Flash content on your site to draw in search engine bots and visitors. Remember, search engine bots can’t parse or index Flash, so it’s important to have traditional HTML/XHTML content available.

Now that the initial craze of Black Friday is dying down, have you thought about your weekend plans? It’s true that many retailers will continue to have great deals in their stores, but what about online shopping? Pacific Plex, my favorite online retailer of regular and plus size clothing for teens and young women (think prom dresses, homecoming gowns, formal evening wear, fun and flirty dresses and skirts, and casual stuff too!), has already got the ball rolling for Black Friday, Cyber Weekend, and Cyber Monday with the following great deals:

BFCM15: Use this coupon code anytime now through the end of November (11/30/11) to save 15% on your order!

CYBER25: Use this coupon code on Monday, November 28th 2011 only to save an amazing 25% on your order!

Happy Black Friday, everyone! How was your Thanksgiving? Did you stuff yourself silly on turkey and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie? I didn’t because I had gastric bypass surgery a little over two years ago, and thus my stomach is now about the size of a large egg, but I did have spoonfuls of all sorts of delicious things.

Are you doing any Black Friday shopping today? I originally planned on it, and even had plans on how I would stay awake for it all (sleep in late on Thanksgiving, grab a quick nap after an early Thanksgiving dinner, then take a caffeine pill and some Midol to keep me perky and headache-free for the next 8-10 hours). But then I was scheduled for surgery on 11/23, and since I needed the surgery, I went ahead with it. I made it through a low-key Thanksgiving dinner with family, but Black Friday shopping? Not happening.

So while I’m sitting at home loaded up on painkillers and browsing online ads, have fun and shop ’til you drop (or your wallet gives out, heh) without me!