Hello, If you start up a blog at blogger or wordpress and give it the default layout template and no fancy images or colors -- just dry text-- would you be sandboxed longer because you may be viewed by google as a fly by night, quickly made (spam) blog? (As opposed to a site with some design sense-- indicating a human being put some effort into it) Would it be worth it to design a custom header and choose non-vanilla themes for this? I'm sure that over time, the content and links are what matters, but i just mean at the initial stage... thank you
No. Again, no. You would be correct - though the benefit would be for the readers of the blog, not the search engines. Show that you put some effort into your work and you'll be rewarded for it. It's really that simple. You are right again. Like they would even care most of the time though. As long as you're not violating their TOS, they won't give a darn about the templates and tags you use.
What matters to search engine is the content. Make quality and unique content. But of course good designing of your blog is also needed. It helps a lot, so that visitors will be eager to return in your blog.
The most important part of blogging is of course the content. Since Google can't see the designs of your blog you must pay more attention for the content of your blog. But it is also better to put some good designs for blog because readers wont hesitate to read your blogs if you have good designs as well. --------------------------------- neuracom.co.uk/ourstaff-webdesigner.htm