Blogs That Interest Inhabitants Of A Specific Country May Use The Webmaster Tools "Geographical target" Setting

People who publish blogs which are relevant to a specific country may be able to focus search engine attention, for their blog, and better target readers in the country in question.

Google Webmaster Tools provides the "Geographical target" setting, which lets a blog owner select a single country. The setting increases search engine attention, for their blog, in the country selected.

If you are logged in to Google Webmaster Tools, for a given blog, find the "gear" icon in the upper right corner of the dashboard display.

From the drop down menu behind the "gear", select "Site Settings" - and "Geographical target" will be right there, in front of you. Click on "Target users in:", then select the appropriate country, in the pull down menu.

The list of countries, presented to you, appears to be rather complete. The list appears to be alphabetically sorted in the English language, as most of Webmaster Tools appears to be presented.

It's likely that your potential readers will be located using geolocation, so you should allow for some inaccuracies, in targeting specific readers. Readers who are located in regions close to national borders may appear to be located on either side of the border. Only one country can be targeted.

Note that this setting is not related to any Blogger dashboard settings, such as "Language" or "Time Zone", in "Language and formatting".

Also, note that the usefulness of this setting, like other search engine features, will depend upon your efforts in properly publicising the blog. Publicising the blog is still dependent upon your efforts - this setting, when used, simply focuses your efforts towards a single country.

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Blogger Blog Content Needs To Be Unique, And Properly Targeted

I've been studying spam, in Blogger blogs, for over 5 years.

This year, we've seen improvement in the automated spam classification process, implied by a noticeable reduction in spam review requests overall - and in a considerable reduction in the proportions of false positive classifications. During the past few months, blogs requested for review are 2 or 3 times more likely to be confirmed as legitimate spam blogs (true positives), compared to this time last year.

Of the blogs confirmed to be spam hosts, when I am able to examine cached copies of the content, 3 out of 4 of those appear to contain material scraped or syndicated from other blogs or websites.

• Content scraped (stolen), or syndicated (copied, with permission), from other blogs / websites. Content scraped or syndicated to other blogs / websites.

Google describes the problem, in Blogger Help: Spam, phishing, or malware on Blogger, quite simply.

Spam blogs cause various problems, beyond simply wasting a few seconds of your time when you happen to come across one. They can clog up search engines, making it difficult to find real content on the subjects that interest you. They may scrape content from other sites on the web, using other people's writing to make it look as though they have useful information of their own. And if an automated system is creating spam posts at an extremely high rate, it can impact the speed and quality of the service for other, legitimate users.

Long ago, spam blogs were first encountered as startup components in large spam blog farms.

Later, we explored the involvement of various "get rich quick" schemes, and of affiliate marketing.

• Content or links which reference referral-based activities such as GPT ("Get Paid To"), MLM ("Multi-Level Marketing"), MMF ("Make Money Fast"), MMH ("Make Money from Home"), PTC ("Pay To Click"), or PTS ("Pay To Surf").
• Affiliate marketing (Please, don't confuse this with "affiliate networking"!).

Of these three broad descriptions of confirmed spam blog content - spam blog startups, get rich quick schemes, and affiliate marketing - the one common feature in most of the blogs, confirmed as spam hosts, seems to be the lack of unique content. One of the features of the Panda update to Google Search was described as "content quality" in search results.

The past year tuning to Blogger spam classification appears to be in keeping with Panda, in that it is targeting blogs which rely upon content intentionally replicated from blog to blog - whether "scraped" (stolen, without permission), or "syndicated" (copied, with permission).

The end result here is that Blogger blogs, to avoid spurious spam classification, need to contain as much unique material as possible. While some amounts of quotation of other blogs and websites is beneficial, the majority of blog content needs to be written by the blog owners and contributors, and properly targeted to the reader population.

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Is A Sitemap Useful, For A Blogger Blog?

Occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see evidence of confusion and doubt.

Do I really need a sitemap, for my blog?

This question, when asked, may help us to design our blogs better.

WikiPedia defines a sitemap as

a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers or users

Classically, a sitemap is a visual index, to help the people viewing a static website, to easily identify and access a specific article in the website.

A sitemap provides an alternate index, to a non Blogger website. Most websites are static, with a hierarchically accessed, single structure. A well designed sitemap allows people and crawlers to more efficiently locate specific articles (pages or posts), in a static website.

Most Blogger blogs provide much more than a hierarchical, single, static structure. By default, a Blogger blog links its pages and posts dynamically, using several alternate indexes.

• Archives (posts listed hierarchically, by date).
• Labels (posts listed hierarchically, by topic).
• Extended main page (posts listed sequentially, by "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts").

Any blog, which provides one or more of these features, is effectively its own sitemap - for viewer access.

For crawler access, the options are simpler.

• Archives (posts listed hierarchically, by date).
• Extended main page (posts listed sequentially, by "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts").

Label searches, which use a different URL structure from the base blog design, are not used for indexing a Blogger blog.

If you look at the main page of a typical blog, you can follow the "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links from page to page, repeatedly - and eventually, see every post in the blog. With a new blog, with few posts, and predominantly "first visit" viewer traffic, the main page makes a passible sitemap. For an older blog, with many posts, and more "repeat" viewer traffic, the main page makes a less efficient sitemap.

For crawlers, which will generally follow a limited number of links within any single blog or website, the main page makes a still less efficient sitemap. Most blogs with any appreciable search engine reputation, however, only need new posts indexed by the crawlers - as older posts are already indexed, and remain in search engine cache.

Blogger provides a good, default gadget which serves as a sitemap, on most blogs - the Archives index. Look in the sidebar of this blog, about halfway down, for the "Contents" gadget. This is an HTML based gadget, which produces a set of hierarchical, date structured links, exhaustively enumerating each post in the blog. It's an ideal structure, for search engine bots (crawlers) to follow. If your blog includes this accessory, that's probably sufficient for indexing.

Blogs which contain one or more features can provide search engine access, organically.

• Well written, regularly published posts.
• The standard Archives gadget.
• The standard "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links.

Such blogs may not need a sitemap, to provide good access to both people and crawlers.

Both the Archives, Labels, and "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts" links are subject, on some blogs, to customisation. A blog with Javascript driven Archives, Labels, and / or custom pagination ("Newer Posts" / "Older Posts") gadgets may not provide easy crawler access. This also affects blogs which use dynamic templates. If you tweak your blog extensively, you may want to consider these issues.

There is one special case where a sitemap is always needed. Any time the URL of your blog is changed - whether to a new BlogSpot URL, or to a non BlogSpot custom domain - prompt re indexing, under the new URL, is a necessity to regain search engine reputation. A robust sitemap set, which directly references all posts in the blog, helps the crawlers to re index each post, under the new URL, much faster.

Other than that special case, a blog with standard, well designed, features may not actually need a sitemap.

A sitemap, setup through Google Webmaster Tools - and using the blog posts newsfeed, defined through "robots.txt" - is a simple accessory to add, and requires no ongoing maintenance. Given this reasoning, most blog owners simply setup a sitemap, and don't worry about the above issues and questions.

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Market Your Blog, To Those Who Are Interested

We see many questions in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about blog content, and (lack of) appreciation by the readers.

Occasionally, people become concerned about activity of the people reading their blogs - why they get so many new visitors (but nobody returns later, to read more), or why the main page is so well read (but nobody reads the archived posts).

In other cases, they wonder why the blog was deleted - even though it had the required warning protecting it. And sometimes, they may wonder why so many people read the blog, but nobody comments on the posts.

If your blog just uses Stats, to provide you reader activity statistics, you'll probably be only concerned with visitor activity, and pageview count.

If you use an actual visitor activity log, like SiteMeter or StatCounter, you may also look at new / return visitor ratio, or pages read / visitor count. In both cases, you're examining visitor interest.

Visitor interest starts with how you advertise the blog. You get good visitor interest when you advertise the blog where it will be welcomed, and in a style where your advertisements will be welcomed.

People who don't like your blog may read the first page, then go elsewhere. If they read more than the first page, they will probably be doing that so they can report the blog, for TOS Violation or similar. This is why some blogs are unrighteously clasified as abusive.

No matter how objectively you may write a blog discussing alternative lifestyles, if you advertise your blog where Bible Belt USA Conservatives may gather, the best result that you may see is "single pageview" visitors.

Occasionally, we'll see a problem report that starts out with a common complaint.

Why was my blog deleted? I don't spam.

When we're able to retrieve a cached copy of the blog, we'll agree with the owner.

Some blogs, deleted as abusive, will have a little known problem.

Commercially funded adult content.

Other times, the problem will be more subtle.

I set the "Adult Content?" flag to "Yes"! Why am I getting complaints? (Why was the blog deleted?).

The problem here starts with the nature of the "Adult Content" warning.

Not every blog owner realises that the warning is only advisory. Anybody, no matter their age or religious preference, may (by accident, or intentionally) click on "Agree". Having clicked, they may be subject to a faceful of content which is not in their best interest, or which they do not appreciate.

If a link to your blog appears in the wrong forum discussion, or on the wrong website - either a Bible Belt forum or School Children's website - don't be surprised if your blog continues to get content complaints. And in some cases, we'll see you in the forums.

Why was my blog deleted? I don't spam.

Be sensitive to both the stated, and unstated, policies where you post. If your blog contains controversial material, be very conservative about how and where you advertise. Publish properly targeted posts, with unique content, for the best future of your blog.

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Is A Custom Domain URL More Valuable Than A BlogSpot URL?

We see the question, about relative value of a custom domain, periodically in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?.

Does a custom URL actually have value, over a normal BlogSpot URL?

Some people wonder if a custom URL isn't similar to a custom ("vanity") license plate, for your car.

Personally, I can think of 3 reasons why a custom domain might be more valuable, for your Blogger blog.

• Some people believe that having your own domain makes your blog more individual and interesting - and they may be more likely to visit your blog when presented to them, in a search list.
• Since domains are not free, there are less dormant domains than dormant BlogSpot subdomains. It may be easier for you to get the relevant domain of your choice, than the relevant BlogSpot subdomain.
• A properly chosen domain URL may be easier for people to remember, than a BlogSpot URL.

Some people believe that their car is more fun, if it has a license plate that properly reflects their personality.

We know that Blogger blogs, published to a custom domain, have no special qualities. Is the address so special?

Maybe the belief makes the value. People who buy non BlogSpot URLs are not doing so to waste time or money, they do so because they believe that they will benefit. Many people, who read the advice / content of the people who buy non BlogSpot URLs, will also believe that non BlogSpot URLs have value.

Those people will pay more attention to a non BlogSpot URL, than to a BlogSpot URL, when they see a SERP entry that references a non BlogSpot URL - simply because they believe that a non BlogSpot URL has more value than a BlogSpot URL.

Why did Blogger provide the custom domain publishing feature, originally? They did so because:

1. Non BlogSpot URLs are more valuable than BlogSpot URLs.
2. People believe that Non BlogSpot URLs are more valuable than BlogSpot URLs.
3. People who buy Non BlogSpot URLs believe that Non BlogSpot URLs are more valuable than BlogSpot URLs.

Possibly, #3 makes the whole issue self fulfilling.

People believe - therefore, it is true.

That said, a custom URL will have more value if you set it up properly, and if you manage the new URL, aggressively.

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Search Engines, And Private Blogs

Not every blog owner realises the relationships between private blogs, and search engine indexing.

Some blog owners think that private blogs can't be indexed, by the search engine robots. Given the way private blogs work, search engine access is not directly restricted - even though indexing activity is impeded.

People are prevented from viewing a private blog, only because Blogger displays the private blog interstitial in front of the blog display.

This blog is open to invited readers only

It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog. If you think this is a mistake, you might want to contact the blog author and request an invitation.

Other than the presence of that display, access to the blog is not affected. This detail becomes important, for some potential readers who are accessing the Internet through some Local Area Networks.

Search engines are not directly affected by the private blog status - though there are interesting details.

• The blog description, when indexed, will contain the text of the interstitial notice.
• Private blogs do not publish newsfeeds - and with newsfeeds used to facilitate indexing, the indexing process is not as consistent as with public blogs.
• The dashboard Privacy setting, which generates an entry in the "robots.txt" file, is advisory only, to search engine robots.

The interstitial notice is authoritative to people, when viewing the blog.

The notice does not block robots. Robots are stopped only when they voluntarily accept the relevant settings in "robots.txt".


The text content of the interstitial advice will replace the blog description, in SERP displays.

This blog is open to invited readers only

Without an actual blog description, potential blog readers won't feel very encouraged to view the blog. Even when clicking on the SERP entry, the would be blog reader is still taken to the interstitial, and goes no farther.

This blog is open to invited readers only

Private blogs do not publish newsfeeds. Since the newsfeed provides the Blogger equivalent of the sitemap, a typical private Blogger blog has no sitemap - and search engine indexing activity is not as regular.

The settings in the "robots.txt" file, which specifies bots and access, is not authoritative. Acceptance of the "robots.txt" settings is left to the discretion of each different robot - and a robot which does not observe the settings can access any website.

A private blog can be indexed - though without free access by readers to a private blog, there will be less links referencing the blog - and less indirect search engine activity.

Less links referencing the blog leads to less indexing, by the search engines. Less indexing leads to less entries in SERPs, poorer SERP positioning - and relative lack of success when using search engine cache, to search the blog.

With a private blog, you'll be much more successful using a direct blog search.

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Getting Traffic To Your Blog - How Not To Do It 2

Here's a great investment idea.

Everybody who needs money (which is most likely, everybody reading here) can invest $10 each. Everybody, reading this, can send me $10. Surely, each of you have a spare $10, to invest.

What will I do with the funds received?

1. I will, immediately, take 10% off the top. That's for my retirement account.
2. I will let my friends (don't you wish that you were my friend?) take 5%, each, off the top.
3. As I get investments from more blog owners, I'll send you - and the other initial investors - a token payment.
4. At the end of a week, you, and the other investors, get to divide up the remainder.

Isn't that a great investment idea?

That is a great investment idea - for me, and for my friends. For you, not so great.

That is a simplified description of a Ponzi scheme.

Ponzi schemes exist on the Internet, also. From time to time, we have seen them reported in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, by people complaining of unknown websites, in their Reading Lists.

Similar to the blog feed redirection scam scheme technique, we have what's called a "traffic exchange". Want more traffic to your blog? Just add a link to the exchange, on your blog. Your blog gets traffic from all of the other blogs and websites, similarly providing links to the exchange.

A traffic exchange pays off, in real time. Your blog contributes traffic to other blogs and websites - and they contribute traffic, to your blog. But who will be contributing traffic, to your blog?

1. Other blog owners - who, like you, have no source of real traffic.
2. Various scammers and spammers.

Who will not be contributing traffic to your blog?

1. Other blog and website owners, who know how to effectively get traffic to their blogs and websites.

People who know how to effectively get traffic to their blogs know to use search engines, for targeted traffic - and to use interesting, unique, and useful blog content, to get indexed by the search engines. Those people know that neither they, nor their readers, will benefit from traffic exchanges, and similar random traffic programmes.

Experienced blog owners know that they won't benefit from linking to blogs with no source of real traffic - either directly (using bloglists or linklists) - or indirectly (using link farms or traffic exchanges).

Only blogs with no source of real traffic benefit from link farms or traffic exchanges. Experienced blog owners know to spend their time publishing interesting, unique, and useful blog content.

Who really benefits from traffic exchanges?

1. The exchange operators (who "take 10% off the top").
2. The various scammers and spammers (who each "take 5% off the top").

Who contributes the traffic?

1. You.
2. Other blog owners, like you, who have no source of real traffic.

If you want relevant and useful traffic to your blog, publish interesting, unique, and useful blog content. Don't waste your readers time, with mazes of random blogs and websites.

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Hacking / Malware / Porn / Spam Classification, And Effects Upon Search Engine Reputation

Occasionally, we see concern in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about the long term effects of Blogger hacking / malware / porn / spam classification or detection.

My blog was deleted, because of spurious spam classification - and later restored to service. Did my blog lose search engine reputation, in Google?

Any time a blog goes offline, its reputation is affected, to some extent. How much effect a hacking / malware / porn / spam classification or detection has, on any given blog, will vary widely.

Every blog or website has different factors, which affect its reputation.

• Readers, and links in their blogs and websites.
• Readers, and inherent reputation.
• Search engines, and inherent reputation.

These factors will differ, from blog to blog, in almost infinite variety.

If your blog has readers who maintain their own blogs and websites, some will see you as a useful source of information, and will link from their blog / website, to your blog. As a readers blog / website is indexed by a search engine bot, and a link to your blog is encountered, your blog is indexed. This causes indirect search engine reputation.

Any time your blog is offline, even briefly, it loses reputation. If you use Google Webmaster Tools, look at the indexing logs. One event which you will see, from time to time, mentions "404 Not Found". Any time a search engine bot is indexing your blog, and it encounters a "404 Not Found", your blog loses reputation.

Loss of search reputation is similar to a person dying from blood loss. How fast the blood loss, and how long the loss continues, will affect how likely death will occur.

The longer your blog is offline, the more "404 Not Found" events will be logged, as the search engine bots attempt to index the various pages in the blog. Each succeeding "404 Not Found" represents your blogs reputation, leaking away, drop by drop. The longer your blog is offline, the more reputation loss it suffers, from indirect and direct indexing.

Until reputation is regained, your blog appears lower in search results, because of lower page rank. You suffer from less search engine generated traffic, and less new readers. This is a circular effect - less search engine reputation leads to less new reader traffic, which leads to less search engine reputation.

When your blog is reviewed and restored to online status, indexing resumes. Each time a search engine bot indexes the blog, and does not encounter a "404 Not Found", reputation picks up, again. Slowly, your blog regains its former reputation.

All 3 factors contribute to the loss of reputation, while the blog is offline - and to the regaining of reputation, when the blog is restored. This is similar to the effect of re indexing after the URL is changed.

How much reputation is lost and regained will vary, from blog to blog.

• Each blog has different readers, with differing links in their blogs and websites.
• Each blog has different readers, with differing inherent reputation.
• Each blog has differing search engine relationships, with differing inherent reputation.

The direct result, of all of this, explains the frantic posts, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken

My blog was deleted by Blogger. How promptly can I get it restored?

If this threat concerns you, use Google 2-step verification, to protect your Blogger / Google account - and your blogs - from hacking. And be discrete in advertising and publishing your blog.

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A Template For Virginia USA, #4

As the frustrations about the CC TLD aliases continue to be reported in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, and some of the details are discovered and resolved, we are seeing suggestions of other, more subtle problems.

Some blog owners claim that their page rank / search engine reputation has taken a nose dive, because their readership is spread out over many different countries. Apparently, canonical resolution by the search engines does not work, for all "blogspot.com" published blogs. Older blogs, including those with Classic (HTML based) templates - and possibly some older Layout templates - seem to lack canonical resolution.

The canonical resolution process, by the search engines, requires a canonical tag which defines the base URL of the blog. Blogs with older templates don't have the canonical tag in the template header - and the search engines can't aggregate the CC alias URLs generated by the many different country code references.

Any blog, indexed by the search engines, separately, under the different CC TLD aliases, is going to have a lower overall search reputation. The different references, under the many aliases, will be indexed - but as each will be more diverse, each reference will appear lower in SERP lists. This will result in less search engine related traffic - and subsequently still lower SERP positioning.

If your blog depends upon search engine generated traffic for publicity, and you have an older blog, you are going to want to check the template header.

<link href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/' rel='canonical'/>

If you do not find a similar tag in the template header for your blog, you need to upgrade your template. Your readers will thank you, too.

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Attention Canadian Blog Owners: The URL Of Your Blog Is "BlogSpot.com" - NOT "BlogSpot.ca"

We have a number of blog owners, apparently located in Canada, who have been sharing their "blogspot.com" published Blogger blogs, using the "blogspot.ca" alias. This week, two major services - FaceBook and McAfee Anti-Malware, have decided that links mentioning "blogspot.ca" are not trustworthy.

Use of the Country Code aliases - of which "blogspot.ca" is simply one of many - has provided potential for confusion, for some time. What some blog owners may not realise is that only the online viewers of the blog (and the owners, viewing their own blogs) see the "blogspot.ca" alias - and only when they are located in Canada. At the same time, people in Malaysia see their blog (and other blogs, published to "blogspot.com") as "blogspot.my", people in Mexico see their blog as "blogspot.mx", etc.

Thanks to the use of the canonical URL, specified in the blog header, the search engines index "blogspot.com" published Blogger blogs, consistently, as "blogspot.com".

It's possible that FaceBook and McAfee have tightened down on their link validation criteria. Noting that the "blogspot.ca" alias is not indexed by the search engines, they may simply be objecting to people posting links that have no reputation. Multiple people posting links without reputation could be seen as an organised link spamming campaign - and FaceBook has reacted.

Why FaceBook (social networking), and McAfee (anti-malware), seem to have changed their criteria simultaneously, remains to be seen.

For immediate concern, we see many Canadian blog owners with massive amounts of previously posted FaceBook links, pointing to "blogspot.ca". Unfortunately, this may be an issue which the blog owners need to discuss with FaceBook.

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