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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Showing posts with label Webmaster Tools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Webmaster Tools. Show all posts
Sunday, 15 December 2013
Wednesday, 27 November 2013
Is A Sitemap Useful, For A Blogger Blog?
Occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, we see evidence of confusion and doubt.
WikiPedia defines a sitemap as
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.
For crawler access, the options are simpler.
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.
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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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 usersClassically, 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").
For crawler access, the options are simpler.
- Archives (posts listed hierarchically, by date).
- Extended main page (posts listed sequentially, by "Newer Posts" / "Older Posts").
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.
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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Monday, 24 June 2013
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.
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.
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.
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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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.
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.
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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