Of the many platforms out there for websites, Blogger is my favorite for search engine optimization. Three simple reasons: it's easy to use, there is a lot of support for it, and it's owned by Google (you know, that company that runs the search engine you want to optimize for?). There are probably a thousand ways to optimize your Blogger template but here are a few that I think are easy to implement and can make a big difference. These tips are a mix of ones of my own as well as those I picked up around the Net.
Change The Title Tags For Your Posts
On my main blog, I always noticed that my blog's title would come first, pushing the post title into the ellipsis (the ...) . Clearly, this is NOT GOOD from an optimization standpoint. Fortunately, Blogger introduced a tag to let you switch the title order around. Blogger Buster has the details in Change the Title Tags for your Blogs.
Remove the Navbar From Blogger
Derya Netter has a script to do just this at How to hide the blogger navbar? (via Beginner Blogger Basics). As you can see, I'm running the script and it works like a charm. Click on the link on the top left to toggle the bar.
Make your readers aware of the "Comment" link
If you are going to have comments, it's nice to let your novice readers know to leave one! First, make sure that for each deep page, the Post a Comment box is visible. Specifically, under the Settings tab, select Comments, and then select "Embedded Below Post" for "Comment Form Placement."
Once you are sure the post a comment box is visible on each individual post's page, look at your index page. You'll notice that instead of this box, there is simply a link with "# Comments." For long-time blogger readers, this is clear enough, but for novice readers, they may not be sure about how to leave a comment. Make it clear for them! In the Layout tab, select "Edit HTML" and then check "Expand Widgets." Scroll until you see:
Now, replace the following chunk of code with the one below until the closing span tag:
<span class='post-comment-link'>
Now, replace the following chunk of code with the one below until the closing span tag:
<span class='post-comment-link'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
<a class='comment-link' expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl'
expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'>Leave a comment!</a>
(<b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>1
<data:top.commentLabel/><b:else/><data:post.numComments/>
<data:top.commentLabelPlural/></b:if>)
</b:if>
</b:if>
</span>
Now, instead of seeing "Comments (#)," they will see "Leave a comment! (# Comments)." Note: always back up your template to your local hard drive before attempting such a change.
Avoid useless code
There are a lot of addons for webpages, which can look nice at times and be useful. However, at some point, the add-ons become too much, slowing down your pageload times and bloating your code. Not only is this poor for the user, it also makes it harder for the search engine to figure out what your page is about
Use searchable terms ALWAYS
All your filenames, both for HTML and images, should use terms like "search-engine-optimization.html" instead of "page1.html." Likewise, your images should be named something like "search-engine-optimization.jpg" instead of "image1.jpg." For images especially, make sure to use ALT tags, so that search engines know what is contained within the image.
These tips are pretty straightforward I think! I look forward to learning more advanced concepts and passing them on to you in a clearly explained manner. The tips apply generally to other platforms as well, such as Typepad and Wordpress. Although it is harder to start a page on Wordpress relative to Blogger, once you are able to set things up, there are a plethora of plug-ins to help optimize your page.
Do you have any similar tips? Do you think optimization is worthwhile?
