Adding Facebook Share Button on Your Blogger Blog

Facebook has now officially introduced the Retweet like facebook buttons for your blogs or sites. Adding a Facebook share count button will show a neat count of how many times your blog post has been shared on Facebook.

Code for Facebook Share count button:

<div style="float:right;padding:4px;">
<a expr:share_url='data:post.url' name='fb_share' rel='nofollow' type='box_count'/>  
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share"/>
*lt;/div>

How to install Facebook Share Count Button on your Blogger Blog?

• Login to your Blogger Dashboard and navigate to Layout > Edit Html and check the check box which says “Expand  widget templates”.
• Find this piece of code

<div class='post-header-line-1'/>

• and immediately after that place our Facebook share button code (that you copied)
• If you were unable to find this code in your template,then look for the first occurrence of

<data:post.body/>

• and immediately before that paste our Facebook Share button code(that you copied).
• Save the template and you should get a facebook share count button near each of your blog posts.

Adding Meta Tags to Blogger Blog

Meta Tags are HTML elements used to provide structured metadata about a web page. Such tags are placed in the head section of an HTML document.

Adding Meta Tag For your Blog’s Home Page

Now copy out the following code into a text file

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<meta content="Your keywords separated by commas"     
name="keywords"/>
<meta content="Your Site Description" name="description"/>
</b:if>

1.Replace Your keywords separated by commas with your site's keywords.
2.Replace Your Site Description with a good description of your site.

Take into consideration the following character limits.
a)The maximum size of your site description should be 150 characters.  
b) It would be better to limit the keyword size to 200 characters.

Now copy out the edited code and place it within the head section of your blogger template.. It would be appropriate to place it below the title tag code.
     

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title> 

If you are using my Blogger SEO Title Tag hack, then you will have to place the meta tags after the whole of the title tag hack i.e. place it below the following code..

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageName/> ~ <data:blog.title/></title>
</b:if>

That's it you have succesfully added the meta tags to your blogger blog.!!!

Blog Directories to Submit your Blog To

Another way to help people find your Blog besides Organic Search and SEO is to submit your blog to Blog Directories. There are tons of them out there. Some are paid, some are free, here is a top 20 list:

1. Best of the Web Blog Search La Crem de la Crem, Best of the Web’s Blog Directory is very selective and only lists aged and valuable blogs. A link from here is majestic and well deserved.

2. EatonWeb Blog Directory is a real jewel with many aged inbound links and a blog rating system. You may have to pay a fee for your blog to be reviewed, but like Yahoo, the review fee is well worth the few dollars.

3. Blog Hub offers a drop down category and member blog list. With its “new blogger” list and hot topics, Blog Hub is a great directory to list your site.

4. Upon visiting Bloggernity, you find a crisp, clean, and easy to navigate site. Scrolling down, you find the new blogs. As there is little advertising on the home page, it is pleasant to the eye of the reader as well.

5. Blogarama has an impressive listing of over 65,000 blogs. The site is well designed and follows the same content categories as many other sites.

6. One of the most selective Blog Directories on the web (and Wordpress powered), Blog Search Engine is owned by Performancing’s parent company and serves search results powered by IceRocket.

7. Blog Catalog features a vast directory of categories, from academic to writing, while offering the ability to search by country, language, or user. It has a no frills design, but offers convenient member access through simple blog registration.

8. Globe of Blogs has too many features to list. In order to be listed on the site, the blog must not be commercial. The site may appear to be busy, but I like the features of being able to search by title, author, or subject. Narrowing the search becomes easier on this blog.

9. The ultimate directory of British blogs connotes all things British. It is not directed by location, but by the culture! It is asked that bloggers be genuinely “britished.” Being listed in this blog reaches readers all the way across the pond!

10. Blog Universe is the perfect place to promote your video or podcast themed blog. Its layout is easy to navigate. Although the content is limited, it is an all around good directory site worthy of submission.

11. Bigger Blogs is a relatively new blog directory with only a few blogs registered. The blog is intertwined with a business directory. The blog section is difficult to find, and it is located through a link on the right side of the business directory page. However, the benefit is that the earlier you are accepted on a blog directory, the more exposure your blog will obtain. In addition, a back link is indeed a back link, so this can help with your search engine placement.

12. Bloggeries has the best categories and subcategories home page on the internet. The layout is clear and concise, and readers are able to find what they are looking for in a snap!

13. Bloggapedia has an interesting and eye catching homepage. Readers are easily connected to the top blogs and newest posts. Innovative categories and a colorful design make this blog directory a hit.

14. Spillbean is a well-designed blog directory site with categories such as health, society, internet, and personal. The site is aesthetically pleasing, but there are not many listings yet.

15. Blogging Fusion is a blog with over sixty categories. These categories include photo blogs and family focused blogs. Blogging Fusion has an good amount of blog listings within the directory, and it also has visitor stats available.

16. Blogflux is not only a tool for bloggers, but a directory that has the listings in alphabetic order. The blog listings are organized and clear. It is definitely an effective blog directory in which to be listed.

17. The blogs on the top listings of Bloglisting are fun, colourful, and catch the attention of the reader. Bloglisting displays the page ranking blogs, which is a helpful tool when determining with whom you want to exchange links.

18. Blogio may be a small blog directory with few listings, but it worthy of a submission. Despite its small size, there are quality blogs and a solid ability to search on this site.

19. Blog Explosion claims to be the largest blog promoter on the internet. They have a vast directory but do not seem to have direct links. However, the listing in the directory can still show up in SERP’s, so keep this in mind.

20. Super Blog Directory is a great site that offers tools to posters that others do not. You can see the latest submitted links and blogs on the site, which is a perk that draws traffic into the directory.

Thanks to Loren baker for the info...

Claim Your Blog on Technorati

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your blog is to claim it in different blog directories, one of the best is technorati, they provide a pretty straight forward method to claim your Blogger.com blog. Once there they let you fill out your blog profile, including keywords, description and so on.
It's very hard sometimes for you to actually get into the top 10 SERPs on google.com and the major search engines, sometimes it takes months. But on most blog directories you can easily get into their top search results if you use the right keywords and descriptions, and since a lot of people visit these sites to find blogs they will eventually drive traffic towards you.
The profile page that it creates for your blog will get picked up pretty quickly by the major search engines, so this will also drive traffic towards your blog pretty quickly.

Optimizing Blog Title for Better Search Engine Results

Default titles of Blogger Post pages are of the form Blog Title + Post Title. But don't you think that the Post Title should be given a little more importance on the Post Page?? The search results use these titles.So it is always better to keep your title more related to your post content.
Here is a hack that will change the title to the following attractive format Post Title + Blog Title This trick will help you to optimise the blog title for Search Engines like google yahoo, live bing and others. Using this Hack i assure you that there will be an increase in your blog visitors.


1.Login to your blogger account
2.From your Dashboard opt for Layout
3.Now choose Edit Html
4.You will see your template code there.
5.In that template code find  

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

and replace it with

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageName/> ~ <data:blog.title/></title>
</b:if>

6.Now opt for SaveTemplate.
7.Affter saving the template take a look at your blog post pages and your will notice the change in title's in your browser's title bar.

Burn Your Feed Using Feedburner

1. Go to Google Feedburner Homepage and Login using your existing Gmail account or Google Apps account. If you don’t have a Gmail account, you can create one for free and sign into Feedburner.

2. Now copy your default feed URL, and paste it in the space provided below the “Burn a feed right this instant” message and click on next in your Feedburner Dashboard.

3. In the next screen, specify the Feed Title and Feed Address. I would recommend you to use your domain name for this two fields. Once you have done that click on next.

4. That’s it. Now your will see a confirmation message stating that your feed is ready.

Hide Blogger Navbar

This one isn't necessarily an SEO tip it will make your blog look more professional and will enhance the overall user experience, so in the end it will serve the same purpose.

1 Log in to blogger

2 On your Dashboard, click on the Design tab of your blog. Click Edit HTML >>> Expand Widget Templates.

3 Paste the following CSS definition

#navbar-iframe {
   display: none !important;
}

Above

/* Variable definitions
  ====================

Thats all, the navbar will no longer be there at the top of you blog.

Adding Google Sitemap

Nobody can deny that Google is the best search engine. As google is used by most users so it is a great way to get new visitors to your blog.
Adding your site to google webmaster tools increases your blog’s visibility in search engines which means more traffic.
Adding Google Sitemap:

1. Login to Blogger Dashboard.
2. At the end of the page, under Tools and Resources box – Click on Webmaster Tools.
3. If asked, enter username and password again to Login.
4. Your Blogspot blog is now verified and it is added to Google Webmaster tools.
5. Inside Webmaster tools, click on Submit a Sitemap and add the following code inside the box:
   

   atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=100 

6. If you have more than 200 posts then replace value 100 by something bigger number like 500.
7. You have successfully added the Google Sitemap.

Add Google Analytics (a Powerful SEO tool) to Blogger

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for anyone looking to do SEO on his website or blog. It allows you to track your visitors, see where they come from, how they got there, how much time they spend on your site and much more. My opinion about Google Analytics is that it is one of the important tool for doing SEO.
Just follow these easy steps to add it to your blogger account:

1. First of all you need to go ahead and sign up @ http://www.google.com/analytics/ during the signup proccess you'll enter your Google Account information and Blog URL.
2. After the initial signup is complete you'll get some javascript code to add to your Blog, choose the "New Tracking Code (ga.js)"
3. Copy this JavaScript code into the clipboard
4. Login to your blogger account. Head over to the Layout Tab and Select "Edit HTML". Here you will see the HTML code for your template (be carefull here so you don't mess up your blog).
5. Scroll down and find </head> tag and paste the JavaScript code just before that tag.
6. Wait a couple of hours, then log back into the Google Analytics website and click on "Check Status" button. If it says that it can't find the code just try again , sometimes it takes a while.

Done!... Now you have to do now is wait for your visitors to come and your stats to pile up.

My first post about Blogger SEO

As you all know that the SEO of Blogger.com blogs is not an easy task to perform. But since we are using it as our blogging platform and in order to stay ahead in the competition, we have to spend time on optimizing our blogs. I'll share my experience with you on doing SEO with blogger in a simple and easy manner.