How to Edit your robots.txt file in new Blogger

If you have been on blogger for a while you will know that you couldn't directly edit your robots.txt file. The only way to change it was to use robots meta in your template. Now with the new upgrade to blogger we have access to this little but very important file. We can now change our robot.txt file from within our dashboard.

For people that don't already know what a robots.txt is , here's a little explanation of what they are and how they are used within your site.

What is a robots.txt file?

The Robot Exclusion Standard, also known as the Robots Exclusion Protocol or robots.txt protocol, is a convention to prevent cooperating web crawlers and other web robots from accessing all or part of a website which is otherwise publicly viewable.

Robots are often used by search engines to categorise and archive web sites, or by webmasters to proofread source code. The standard is different from, but can be used in conjunction with, Sitemaps, a robot inclusion standard for websites.

Why use a robot.txt file?

Sometimes you may want to stop certain parts of your site being indexed in search engines e.g. archive pages of a blog. The easiest way to let search engines know that you don't want these pages crawled is to use a robots.txt. You can set different rules for different robots and web crawlers depending on your preferences.

But, not all crawlers will listen to your robots.txt file and continue to access your pages, robots.txt simply asks not to be crawled it doesn't block access. Most big crawlers will follow your requests.

What goes into a robots.txt file?

There are various things you can put into your robots.txt file. Here is an example of a basic robots.txt file...

User-agent: * Disallow:
The example above tells all robots to visit all files because the wild card * specifies all robots.

User-agent: * Disallow: /
The example above tells all robots to stay out of a website.

You can also tell robots to not crawl specific directories. It would look something like this...

User-agent: * Disallow: /cgi-bin/ Disallow: /images/ Disallow: /tmp/ Disallow: /private/

For more information about robots.txt and what can go in it check out the wiki here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots_exclusion_standard

How do you edit your Blogger robots.txt file?

Well, you cant really edit your Blogger robots.txt but you can use your own custom robots.txt info.

Blogger already has a robots.txt file but you cant edit it. When you create your custom robots.txt it will override the default rules and display your custom robots.txt info.

To create a custom robots.txt in new blogger...

1. Log into your dashboard and navigate to Settings and then in the dropdown menu select Search preferences.
2. At the bottom of the page you will see a section called Crawlers and indexing, in that section is Custom robots.txt.
3. Hit the Edit button on the right and enable it.
4. Enter you custom robots.txt rules and save changes. Done

Im not going to tell you exactly what to put in your  custom robots.txt, because each site is different and needs different rules. Before you start using robots.txt make sure you have properly researched the necessary rules for your type of site and you know exactly what you want crawled and not crawled.

Warning

Improper use can prevent your site from being indexed properly in search engines, so make sure you read a bit more about it and know what you are doing before proceeding.

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How to submit a Full XML Sitemap for Blogger

Getting your site indexed with Google is key to the success of every site. Googles index is the most famous and well used search index on the Internet, so it makes sense to focus on them as a primary source of traffic.

Most sites will eventually be indexed if they are live long enough, but who knows how long it could take for Google to crawl your site and index you?

The great thing is Google and most major search engines offer us a way to 'guide' them to and around our sites so they can index us quickly and efficiently. These little gems are called Sitemaps.

How to Submit a Full XML Sitemap for blogger.

Submitting a Sitemap of your blogger blog to Google and other search engines is a fairly simple process. Nearly every blog nowadays have an RSS/Atom feed and most blogging platforms provide this by default, like Blogger. Your Sitemap is basically your RSS/Atom feed displayed as an XML Document.

The default URL for blogger Feeds look something like this...

http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default or http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full

You can submit this Feed as your Sitemap to help google find your pages, but there is a big problem with using the default feed.

It only displays 25 of your latest blog posts. What if you have 500 posts? You want all of them indexed right? Instead of submitting the above Feed you want to submit a Full Sitemap.
A full feed URL looks like this...

http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500 

The part in red means it will display posts from post 1, and the part in green means it will display a max of 500 post. So, you can see with this sitemap you will be able to submit up to 500 pages of your site.

Visit the link below to find out exactly how to add your Sitemaps to Google.
http://support.google.com/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=100283

What if I have more than 500 pages?

Simply submit a second Sitemap with a slight difference. Change the start point (the red part) to 501 like this...

http://YOURBLOG.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=501&max-results=500

With the two site maps you will be able to submit page 1 to 500 and page 501 to 1000.
If you want to add more pages just change the start value e.g 1001, 1501, 2001 etc.

Hope this helps

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How to add a Custom Favicon to your Blogger blog - Official

The favicon should be in .ico format, popularly known as windows ICO (icon) file format and should be less than 10kb. The best and appropriate sizes are 16×16 pixels and 32×32 pixels. You can easily create one with any photo editing software but most of them don’t allow the image to be saved in icon format. In that case you can save your image in .png format and use any online tool to generate favicon or use GIMP, a small but powerful photo editing software, to create one. Name the file as “favicon” and save it in you computer’s hard drive.
After you have successfully created the favicon, all is left for you is to add it to Blogger by clicking the “Edit” link beside “Favicon” as shown in the picture above. Choose the file that you have saved on your hard disk and “Save” it.

To be noted

• After saving the settings for your custom favicon, you may not be able to see it immediately while viewing your blog. This happens because the default Blogger favicon remains there in your browser’s cache. To view it, clear your browser’s cache or wait for sometime or days to expire and get deleted by itself.
• Your blog’s favicon URL is:

http://your-blog.blogspot.com/favicon.ico

By Raju

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How to Add PayPal Donation Button to Blogger Blog

In this post I will be showing you how to add a PayPal Donations button to your Blogger blog, so you can begin receiving donations through PayPal from your visitors. This button is FREE and it allows you to accept payments in a variety of forms eg credit card, wire transfer etc

Adding this button is very simple, and its a great way of making extra income from your blog. It also gives your loyal visitors the opportunity to show there appreciation.

Ok, lets begin : )

Creating your PayPal Donation Button

1. Log into PayPal

2. Click Merchant Services Tab which will take you to Merchant tools

3. Scroll down and in the right side bar you should see 'Donations' within a list of links. Click it

4. You will see some options like Donation name/service ,donation id,etc. The first field (Donation name/service) is the only thing that is required the remaining fields are optional.
Enter the first field, choose a button style, scroll down and click on "Create a button Now"

5.You will be presented with html code for your button. Copy the code

Adding Donate Button to Blogger/Blogspot

6. Sign in to your Blogspot  blog, navigate to layout and create a new html/java widget where you want your button to appear.

7. Paste your button code into the new widget and  Save, done

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How to Remove/Disable/Hide the Navbar in Blogger Blogs

Most of you know what the Navbar in Blogger is, that's why you're here : )

For those who don't, its the small toolbar that sits at the very top of a Blogger page which allows navigation of the blog and also search and login.

The Navbar is useful, but doesn't look great, that's why so many bloggers choose to remove/hide the blogger Navbar from their site. Disabling this feature is easier than you may think, and can give your blog a much more professional and unique look.

The below steps will take you through the simple process of disabling/hiding the navabar on your blogger blog...

(I am using the new blogger dashboard, but it is very similar on the old)

1. Sign in to your blogger account and select your blog. Go to Template then go to Edit HTML and select Proceed.

2. At the top section of code you will see your template info and under that you should see Variable definitions.

Copy this code:
#navbar-iframe { display: none !important; }
and paste it BELOW the template info ABOVE Variable definitions as shown in the picture below..

3. Preview your changes to make sure your blog is running correctly before you save.

4. Save your template, done.

I hope this simple tweak helps you to remove your Navbar. Any feedback will be gratefully received : )

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Blogger: How to Add Dynamic Meta tags To Your Blog

Meta Tags are key to the success in search engines for any website or blog. If you have not already, you should add Meta Tags.

This post will show you how to add Meta Tags to your Blogger page which will create unique tags rather than creating duplicate content.

How to Add Dynamic Meta Tags

1. Log in to your blogger account >>Design >> Edit HTML
(Make sure you backup your template before editing)

2. Find this tag by using Ctrl+F

<b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/>

3. Paste below code after the above tag

<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<meta content='ADD YOUR WEBSITE DESCRIPTION HERE' name='description'/>
<meta content='ADD YOUR KEYWORDS HERE' name='keywords'/>
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;index&quot;'>
<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageName/> ~ <data:blog.title/></title>
</b:if>

4. Replace PUT YOUR WHATEVER HERE with your description and keywords.

5. Click Preview to see if your page loads correctly before committing to changes.

6. Save Template and exit. Done

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How to add Google Adsense Ads to Blogger Below Post Title, Above Content or Below Content Area

Adding Adsense ads below post title or above content area is definately a good way to increase your CTR ( click through rate ) in Blogger. Also, if you've placed it in your blogger post above the fold, you will receive higher CPM rates than at the bottom of your page below the fold area of your blogger blog. This technique of placing Adsense within a post is a great way of getting more targeted ads to your site, thus, more clicks on ads.

Before you start I just want to tell you a couple of good ad units that work well below blogger posts...

    Large Rectangle (336 x 280) - Recommended First

    Medium Rectangle (300 x 250) - Recommended Second

These Ad formats are highly recomended. You can also choose to align your ads to the left, right or center using float.

So lets get started : )...

How to add Google Adsense Ad Below Blogger Post Title

1. If you want to show your Google Adsense ad BELOW your Blogger post title on the LEFT side, then copy the below Code...
(Replace YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE with your Ad Code)

<div style="float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;">
YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE
</div>

OR

2. If you want to show your Google Adsense ad BELOW your Blogger post title on the RIGHT side, then copy the below Code...
(Replace YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE with your Ad Code)

<div style="float: right; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px;">
YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE
</div>

OR

3. If you want to show your Google Adsense ad BELOW your Blogger post title in the CENTER, then copy the below Code...
(Replace YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE with your Ad Code)

<div style="text-align: center; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;">
YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE
</div>

NOTE:

If you use Code 1. and Code 2. then your content will start to show on the other side of your ad.
If you want your content to show below your Google Adsense Ad, then paste the following code just below  Code 1. or Code 2. ...

 <div style="clear:both"/>

NEXT:

Now you need to add this code to you Blogger Template. Sign into your Blogger account and go to Dashboard--> Design--> Edit HTML, make sure you check the EXPAND WIDGET TEMPLATE box.

Now find this code (use ctrl+F)...

<data:post.body/>

Now paste your code just BEFORE that code.

NOTE:

If you are using the automatic read more option for your custom Blogger template, then you will find the <data:post.body/> code more than once. So, do it for each one and look which one is working (make sure to backup you template). You can paste for both, if you want to display on home and post pages.

All Done!

 

A little Extra...

The area below the content of your post pages or you could say the area above your comment section is also a great place to catch your visitors eye. Placing your ads here could be beneficial if using the Large Rectangle (336 x 280), Medium Rectangle (300 x 250) or Banner (468 x 60) formats.

Now, if you want to show your Google Adsense ads ABOVE the comments area of your Blogger post pages, then do the procedure as you did before but this time paste your code just after this code...

<data:post.body/>

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