Saturday, November 15, 2014

5 Cool Recent Post Widgets for Blogger

For bloggers that pride themselves on always staying up-to-date with new content, a recent post widget for Blogger can be an invaluable tool. A recent posts widget for blogger is in many ways similar to a 'breaking news alert' that journalists love to use during their reports, providing the most recent and relevant posts that you have to offer.

Adding a recent post widget for Blogger helps to reduce the dependency on email marketing, because you don't have to send out an email just to let people know you made a new post. Instead, it updates automatically for everyone to see. You can then use this information to design scheduled email newsletters, and take advantage of what's often referred to as the 'Twitter effect' where audiences will regularly check back on your site for the possibility that new posts are available. Without this, you force people to do run their own search for information and content, increasing the likelihood that they'll leave the site and hurt your bounce rate.

Once you've managed to attract visitors to one of your posts using the recent post widget for Blogger, it will continue to act as an accessible secondary resource to navigate around your site. That way, you can avoid having them sifting through old content that might be outdated. If you'd rather show off some of your best posts instead of your most recent posts, you can do that instead, or add that feature to the bar with just a few alterations.

Apart from looking great and taking up minimal space, there are too many benefits for you not to have a recent post widget for Blogger. The best part about these add-ons is that they come in a wide variety of designs that will fit any theme. If you're interested in adding a widget to your site, here are 5 cool recent post widgets that might catch your eye and fit perfectly with your Blogger template:
recent posts for blogger, cool widgets

Recent Posts Style #1

rainbow widget, recent posts
<script type="text/javascript">
function showlatestpostswiththumbs(t){document.write('<ul class="recent-posts-container">');for(var e=0;e<posts_no;e++){var r,n=t.feed.entry[e],i=n.title.$t;if(e==t.feed.entry.length)break;for(var o=0;o<n.link.length;o++){if("replies"==n.link[o].rel&&"text/html"==n.link[o].type)var l=n.link[o].title,m=n.link[o].href;if("alternate"==n.link[o].rel){r=n.link[o].href;break}}var u;try{u=n.media$thumbnail.url}catch(h){s=n.content.$t,a=s.indexOf("<img"),b=s.indexOf('src="',a),c=s.indexOf('"',b+5),d=s.substr(b+5,c-b-5),u=-1!=a&&-1!=b&&-1!=c&&""!=d?d:"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg2wLXiTxmADw-tivqtUgOs3jMvKpeCntKoYfhZPiAxi5ZqSPI0qcH-toGM3lD4KjpkZWg8ki1BxvTQ3f68Y0_MdCDlHUgqCHuUW5bc02JZW7fWjWMZIPBpZ1YkZpqMt8Z794BleVLiVj-/s1600/no-thumb.png"}var p=n.published.$t,f=p.substring(0,4),g=p.substring(5,7),v=p.substring(8,10),w=new Array;if(w[1]="Jan",w[2]="Feb",w[3]="Mar",w[4]="Apr",w[5]="May",w[6]="Jun",w[7]="Jul",w[8]="Aug",w[9]="Sep",w[10]="Oct",w[11]="Nov",w[12]="Dec",document.write('<li class="recent-posts-list">'),1==showpoststhumbs&&document.write('<a href="'+r+'"><img class="recent-post-thumb" src="'+u+'"/></a>'),document.write('<div class="recent-post-title"><a href="'+r+'" target ="_top">'+i+"</a></div>"),"content"in n)var A=n.content.$t;else if("summary"in n)var A=n.summary.$t;else var A="";var k=/<\S[^>]*>/g;if(A=A.replace(k,""),1==post_summary)if(A.length<summary_chars)document.write(A);else{A=A.substring(0,summary_chars);var y=A.lastIndexOf(" ");A=A.substring(0,y),document.write(A+"...")}var _="",$=0;document.write('<br><div class="recent-posts-details">'),1==posts_date&&(_=_+w[parseInt(g,10)]+" "+v+" "+f,$=1),1==readmorelink&&(1==$&&(_+=" | "),_=_+'<a href="'+r+'" class="url" target ="_top">Read more</a>',$=1),1==showcommentslink&&(1==$&&(_+=" <br> "),"1 Comments"==l&&(l="1 Comment"),"0 Comments"==l&&(l="No Comments"),l='<a href="'+m+'" target ="_top">'+l+"</a>",_+=l,$=1),document.write(_),document.write("</div>"),document.write("</li>")}document.write("</ul>")}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var posts_no = 5;
var showpoststhumbs = true;
var readmorelink = true;
var showcommentslink = false;
var posts_date = true;
var post_summary = true;
var summary_chars = 70;
</script>
<script src="/feeds/posts/default?orderby=published&alt=json-in-script&callback=showlatestpostswiththumbs"></script>
<a style="font-size: 9px; color: #CECECE; margin-top: 10px;" href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2014/11/5-cool-recent-post-widgets-for-blogger.html" rel="nofollow">Recent Posts Widget</a>
<noscript>Your browser does not support JavaScript!</noscript>
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Ubuntu+Condensed' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' />
<style type="text/css">
img.recent-post-thumb{width:50px;height:50px;float:right;margin:5px -5px 0px 0px;-webkit-border-radius:50%;-moz-border-radius:50%;border-radius:50%;padding:3px;background: #fff}
ul.recent-posts-container {list-style-type: none; background: #fff;padding: 0px;font:12px 'Ubuntu Condensed', sans-serif;margin: 5px 0px 5px 0px;}
ul.recent-posts-container li:nth-child(1n+0) {background: #F49A9A; width: 100%}
ul.recent-posts-container li:nth-child(2n+0) {background: #FCD092; width: 95%}
ul.recent-posts-container li:nth-child(3n+0) {background: #FFF59E; width: 90%;}
ul.recent-posts-container li:nth-child(4n+0) {background: #E1EFA0; width: 85%;}
ul.recent-posts-container li:nth-child(5n+0) {background: #B1DAEF; width: 80%;}
ul.recent-posts-container li {padding:5px 10px;list-style-type: none; margin: 0 0 -5px; color: #777;}
.recent-posts-container a { text-decoration:none; }
.recent-posts-container a:hover { color: #222;}
.post-date {color:#e0c0c6; font-size: 11px; }
.recent-post-title a {font-size: 14px;color: #444; font-weight: bold;}
.recent-post-title {padding: 6px 0px;}
.recent-posts-details a{ color: #222;}
.recent-posts-details {padding: 5px 0px 5px; }
</style>

Recent Posts Style #2

recent posts widget for blogger
<div class="recentpoststyle">
<script type="text/javascript">
function showlatestposts(e){for(var t=0;t<posts_no;t++){var r,s=e.feed.entry[t],n=s.title.$t;if(t==e.feed.entry.length)break;for(var a=0;a<s.link.length;a++)if("alternate"==s.link[a].rel){r=s.link[a].href;break}n=n.link(r);var i="... read more";i=i.link(r);var l=s.published.$t,o=l.substring(0,4),u=l.substring(5,7),c=l.substring(8,10),m=new Array;if(m[1]="Jan",m[2]="Feb",m[3]="Mar",m[4]="Apr",m[5]="May",m[6]="Jun",m[7]="Jul",m[8]="Aug",m[9]="Sep",m[10]="Oct",m[11]="Nov",m[12]="Dec","content"in s)var d=s.content.$t;else if("summary"in s)var d=s.summary.$t;else var d="";var v=/<\S[^>]*>/g;if(d=d.replace(v,""),document.write('<li class="recent-post-title">'),document.write(n),document.write('</li><div class="recent-post-summ">'),1==post_summary)if(d.length<summary_chars)document.write(d);else{d=d.substring(0,summary_chars);var f=d.lastIndexOf(" ");d=d.substring(0,f),document.write(d+" "+i)}document.write("</div>"),1==posts_date&&document.write('<div class="post-date">'+m[parseInt(u,10)]+" "+c+" "+o+"</div>")}}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var posts_no = 5;var posts_date = true;var post_summary = true;var summary_chars = 80;</script>
<script src="/feeds/posts/default?orderby=published&amp;alt=json-in-script&amp;callback=showlatestposts">
</script><a style="font-size: 9px; color: #CECECE;margin-top:10px;" href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2014/11/5-cool-recent-post-widgets-for-blogger.html" rel="nofollow">Recent Posts Widget</a>
<noscript>Your browser does not support JavaScript!</noscript>
<style type="text/css">
.recentpoststyle {counter-reset: countposts;list-style-type: none;}
.recentpoststyle a {text-decoration: none;color: #49A8D1;}
.recentpoststyle a:hover {color: #000;}
.recentpoststyle li:before {content: counter(countposts,decimal);counter-increment: countposts;float: left;z-index: 1;position:relative;font-size: 15px;font-weight: bold;color:#fff;background:#69B7E2; margin:13px 5px 0px -6px;line-height:30px;width:30px;height:30px;text-align:center;-webkit-border-radius:50%;-moz-border-radius:50%;border-radius:50%;}li.recent-post-title{margin-bottom: 5px;padding: 0;}
.recent-post-title a {color: #444;text-decoration: none;font: bold 13px "Avant Garde",Avantgarde,"Century Gothic",CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;}
.post-date {font-size: 11px;color: #999;margin:5px 0px 15px 32px;}
.recent-post-summ {border-left:1px solid #69B7E2; color: #777; padding: 0px 5px 0px 20px; margin-left: 10px; font: 15px Garamond,Baskerville,"Baskerville Old Face","Hoefler Text","Times New Roman",serif;}
</style></div>

Recent Posts Style #3

recent posts gadget

<script type="text/javascript">
function showlatestpostswiththumbs(t){document.write('<ul class="recent-posts-container">');for(var e=0;e<posts_no;e++){var r,n=t.feed.entry[e],i=n.title.$t;if(e==t.feed.entry.length)break;for(var o=0;o<n.link.length;o++){if("replies"==n.link[o].rel&&"text/html"==n.link[o].type)var l=n.link[o].title,m=n.link[o].href;if("alternate"==n.link[o].rel){r=n.link[o].href;break}}var u;try{u=n.media$thumbnail.url}catch(h){s=n.content.$t,a=s.indexOf("<img"),b=s.indexOf('src="',a),c=s.indexOf('"',b+5),d=s.substr(b+5,c-b-5),u=-1!=a&&-1!=b&&-1!=c&&""!=d?d:"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg2wLXiTxmADw-tivqtUgOs3jMvKpeCntKoYfhZPiAxi5ZqSPI0qcH-toGM3lD4KjpkZWg8ki1BxvTQ3f68Y0_MdCDlHUgqCHuUW5bc02JZW7fWjWMZIPBpZ1YkZpqMt8Z794BleVLiVj-/s1600/no-thumb.png"}var p=n.published.$t,f=p.substring(0,4),g=p.substring(5,7),v=p.substring(8,10),w=new Array;if(w[1]="Jan",w[2]="Feb",w[3]="Mar",w[4]="Apr",w[5]="May",w[6]="Jun",w[7]="Jul",w[8]="Aug",w[9]="Sep",w[10]="Oct",w[11]="Nov",w[12]="Dec",document.write('<li class="recent-posts-list">'),1==showpoststhumbs&&document.write('<a href="'+r+'"><img class="recent-post-thumb" src="'+u+'"/></a>'),document.write('<div class="recent-post-title"><a href="'+r+'" target ="_top">'+i+"</a></div>"),"content"in n)var A=n.content.$t;else if("summary"in n)var A=n.summary.$t;else var A="";var k=/<\S[^>]*>/g;if(A=A.replace(k,""),1==post_summary)if(A.length<summary_chars)document.write(A);else{A=A.substring(0,summary_chars);var y=A.lastIndexOf(" ");A=A.substring(0,y),document.write(A+"...")}var _="",$=0;document.write('<br><div class="recent-posts-details">'),1==posts_date&&(_=_+w[parseInt(g,10)]+" "+v+" "+f,$=1),1==readmorelink&&(1==$&&(_+=" | "),_=_+'<a href="'+r+'" class="url" target ="_top">Read more</a>',$=1),1==showcommentslink&&(1==$&&(_+=" <br> "),"1 Comments"==l&&(l="1 Comment"),"0 Comments"==l&&(l="No Comments"),l='<a href="'+m+'" target ="_top">'+l+"</a>",_+=l,$=1),document.write(_),document.write("</div>"),document.write("</li>")}document.write("</ul>")}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var posts_no = 5;
var showpoststhumbs = true;
var readmorelink = true;
var showcommentslink = true;
var posts_date = true;
var post_summary = true;
var summary_chars = 40;</script>
<script src="/feeds/posts/default?orderby=published&alt=json-in-script&callback=showlatestpostswiththumbs"></script>
<a style="font-size: 9px; color: #CECECE; margin-top: 10px;" href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2014/11/5-cool-recent-post-widgets-for-blogger.html" rel="nofollow">Recent Posts Widget</a>
<noscript>Your browser does not support JavaScript!</noscript>
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Oswald' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>
<style type="text/css">
img.recent-post-thumb{padding:2px;width:65px;height:65px;float:left;margin:0px 10px 10px;border: 1px solid #69B7E2;}
.recent-posts-container {font-family:'Oswald', sans-serif;font-size:12px;}
ul.recent-posts-container li{list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 10px;font-size:12px;float:left;width:100%}
ul.recent-posts-container {counter-reset: countposts;list-style-type:none;padding:0;}
ul.recent-posts-container li:before {content: counter(countposts,decimal);counter-increment: countposts;z-index: 1;position:absolute; left: 0px; font-size: 13px;font-weight: bold;color: #fff;background: #69B7E2;line-height:25px;height:25px;width:25px;text-align:center;-webkit-border-radius: 50%;-moz-border-radius: 50%;border-radius: 50%;}
.recent-posts-container a{text-decoration:none;}
.recent-post-title {margin-bottom:5px;}
.recent-post-title a {font-size:12px; text-transform: uppercase; color: #2aace3;}
.recent-posts-details {margin: 5px 0px 0px 92px;font-size:11px;}
.recent-posts-details a{color: #777;}
</style>

Recent Posts Style #4

recent posts for blogger, cool widgets
<script type="text/javascript">
function showlatestpostswiththumbs(t){document.write('<ul class="recent-posts-container">');for(var e=0;e<posts_no;e++){var r,n=t.feed.entry[e],i=n.title.$t;if(e==t.feed.entry.length)break;for(var o=0;o<n.link.length;o++){if("replies"==n.link[o].rel&&"text/html"==n.link[o].type)var l=n.link[o].title,m=n.link[o].href;if("alternate"==n.link[o].rel){r=n.link[o].href;break}}var u;try{u=n.media$thumbnail.url}catch(p){s=n.content.$t,a=s.indexOf("<img"),b=s.indexOf('src="',a),c=s.indexOf('"',b+5),d=s.substr(b+5,c-b-5),u=-1!=a&&-1!=b&&-1!=c&&""!=d?d:"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg2wLXiTxmADw-tivqtUgOs3jMvKpeCntKoYfhZPiAxi5ZqSPI0qcH-toGM3lD4KjpkZWg8ki1BxvTQ3f68Y0_MdCDlHUgqCHuUW5bc02JZW7fWjWMZIPBpZ1YkZpqMt8Z794BleVLiVj-/s1600/no-thumb.png"}var h=n.published.$t,f=h.substring(0,4),w=h.substring(5,7),v=h.substring(8,10),A=new Array;A[1]="Jan",A[2]="Feb",A[3]="Mar",A[4]="Apr",A[5]="May",A[6]="Jun",A[7]="Jul",A[8]="Aug",A[9]="Sep",A[10]="Oct",A[11]="Nov",A[12]="Dec",document.write('<li class="recent-posts-list">'),1==posts_date&&document.write('<div class="post-date">'+A[parseInt(w,10)]+" "+v+" "+f+"</div>"),1==showpoststhumbs&&document.write('<a href="'+r+'"><img class="recent-post-thumb" src="'+u+'"/></a>'),document.write('<div class="recent-post-title"><a href="'+r+'" target ="_top">'+i+"</a></div>");var g="",k=0;document.write('<div class="recent-posts-details">'),1==showcommentslink&&(1==k&&(g+=" <br> "),"1 Comments"==l&&(l="1 Comment"),"0 Comments"==l&&(l="No Comments"),l='<a href="'+m+'" target ="_top">'+l+"</a>",g+=l,k=1),1==readmorelink&&(1==k&&(g+=" | "),g=g+'<a class="readmorelink" href="'+r+'" class="url" target ="_top">Read more</a>',k=1),document.write(g),document.write("</div>"),document.write("</li>")}document.write("</ul>")}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var posts_no = 5;
var showpoststhumbs = false;
var readmorelink = true;
var showcommentslink = true;
var posts_date = true;
</script>
<script src="/feeds/posts/default?orderby=published&alt=json-in-script&callback=showlatestpostswiththumbs"></script>
<a style="font-size: 9px; color: #CECECE; float: right; margin-top: 5px;" href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2014/11/5-cool-recent-post-widgets-for-blogger.html">Recent Posts Widget</a>
<noscript>Your browser does not support JavaScript!</noscript>
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Oswald' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>
<style type="text/css">
img.recent-post-thumb {padding: 2px; width:35px;height:35px;float:right;margin: -14px 0px 0px 5px; border: 1px solid #cea5ac; border-radius: 10%;}
.recent-posts-container {font-family: 'Oswald', sans-serif;  float: left;width: 100%;min-height: 70px;margin: 5px 0px 5px 0px;padding: 0;font-size:12px;}
ul.recent-posts-container li {padding:5px 0px;min-height:65px; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 10px 5px 35px;}
ul.recent-posts-container {counter-reset: countposts;list-style-type: none;}
ul.recent-posts-container li:before {content: counter(countposts,decimal);counter-increment: countposts;z-index: 2;position:absolute; left: 5px; font-size: 16px;color: #4D4D4D;background: #F7F7F7;padding: 9px 14px; border: 1px solid #efefef;}
.recent-posts-container a { text-decoration:none; }
.recent-posts-container a:hover{color: #4DACE3;}
.post-date {color:#e0c0c6; font-size: 11px; }
.recent-post-title a {font-size: 13px; text-transform: uppercase; color: #5C4D4D;}
.recent-post-title { margin: 5px 0px; }
.recent-posts-details {border-top: 4px solid #AC707A; margin-top: 5px; padding-top: 5px;}
.recent-posts-details a{ color: #888;}
a.readmorelink {color: #4DACE3;}
</style>

Recent Post Style #5

recent posts, blogger gadget
<script type="text/javascript">
function showlatestpostswiththumbs(t){document.write('<ul class="recent-posts-container">');for(var e=0;e<posts_no;e++){var r,n=t.feed.entry[e],i=n.title.$t;if(e==t.feed.entry.length)break;for(var o=0;o<n.link.length;o++){if("replies"==n.link[o].rel&&"text/html"==n.link[o].type)var l=n.link[o].title,m=n.link[o].href;if("alternate"==n.link[o].rel){r=n.link[o].href;break}}var u;try{u=n.media$thumbnail.url}catch(p){s=n.content.$t,a=s.indexOf("<img"),b=s.indexOf('src="',a),c=s.indexOf('"',b+5),d=s.substr(b+5,c-b-5),u=-1!=a&&-1!=b&&-1!=c&&""!=d?d:"https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg2wLXiTxmADw-tivqtUgOs3jMvKpeCntKoYfhZPiAxi5ZqSPI0qcH-toGM3lD4KjpkZWg8ki1BxvTQ3f68Y0_MdCDlHUgqCHuUW5bc02JZW7fWjWMZIPBpZ1YkZpqMt8Z794BleVLiVj-/s1600/no-thumb.png"}var h=n.published.$t,f=h.substring(0,4),w=h.substring(5,7),v=h.substring(8,10),A=new Array;A[1]="Jan",A[2]="Feb",A[3]="Mar",A[4]="Apr",A[5]="May",A[6]="Jun",A[7]="Jul",A[8]="Aug",A[9]="Sep",A[10]="Oct",A[11]="Nov",A[12]="Dec",document.write('<li class="recent-posts-list">'),1==posts_date&&document.write('<div class="post-date">'+A[parseInt(w,10)]+" "+v+" "+f+"</div>"),1==showpoststhumbs&&document.write('<a href="'+r+'"><img class="recent-post-thumb" src="'+u+'"/></a>'),document.write('<div class="recent-post-title"><a href="'+r+'" target ="_top">'+i+"</a></div>");var g="",k=0;document.write('<div class="recent-posts-details">'),1==showcommentslink&&(1==k&&(g+=" <br> "),"1 Comments"==l&&(l="1 Comment"),"0 Comments"==l&&(l="No Comments"),l='<a href="'+m+'" target ="_top">'+l+"</a>",g+=l,k=1),1==readmorelink&&(1==k&&(g+=" | "),g=g+'<a class="readmorelink" href="'+r+'" class="url" target ="_top">Read more</a>',k=1),document.write(g),document.write("</div>"),document.write("</li>")}document.write("</ul>")}
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var posts_no = 5;
var showpoststhumbs = true;
var readmorelink = true;
var showcommentslink = true;
var posts_date = true;
</script>
<script src="/feeds/posts/default?orderby=published&alt=json-in-script&callback=showlatestpostswiththumbs" rel="nofollow"></script>
<a style="font-size: 9px; color: #CECECE; float: right; margin-top: 5px;" href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/2014/11/5-cool-recent-post-widgets-for-blogger.html" rel="nofollow">Recent Posts Widget</a>
<noscript>Your browser does not support JavaScript!</noscript>
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lobster|Gloria+Hallelujah' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' />
<style type="text/css">
img.recent-post-thumb {width:50px;height:50px;float:right;margin: -4px -35px 0px 0px; border: 4px solid #FCD6CB; border-radius: 100%;}
.recent-posts-container {font-family: 'Gloria Hallelujah', cursive;  float: left;width: 100%;min-height: 55px;margin: 5px 0px 5px 0px;padding: 0;font-size:12px;}
ul.recent-posts-container {counter-reset: countposts;list-style-type: none; background: #fff; }
ul.recent-posts-container li:before {content: counter(countposts,decimal);counter-increment: countposts;z-index: 2;position:absolute; left: -20px; font-size: 16px;color: #616662;background: #FCD6CB;padding: 9px 14px; border-radius: 100%; margin-top: 15px;}
ul.recent-posts-container li {padding:5px 0px;min-height:50px; list-style-type: none; margin: -2px 5px 5px 5px;  border-top: 2px solid #FCD6CB;}
ul.recent-posts-container {border: 2px solid #FCD6CB; }
.recent-posts-container a { text-decoration:none; }
.recent-posts-container a:hover { color: #222;}
.post-date {color:#e0c0c6; font-size: 11px; }
.recent-post-title a {font-size: 14px;color: #616662;}
.recent-post-title {padding: 6px 0px;}
.recent-posts-details a{ color: #888;}
.recent-posts-details {padding-bottom: 5px;}
a.readmorelink {color: #4DACE3;}
</style>

How to Add Recent Posts Widget on Blogger

Want to add one of the styles above? Just follow the following steps below:

Step 1. Log into your Blogger dashboard and click on your blog
Step 2. Go to "Layout" and click the "Add a gadget" link on the right side
Step 3. From the pop-up window, scroll down and select the "HTML/JavaScript" gadget:


Step 4. Paste the code of the chosen widget found below it.
Step 5. Hit the "Save" button... and you're done!

Keep Your Blog Updated

Using a recent post widget for Blogger can truly benefit you and improve your skill as a blogger. As you can see, these designs can look great on Blogger sites, but they do act a little bit like a progress report for the author. If you start to fall behind, the dates on your recent post widget will definitely give you away.

Set a schedule and make sure that you are making regular posts on the blog. These posts will be automatically updated on your widget and readers can view this information whenever they want. Add your recent post widget for Blogger on the every page of the blog or in your template so that these posts can encourage others to continue reading, thus increasing the total time spent on your site.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Cara Mencari Kata Kunci Terbaik Untuk Artikel

Cara mencari kata kunci terbaik untuk artikel yang akan di posting. Jika pada tulisan sebelumnya saya menjelaskan cara riset keyword paling mudah, topik untuk blogging tips kali ini ingin berbagi bagaimana cara mencari kata kunci terbaik untuk setiap tulisan yang akan kita posting di blog. Selain dengan riset keyword, mencari kata kunci terbaik bisa dilakukan dengan blogwalking, yaitu mengunjungi blog yang topiknya sama.

Yang perlu dilakukan adalah melihat artikel-artikel yang ada di popular post blog-blog yang dikunjungi. Semua posting yang tampil pada popular post di setiap blog merupakan tulisan yang termasuk paling banyak dicari dan dibaca para pengunjung internet di blog tersebut. Oleh sebab itu carilah website atau blog yang peringkatnya baik, seperti situs-situs yang selalu tampil pada peringkat 10 besar di search engine untuk kata kunci yang dibidik. Kemudian perhatikan setiap judul artikel-artikel yang ada pada popular post tersebut.

riset-kata-kunci-terbaik
 Dengan begitu kita bisa lebih memaksimalkan hasil riset keyword dengan penelusuran melalui cara ini. Jika kedua teknik tersebut digabung maka hasilnya bisa lebih mantap. Namun ingat, kita hanya mencari kata kuncinya saja dan bukan berarti harus meniru artikelnya sama persis, apalgi kalau copy paste. Kenapa? Sebab dijamin hasil copas tidak akan berpengaruh terhadap peringkat blog. Alogaritma terbaru search engine Google seperti  Panda, Penguin, dan Hummingbird mampu membedakan mana konten asli dan artikel hasil copas, bahkan sekalipun tulisan anda merupakan hasil translate, search engine bisa mengetahuinya sekarang. Jadi copas di era ini itu udah gak berguna lagi.

Mending belajar kreatif aja bikin tulisan sendiri, jika sudah terbiasa, menulis itu malah merupakan kegiatan yang ternyata cukup menyenangkan kalau menurut saya. Seperti yang telah dijelaskan tadi, ketika mampu menggabungkan hasil riset kata kunci dengan hasil penelusuran keyword dari berbagai penemuan di popular post situs-situs lain, kemudian buatlah judul artikel yang berbeda tetapi tetap memiliki kata kunci yang sama. Lalu buat pembahasan mengenai topik tersebut dengan cara yang lebih baik, lebih jelas, dan mudah dipahami pembaca, niscaya artikel Anda pasti bisa menjadi juara di mesin pencari. Cukup mudah bukan? Semoga bisa membantu.


Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Tracking mobile usability in Webmaster Tools

Webmaster Level: intermediate

Mobile is growing at a fantastic pace - in usage, not just in screen size. To keep you informed of issues mobile users might be seeing across your website, we've added the Mobile Usability feature to Webmaster Tools.

The new feature shows mobile usability issues we’ve identified across your website, complete with graphs over time so that you see the progress that you've made.

A mobile-friendly site is one that you can easily read & use on a smartphone, by only having to scroll up or down. Swiping left/right to search for content, zooming to read text and use UI elements, or not being able to see the content at all make a site harder to use for users on mobile phones. To help, the Mobile Usability reports show the following issues: Flash content, missing viewport (a critical meta-tag for mobile pages), tiny fonts, fixed-width viewports, content not sized to viewport, and clickable links/buttons too close to each other.

We strongly recommend you take a look at these issues in Webmaster Tools, and think about how they might be resolved; sometimes it's just a matter of tweaking your site's template! More information on how to make a great mobile-friendly website can be found in our Web Fundamentals website (with more information to come soon).

If you have any questions, feel free to join us in our webmaster help forums (on your phone too)!

Monday, October 27, 2014

Updating our technical Webmaster Guidelines

Updating our technical Webmaster Guidelines

Webmaster level: All

We recently announced that our indexing system has been rendering web pages more like a typical modern browser, with CSS and JavaScript turned on. Today, we're updating one of our technical Webmaster Guidelines in light of this announcement.

For optimal rendering and indexing, our new guideline specifies that you should allow Googlebot access to the JavaScript, CSS, and image files that your pages use. This provides you optimal rendering and indexing for your site. Disallowing crawling of Javascript or CSS files in your site’s robots.txt directly harms how well our algorithms render and index your content and can result in suboptimal rankings.

Updated advice for optimal indexing

Historically, Google indexing systems resembled old text-only browsers, such as Lynx, and that’s what our Webmaster Guidelines said. Now, with indexing based on page rendering, it's no longer accurate to see our indexing systems as a text-only browser. Instead, a more accurate approximation is a modern web browser. With that new perspective, keep the following in mind:

  • Just like modern browsers, our rendering engine might not support all of the technologies a page uses. Make sure your web design adheres to the principles of progressive enhancement as this helps our systems (and a wider range of browsers) see usable content and basic functionality when certain web design features are not yet supported.
  • Pages that render quickly not only help users get to your content easier, but make indexing of those pages more efficient too. We advise you follow the best practices for page performance optimization, specifically:
  • Make sure your server can handle the additional load for serving of JavaScript and CSS files to Googlebot.

Testing and troubleshooting

In conjunction with the launch of our rendering-based indexing, we also updated the Fetch and Render as Google feature in Webmaster Tools so webmasters could see how our systems render the page. With it, you'll be able to identify a number of indexing issues: improper robots.txt restrictions, redirects that Googlebot cannot follow, and more.

And, as always, if you have any comments or questions, please ask in our Webmaster Help forum.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Cara Riset Keyword Paling Mudah

Cara riset keyword paling mudah untuk mendapatkan kata kunci tepat. Cukup lama gak posting di blog ini, kebetulan kesibukan pekerjaan menjadi alasan yang membuat saya tidak bisa selalu online untuk blogging. Sekalian ganti template karena memang udah lama pake template bawaan blogger, pengen nyoba aja sesekali menggunakan responsive template, kebetulan blogwalking nemu template blogger responsive gratis yang sekarang dipake ini, loadingnya juga lumayan cepet.

Kembali ke topik, riset keyword atau kata kunci memang perlu dilakukan agar setiap artikel yang diposting di blog mampu bersaing dengan website lain di mesin pencari. Karena apalah artinya waktu yang cukup lama dalam menulis sebuah artikel, kalau ujung-ujungnya postingan kita gak ada yang baca, rugi bukan? Selain itu yang menjadi alasan kenapa harus melakukan riset keyword untuk setiap judul posting ataupun deskripsi artikel, sebab dengan membuat tulisan tentang topik yang paling banyak dicari orang di internet tentu dapat meningkatkan lebih banyak pengunjung ke blog yang datangnya dari mesin pencari.

cara-riset-keyword
Cara Riset Keyword dengan Dua Langkah Mudah
  • Pertama silahkan kunjungi situs ubersuggest.org
  • Pada kotak pencarian isikan keyword yang diinginkan, lalu pada bagian negara pilih indonesia untuk blog berbahasa indonesia. Isikan juga captcha yang sesuai. Jika sudah klik tombol "Suggest" lihat contoh gambar berikut

    cara-riset-keyword
    • Selanjutnya klik "Select all keywords" di bawah bisa dilihat banyak kata kunci hasil pencarian yang ditampilkan seperti telihat pada gambar berikut.
    cara-riset-keyword
    • Kemudian klik "Get" untuk memilih semua keyword hasil pencarian tersebut, maka akan muncul jendela baru.
    cara-riset-keyword
    • Tekan CTRL+ A pada keyboard untuk memilih semua kata kunci, lalu klik kanan pilih "Copy" untuk menyalin. Lalu buka "Notepad" dan pastekan hasil copy tersebut. Simpan dalam bentuk format TXT. Sampai disini tutup situs ubersuggest.org dan masuk buka situs Google Keyword Planner.
    cara-riset-keyword
    • Setelah login pada Tool pilih "Keyword Planner", lalu pilih "Get traffic forecasts for a list of keyword".
    cara-riset-keyword
    • Kemudian di halaman ini tepatnya pada bagian "Choose File" klik dan pilih file keyword yang tadi disimpan dalam format TXT. Di bagian "Targeting" isi negara sesuai pencarian lalu klik "Get forecasts".
    cara-riset-keyword
    • Tahap berikutnya adalah mendownload hasil riset keyword planner, yang nantinya bisa kita lihat kata kunci mana saja yang paling banyak dicari orang di internet. Klik di bagian "Download".
    cara-riset-keyword
    • Pada halaman selanjutnya klik di bagian "Excel CSV" lalu klik "Download".
    cara-riset-keyword
    • Tahap terakhir adalah klik "Save File". Kemudian buka di mana file yang di download tersebut tersimpan. Lihat hasil yang diperoleh. Pilih mana saja keyword yang tepat yang paling banyak dicari dan saingannya sedikit serta cocok dengan topik yang akan ditulis.
    cara-riset-keyword

    Sampai di sini cara riset keyword paling mudah selesai dilakukan. Gampang kan? Lakukan riset keyword tersebut setiap kali ingin menulis sebuah posting. Setidaknya kita bisa memilih judul atau topik yang tepat dan konten tersebut banyak dicari orang melalui search engine. Semoga sharing kali ini tentang riset keyword bermanfaat dan bisa membantu sahabat blogger semua, terutama untuk blogger pemula.

    Sunday, October 19, 2014

    Add 6 Stylish Custom Search Boxes To Blogger

    There's an unspoken rule in the world of web design that says that every website have a search box. You can, and should, design a custom search gadget to Blogger that contributes to the theme of your site while providing some key benefits to both your customers and you.

    Benefits to Customers

    Search boxes not only help to increase your website's design usability, but they're very convenient to site visitors and regulars. For those that have been to your site before, they know what they want and they want it now. These are the impatient people who don't feel like wading through different links. If you don't accommodate this problem you might risk losing those readers.

    For newer customers who want to get a feel for your site before investing any more time, it gives them the chance to look for their interests on both eCommerce sites and blog sites.

    Benefits To You

    Adding a custom search gadget to Blogger perhaps best benefit eCommerce sites because it's an industry that inherently offers a lot of very specific products. For instance, if you sold clothing apparel and someone was only look for shirts, the search would result would only bring up shirts so that person can look through everything in one place.

    Bloggers might not have products to offer, but adding a custom search gadget to Blogger can help site analytics and SEO. Google Analytics offers a tool that will track all the searches performed by your search bar, so that you can use this data when improving your keyword usage and content choices. Google web crawlers and search engine bots will also test out phrases in these boxes on the rare occasion to make sure that all your content leads to somewhere creates a closed loop.

    Add Your Own Custom Search Gadget To Blogger

    Just because you should have a search bar doesn't mean you you're restricted to what time. Your site's search bar should be easy to find and readily available whenever someone needs it, but other than that the look of the design is up to you. If you want to add a custom search gadget to Blogger, here are 6 stylish choices to pick from. Just copy the code below the search box that you want to add and follow the steps below:

    <style type="text/css">
    #searchbox{background:#d8d8d8;border:4px solid #e8e8e8;padding:20px 10px;width:250px}input:focus::-webkit-input-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus:-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus::-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}#searchbox input{outline:none}#searchbox input[type="text"]{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStnjHeMyOqxxE4ZieI44SjiUXNKzW47T5T-RPBIsHEXMXTiq1-AvLFNBBoZe9EYaRumJNRE24SNVh7PrF_-vd_26qWFAM3Rus57-h_vgYDjWcuZZF3tpqTvDSPaH7Bw6Q78BVNAwF9Ei3/s1600/search-dark.png) no-repeat 10px 6px #fff;border-width:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#fff;font:bold 12px Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif;color:#bebebe;width:55%;padding:8px 15px 8px 30px}#button-submit{background:#6A6F75;border-width:0;padding:9px 0;width:23%;cursor:pointer;font:bold 12px Arial,Helvetica;color:#fff;text-shadow:0 1px 0 #555}#button-submit:hover{background:#4f5356}#button-submit:active{background:#5b5d60;outline:none}#button-submit::-moz-focus-inner{border:0}
    </style>
    <form id="searchbox" method="get" action="/search">
    <input name="q" type="text" size="15" placeholder="Type here..." />
    <input id="button-submit" type="submit" value="Search" /></form>

    <style type="text/css">
    #searchbox{width:240px}#searchbox input{outline:none}input:focus::-webkit-input-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus:-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus::-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}#searchbox input[type="text"]{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStnjHeMyOqxxE4ZieI44SjiUXNKzW47T5T-RPBIsHEXMXTiq1-AvLFNBBoZe9EYaRumJNRE24SNVh7PrF_-vd_26qWFAM3Rus57-h_vgYDjWcuZZF3tpqTvDSPaH7Bw6Q78BVNAwF9Ei3/s1600/search-dark.png) no-repeat 10px 13px #f2f2f2;border:2px solid #f2f2f2;font:bold 12px Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif;color:#6A6F75;width:160px;padding:14px 17px 12px 30px;-webkit-border-radius:5px 0 0 5px;-moz-border-radius:5px 0 0 5px;border-radius:5px 0 0 5px;text-shadow:0 2px 3px #fff;-webkit-transition:all 0.7s ease 0s;-moz-transition:all 0.7s ease 0s;-o-transition:all 0.7s ease 0s;transition:all 0.7s ease 0s;}#searchbox input[type="text"]:focus{background:#f7f7f7;border:2px solid #f7f7f7;width:200px;padding-left:10px}#button-submit{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbFhxDD7ufe8C_sQ52IahkSEzVZ1PHb2p_qQ3CrkyQZQxGP5QLcOrwBo_9iwxgsF2X7eEBZn2yQAWOg49KazFqXn02T21esgJE0UTM74qXNWzfeAEmeeQHi7L7o7Nq4TN6-ROS2qAIKUhZ/s1600/slider-arrow-right.png) no-repeat;margin-left:-40px;border-width:0;width:43px;height:45px}
    </style>
    <form id="searchbox" method="get" action="/search" autocomplete="off"><input name="q" type="text" size="15" placeholder="Enter keywords here..." />
    <input id="button-submit" type="submit" value=" "/></form>

    <style type="text/css">
    #searchbox{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4s5iBxoPt0u4YPK4__bHFT11Vv1tjc0aEyhrjxuyk4UJzuA8cFfWyRK30MMRZRaWujDzHL7tPYdjMIkOCXmZOCfU_zGTQKi-ITJDGLaKYmpyGM4xAxAvFAFYfW0oll3ZWB2Lv9Bn9Uig6/s1600/searchbar.png) no-repeat;width:208px;height:29px}input:focus::-webkit-input-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus:-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus::-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}#searchbox input{outline:none}#searchbox input[type="text"]{background:transparent;margin:3px 0 0 20px;padding:5px 0;border-width:0;font-family:"Arial Narrow",Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;color:#828282;width:70%;display:inline-table;vertical-align:top}#button-submit{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZYLBj_3xhgrT512qzFmVAkdn2Tjx7H-rchXSTB2wrlTlRCWpeCBSVVrVR_o9FsefM9uhR1gHvLPjypkB1jyFAJNtGjEi7Awn3pW5lkPdSz4zH5AKXFglwugOWrCFraNVsZQpre43lX37a/s1600/magnifier.png) no-repeat;border-width:0;cursor:pointer;margin-left:10px;margin-top:4px;width:21px;height:22px}#button-submit:hover{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihvwpkR_0DU20f7XsnbNe_HLjFpka_uI93hp9vxmO6S3dOmVKaq-jupOdyX982UxHzbCRF86TSQxB83U4nIkRCM1TG29DjBr55VrcV4kT1N7CVmUMdZj1GJn4nnhWJjZOfrLS-qr1KNHvb/s1600/magnifier-hover.png) no-repeat}#button-submit:active{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihvwpkR_0DU20f7XsnbNe_HLjFpka_uI93hp9vxmO6S3dOmVKaq-jupOdyX982UxHzbCRF86TSQxB83U4nIkRCM1TG29DjBr55VrcV4kT1N7CVmUMdZj1GJn4nnhWJjZOfrLS-qr1KNHvb/s1600/magnifier-hover.png) no-repeat;outline:none}#button-submit::-moz-focus-inner{border:0}
    </style>
    <form id="searchbox" method="get" action="/search" autocomplete="off"><input name="q" type="text" size="15" placeholder="search..." /><input id="button-submit" type="submit" value="" /></form>

    <style type="text/css">
    #searchbox{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3RzLnGrQpYQy2XWxtt3nZQpCBx8JvRlJb2pXCwaG9uM1aDzABIsDH3pzNz6fIx36R3OpueHka5W7UZR-4ERfTs3u8yWOXUVONq1RiKUPIryRk27no4ZiRbVF5p93WPpSnjd_cqm9589Hn/s1600/search-box.png) no-repeat;height:27px;width:202px}input:focus::-webkit-input-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus:-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus::-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}#searchbox input{outline:none}#searchbox input[type="text"]{background:transparent;margin:0 0 0 12px;padding:5px 0;border-width:0;font:italic 12px "Arial Narrow",Arial,sans-serif;width:77%;color:#828282;display:inline-table;vertical-align:top}#button-submit{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6uYsl8uTihLH7jyqJob0KBDPKfPNV_AKO10y9ICj7q7gmnm5dDVNrvb-B3-Ii_fk2Tc5kyJtB4oeC3kmHkt2bcCBQF1jU_vZA8pEGUHDY2h_IYRCLszHeh5aExrXSJhuBYabOnSVLj5J3/s1600/search-button.png) no-repeat;border-width:0;cursor:pointer;width:30px;height:25px}#button-submit:hover{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkB1pDhJmwWB3OpCC5MxLbNJdh2zEmx1eLc9jmlmef6waK7PqhssHx7PB3B14u99I2Pps-S4RcF6bqy_QcYn_JZAV77f9ITGyVtb7lB-IxZtejZDDwq1olx1MBqioQwvHO2O4RminPx3eE/s1600/search-button-hover.png) no-repeat}#button-submit::-moz-focus-inner{border:0}
    </style>
    <form id="searchbox" method="get" action="/search" autocomplete="off"><input name="q" type="text" size="15" placeholder="search..." /><input id="button-submit" type="submit" value="" /></form>

    <style type="text/css">
    #searchbox{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2F0Uoxrz8voCWirw6QnwYQlBIlGnPqXXNYecNxNASci6Z88LZxlQKqInBdik0mw87uoxGflpeOzwUvvGHUDJTJMf3ycyzJo4QEJp7BnVuC_7OnyzAdIqisd_jqYiecDaubj2uNQa5_fpD/s1600/search-box1.png) no-repeat;width:250px;height:65px}input:focus::-webkit-input-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus:-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus::-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}#searchbox input{outline:none}#searchbox input[type="text"]{background:transparent;padding:2px 0 2px 20px;margin:10px 15px 0 0;border-width:0;font:bold 16px "Brush Script MT",cursive;color:#595959;width:65%;display:inline-table;vertical-align:top}#button-submit{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqag9n3JWf6yVUpGLnbylhYzm52ynFz3partc_5sUOY7TsYt5ypf2L2rA2B3hIvykTyikAOjePAZrjSyHJE5Zwi6yaT0LhnlVCPOnTjr1ykhDZuVm5jMQPM9HAO1gpy1rV6mhEhLnifGNo/s1600/magnifier.png) no-repeat;border-width:0;cursor:pointer;margin-top:10px;width:19px;height:25px}#button-submit:hover{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6E461vGEntDtvYpGPLgue_1RxHMIH3PfGpzd0UoFAOvGOH80uDXR9EL7neu_5IjUhzP2j-ZOCGeNSIm345ErByQR2RF0tS1PccJIcq4fM4vRU7Rhx6qBszaM58tGGVgA-XAO4kA_glMic/s1600/magnifier-hover.png) no-repeat}#button-submit:active{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6E461vGEntDtvYpGPLgue_1RxHMIH3PfGpzd0UoFAOvGOH80uDXR9EL7neu_5IjUhzP2j-ZOCGeNSIm345ErByQR2RF0tS1PccJIcq4fM4vRU7Rhx6qBszaM58tGGVgA-XAO4kA_glMic/s1600/magnifier-hover.png) no-repeat;outline:none}#button-submit::-moz-focus-inner{border:0}
    </style>
    <form id="searchbox" method="get" action="/search" autocomplete="off"><input class="textarea" name="q" type="text" size="15" placeholder="Search here..." /><input id="button-submit" type="submit" value="" /></form>

    <style type="text/css">
    #searchbox{width:280px;background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjLYqe4gqMMgJktO3T7CfVdXHYEgXbGWujcIn7FkELLiz_eSKhcT0SEVQXEH7X8W4UCK8XZxM1_3lAxV47Zbk70tUdrqwoM86_YN6oClNcONjFyg-cBW1B0uuq5eJ8SgODgSJTwbNi7B18/s1600/search-box.png) no-repeat}#searchbox input{outline:none}input:focus::-webkit-input-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus:-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}input:focus::-moz-placeholder{color:transparent}#searchbox input[type="text"]{background:transparent;border:0;font:14px "Avant Garde",Avantgarde,"Century Gothic",CenturyGothic,"AppleGothic",sans-serif;color:#f2f2f2!important;padding:10px 35px 10px 20px;width:220px}#searchbox input[type="text"]:focus{color:#fff}#button-submit{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4eNSLPvlyW-m290QUhpgwe08adYxmuS_0zcAwNN7-gQHCYu9Tl2U1nLS9IlbyCn7RSAu1NclyUuqSC_pCMpwblxrBGB2JBomkPzk0Nqgf20B7U3ZPZa3TMPwCqwRDo2qQiGmQ_jJvMXAV/s1600/search-icon.png) no-repeat;margin-left:-40px;border-width:0;width:40px;height:50px;cursor:pointer}#button-submit:hover{background:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsaHis9H7SZngTqGwR_G56FLOVPNTqe_qZlYodoB3k-EmP0S1sZp0s_vurZv2N_5Ow8N87OV7UWK9NqixpNb6U7GRAcMC17oMt5byTLqLbe_syWmyrEsHTqrCfMupFzoGoTEcE0dpjdG6Q/s1600/search-icon-hover.png)}
    </style>
    <form id="searchbox" method="get" action="/search" autocomplete="off"><input name="q" type="text" size="15" placeholder="Enter keywords here..." /><input id="button-submit" type="submit" value=" "/></form>

    Steps: How to Add a Custom Search Box to Blogger

    Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account, then go to Layout > click on the 'Add a gadget' link on the left side.

    Step 2. Choose HTML/JavaScript from the pop-up window > paste the code of the search box inside the empty box.

    Step 3. Press Save.


    That's it!

    There you have it, 6 stylish choices that will let you take advantage from all the great benefits of using a search box, while still helping you make your blog stand out. After adding your new search bar, your visitors will be able to navigate through your site and get to the same place using both the box and the navigation bar.

    Thursday, October 16, 2014

    Best practices for XML sitemaps & RSS/Atom feeds

    Best practices for XML sitemaps & RSS/Atom feeds

    Webmaster level: intermediate-advanced

    Submitting sitemaps can be an important part of optimizing websites. Sitemaps enable search engines to discover all pages on a site and to download them quickly when they change. This blog post explains which fields in sitemaps are important, when to use XML sitemaps and RSS/Atom feeds, and how to optimize them for Google.

    Sitemaps and feeds

    Sitemaps can be in XML sitemap, RSS, or Atom formats. The important difference between these formats is that XML sitemaps describe the whole set of URLs within a site, while RSS/Atom feeds describe recent changes. This has important implications:

    • XML sitemaps are usually large; RSS/Atom feeds are small, containing only the most recent updates to your site.
    • XML sitemaps are downloaded less frequently than RSS/Atom feeds.

    For optimal crawling, we recommend using both XML sitemaps and RSS/Atom feeds. XML sitemaps will give Google information about all of the pages on your site. RSS/Atom feeds will provide all updates on your site, helping Google to keep your content fresher in its index. Note that submitting sitemaps or feeds does not guarantee the indexing of those URLs.

    Example of an XML sitemap:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
     <url>
       <loc>http://example.com/mypage</loc>
       <lastmod>2011-06-27T19:34:00+01:00</lastmod>
       <!-- optional additional tags -->
     </url>
     <url>
       ...
     </url>
    </urlset>

    Example of an RSS feed:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <rss>
     <channel>
       <!-- other tags -->
       <item>
         <!-- other tags -->
         <link>http://example.com/mypage</link>
         <pubDate>Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:34:00 +0100</pubDate>
       </item>
       <item>
         ...
       </item>
     </channel>
    </rss>

    Example of an Atom feed:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
     <!-- other tags -->
     <entry>
       <link href="http://example.com/mypage" />
       <updated>2011-06-27T19:34:00+01:00</updated>
       <!-- other tags -->
     </entry>
     <entry>
       ...
     </entry>
    </feed>

    “other tags” refer to both optional and required tags by their respective standards. We recommend that you specify the required tags for Atom/RSS as they will help you to appear on other properties that might use these feeds, in addition to Google Search.

    Best practices

    Important fields

    XML sitemaps and RSS/Atom feeds, in their core, are lists of URLs with metadata attached to them. The two most important pieces of information for Google are the URL itself and its last modification time:

    URLs

    URLs in XML sitemaps and RSS/Atom feeds should adhere to the following guidelines:

    • Only include URLs that can be fetched by Googlebot. A common mistake is including URLs disallowed by robots.txt — which cannot be fetched by Googlebot, or including URLs of pages that don't exist.
    • Only include canonical URLs. A common mistake is to include URLs of duplicate pages. This increases the load on your server without improving indexing.
    Last modification time

    Specify a last modification time for each URL in an XML sitemap and RSS/Atom feed. The last modification time should be the last time the content of the page changed meaningfully. If a change is meant to be visible in the search results, then the last modification time should be the time of this change.

    • XML sitemap uses  <lastmod>
    • RSS uses <pubDate>
    • Atom uses <updated>

    Be sure to set or update last modification time correctly:

    • Specify the time in the correct format: W3C Datetime for XML sitemaps, RFC3339 for Atom and RFC822 for RSS.
    • Only update modification time when the content changed meaningfully.
    • Don’t set the last modification time to the current time whenever the sitemap or feed is served.

    XML sitemaps

    XML sitemaps should contain URLs of all pages on your site. They are often large and update infrequently. Follow these guidelines:

    • For a single XML sitemap: update it at least once a day (if your site changes regularly) and ping Google after you update it.
    • For a set of XML sitemaps: maximize the number of URLs in each XML sitemap. The limit is 50,000 URLs or a maximum size of 10MB uncompressed, whichever is reached first. Ping Google for each updated XML sitemap (or once for the sitemap index, if that's used) every time it is updated. A common mistake is to put only a handful of URLs into each XML sitemap file, which usually makes it harder for Google to download all of these XML sitemaps in a reasonable time.

    RSS/Atom

    RSS/Atom feeds should convey recent updates of your site. They are usually small and updated frequently. For these feeds, we recommend:

    • When a new page is added or an existing page meaningfully changed, add the URL and the modification time to the feed.
    • In order for Google to not miss updates, the RSS/Atom feed should have all updates in it since at least the last time Google downloaded it. The best way to achieve this is by using PubSubHubbub. The hub will propagate the content of your feed to all interested parties (RSS readers, search engines, etc.) in the fastest and most efficient way possible.

    Generating both XML sitemaps and Atom/RSS feeds is a great way to optimize crawling of a site for Google and other search engines. The key information in these files is the canonical URL and the time of the last modification of pages within the website. Setting these properly, and notifying Google and other search engines through sitemaps pings and PubSubHubbub, will allow your website to be crawled optimally, and represented accordingly in search results.

    If you have any questions, feel free to post them here, or to join other webmasters in the webmaster help forum section on sitemaps.

    Monday, October 6, 2014

    Bring your local business online -- no website required!

    Webmaster Level: Beginner

    “Hey, how do I get my business on the web?” Having worked at Google for nine years, if I had a penny for every time someone asked me that question… :) To answer, today we’re releasing a short video series (30 minutes total!), sharing the same advice we’d give to our friends and family. It’s the advice I’d give to my sister, Marnie, who owns a jewelry store, or my cousin, Scott, who works as a realtor. Video spoiler alert: You won’t need to make a website, but you definitely need a way for your local business to reach potential customers using their mobile phones, tablets, or desktop computers.

    Video series to help local business owners of all technical levels to get their business found on the web. It focuses on the benefits of creating a Yelp business page, Facebook page, Google+ page, etc.

    The great thing about video is that you can pause at any time and work at your own pace. Next time you hear the question: “How do I get my business on Google?”, please share the link and let's get more local businesses online!

    Series: Build an online presence for your local business

    Video #1: Introduction and hot topics (3:22)
    Meet my sister, Marnie, who owns a jewelry store and my cousin, Scott, who works as a realtor. Follow them as we talk about the big changes in the last decade, such as making sure your business can reach customers at work, home, or on-the-go using their mobile phones.
    Video #2: Determine your business’ value-add and online goal (4:08)
    With the example of Scott, the realtor, you’ll learn about the marketing funnel, setting an online goal, and highlighting what makes your business special.
    Video #3. Find potential customers (7:41)
    Marnie and Scott figure out their customers’ most common journeys to reach their business. We'll use their examples to brainstorm how you can reach customers on review sites, through search engines, maps apps, and social and professional networking sites.
    Video #4: Basic implementation and best practices (5:23)
    The fundamentals and best practices to take your business from offline to online!
    Video #5: Differentiate your business from the competition (5:09)
    With Scott’s business as a realtor, see how to demonstrate that your local business is the best choice for customers by adding photos, videos, and getting reviews.
    Video #6: Engage customers with a holistic online identity (4:51)
    We'll end the series by showing how Scott makes sure his online presence sends a cohesive message to customers and answers all their common questions. :)

    Thursday, September 11, 2014

    An update to the Webmaster Tools API

    An update to the Webmaster Tools API

    Webmaster level: advanced

    Over the summer the Webmaster Tools team has been cooking up an update to the Webmaster Tools API. The new API is consistent with other Google APIs, makes it easier to authenticate for apps or web-services, and provides access to some of the main features of Webmaster Tools.

    If you've used other Google APIs, getting started with the new Webmaster Tools API will be easy! We have examples for Python, Java, as well as OACurl (for fans of command lines).

    This API allows you to:

    • list, add, or remove sites from your account (you can currently have up to 500 sites in your account)
    • list, add, or remove sitemaps for your websites
    • get warning, error, and indexed counts for individual sitemaps
    • get a time-series of all kinds of crawl errors for your site
    • list crawl error samples for specific types of errors
    • mark individual crawl errors as "fixed" (this doesn't change how they're processed, but can help simplify the UI for you)

    We'd love to see what you're building with our APIs! Feel free to link to your projects in the comments below. Should you have any questions about the usage of the API, feel free to post in our help forum as well.


    Monday, September 8, 2014

    Webmaster Academy now available in 22 languages

    Webmaster level: Beginner

    Today, the new Webmaster Academy goes live in 22 languages! New or beginner webmasters speaking a multitude of languages can now learn the fundamentals of making a great site, providing an enjoyable user experience, and ranking well in search results. And if you think you’re already familiar with these topics, take the quizzes at the end of each module to prove it :).

    So give Webmaster Academy a read in your preferred language and let us know in the comments or help forum what you think. We’ve gotten such great and helpful feedback after the English version launched this past March so we hope this straightforward and easy-to-read guide can be helpful (and fun!) to everyone.

    Let’s get great sites and searchable content up and running around the world.

    Sunday, September 7, 2014

    Where To Find Free Blogger Backgrounds and Textures

    Blogger is a fantastic tool for amateur and professional writers that have a passion for publishing online content. Unlike WordPress or hosting companies that require you to design your site before ever getting started, Blogger is a ready to go service right out of the box that will allow you to start writing for yourself or others on day one. The effort required to sign up for an account is minimal, and you can really get as creative as you want, whenever you want.

    Even if you aren't familiar with web development or design, that's okay. Blogger is a place for everyone. Thanks to the overwhelming support of the Blogger and creative communities, there are plenty of free to use resources out there to make your site look great and keep you focused on what you love best. Here are some of the top sites for acquiring blogger backgrounds that won't cost you a dime and will look incredible.

    free blogger backgrounds and textures

    Shabby Blogs

    Shabby blogs offers some unique texture and graphic rendered Blogger backgrounds to choose from. All of the designs that they have are created to be standard width so you don't get a lot of flexibility to choose from; however, there are guides out there that can teach you how to extend the sidebars, header, and footer of your screen if you find one you love and this is something important to you. In addition to offering Blogger backgrounds Shabby blogs also has a section for cute little buttons that you can add to your site to give it an extra special touch.

    shabby blogs backgroundshttp://www.shabbyblogs.com/backgrounds.htmlhttp://www.shabbyblogs.com/backgrounds.htmlhttp://www.shabbyblogs.com/backgrounds.html

    Hot Bliggity Blog

    Aside from having one of the coolest and creative names to say out loud, Hot Bliggity Blog has a wide selection of patterned-based blogs for your site. You can choose between different color schemes, and they also offer three different sizes to pick from, standard, widened, and full width. Best of all, they are really easy to install. All you have to do is click on the install link underneath the image. From there it will copy the code for you into your clipboard and give you instructions on where to paste it.

    hot bliggity blog backgroundshttp://hotbliggityblog.com/http://hotbliggityblog.com/

    Dotty Dot Dot

    Dotty Dot is the place to go if you like geometric type backgrounds that are heavy on squares, plaid, circles, and of course dots. The website is a little bit hard to navigate, but they have a sidebar with a bunch of tags to help you sort through all the available templates and find something you like. Just about every color you can imagine is available if you plan on matching your Blogger backgrounds to your favorite color or font style. The widths of the most of the templates vary so some have heavy padded sidebars, whereas some are very skinny.

    http://dottydotdotdesign1.blogspot.com/http://dottydotdotdesign1.blogspot.com/http://dottydotdotdesign1.blogspot.com/http://dottydotdotdesign1.blogspot.com/

    LeeLou Blogs

    Lee Lou Blogs offers Blogger backgrounds that look a lot like you would find in a scrapbook with a heavy dependency on small pictures and vector graphics. These free templates would go great with any home improvement blog or DIY arts and crafts writer. Most of the free backgrounds are standard size with the high padded sides, but like anything you can get access to more templates if you want to take advantage of any of his premium designs.

    http://leelou-blogs.com/

    CgTextures

    If you just want something basic real basic that won't distract customers from your content, you can head over to CgTextures. Their site is full of photos and textures that could be added as a background image with a reduced transparency. The blog would still look great and you wouldn't have to worry as much about trying to match your font style and color so that it fits in with the background. Instead you can draw more focus on what's important and less on the site's bells and whistles.

    cg textures for blogger backgrounds

    Every Stock Photo

    Bloggers that want less of an 'artsy' look to their site and instead more of a serious appeal can get a picture from Every Stock Photo to use as the background image. You can also benefit by using some of the pictures offered through this site within your blog posts so that you aren't stuck buying things from premium image providers. There search bar and navigation panel makes it easy to find exactly what you are looking for to see a unique feel to every page.

    every stock photo background image

    Shizoo-Design

    Shizoo-Design is a German based design firm with about 554 different patterns to choose from. You can find everything from conservative shapes to abstract rainbows and splashes of color. All of the textures are provided in a range of size, anywhere from 1000x700 pixels to 1300x600 pixels so that they will comfortably fit your entire site's background and work with most browsers and computer screen sizes. Brushes and custom icons are also available from the site, free of charge.

    shizoo design textures,blogger backgrounds

    Patterns of Change

    Patterns of Changes offers Blogger backgrounds that are cartoon oriented and that can best be tiled across the screen. The site is perhaps one of the easiest to use compared to all the others on the screen, providing a simple navigation bar where you can choose what color you'd like the pattern to be. When you select one of the colors provided, it will come up with a bunch of different patterns usually associated with that color. For instance, when the color brown is selected, one of the choices ia brown cake. Blogger backgrounds for this site might not be the best choice for business professionals, but they certainly are fun.

    patterns of change blogger backgrounds

    How to Add a Background Image using the Blogger Template Designer

    If you have a background image that you want to upload, then follow these steps:

    1. Log into your Blogger account and go to "Template", press the "Customize" button on the right side. Once the Blogger template designer has opened, you'll see the Background option on the left - click on it:

    change blogger background

    2. Now click on the box below the Background image title and it will open a window from where we can select a default background image. On the upper left side of this window, click Upload Image and select the image you would like to use from a location on your computer.

    upload background image

    Note that you should use a JPG, GIF, or PNG image that is no more than 300k in size. If your image is too large, then you can use the Kraken.io image optimizer to make the image file smaller.

    3. After you've uploaded your image, click 'Done' and you'll be taken back to the background menu. Here you will see additional options like: "Alignment", "Tile" and "Scroll with page":
    • Alignment: change the position of the background image to start either horizontal (left, center, right) or vertical (top and bottom);
    • Tile (Repeat): if you want a small background image to fill the page, choose to repeat (tile) horizontally and/or vertically.
    • Scroll with page: the box is checked by default, this means that the background scroll along with the page contents. If you want the background picture to not move as the page is scrolled and stay exactly where it is, uncheck this box.
    background image position

    4. For a background image with plain color in the middle for content, you might want to remove the main and header background. Navigate to "Advanced" > "Backgrounds" and type the word "transparent" inside the "Main Background" and "Header Background" box:

    change background color

    5. If the background is smaller than the content area, we can fix this using CSS. Scroll down and click on the Add CSS option, then paste this CSS code inside the box:
    body {
    background-size: 200%;
    }

    .body-fauxcolumn-outer .cap-top {
    background: none;
    }
    Note: to change the size of the background, modify the 200% value in red.

    change background size

    Once you're happy with the results, press the 'Apply to blog' button and enjoy the new background for your site.

    How to Change Background in a Custom Blogger Template

    Sometimes the above options might not appear in some custom Blogger templates if the body.background variable hasn't been defined. In this case, we will need to access the HTML of the template:

    1. Go to "Template" and click the "Edit HTML" button, then click anywhere inside the code area. Press the CTRL + F keys to open the Blogger search box:

    blogger template html

    2. Paste or type the following tag inside the search box and hit Enter to find it:
    ]]></b:skin>
    3. Immediately before the ]]></b:skin> tag, paste one of the following code snippets:

    For a large background image:
    body {
    background-image: url(IMAGE-URL.png) !important;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: center top;
    background-attachment: fixed;
    background-size: 100%;
    }
    Note: the no-repeat value prevents the image from repeating either vertically or horizontally. Use background-repeat: repeat-y if you'd like the image to repeat vertically, or background-repeat: repeat-x if you want it to repeat only horizontally. To increase the size of the background, change the 100% value.

    adding background in blogger

    If using a repeating pattern, add this CSS code instead:
    body {
    background-image: url(IMAGE-URL.png) !important;
    background-repeat: repeat;
    background-position: center top;
    background-attachment: fixed;
    }
    4. Open a new tab and upload your background image to Blogger or an image hosting site, and copy the URL of your hosted image to your clipboard. If you don't know how to do it, please take a look at this tutorial.

    After you copied it, replace the text highlighted in blue from above with your image url.

    5. Finally, Preview the template to ensure that the background image appears as you want, and press the "Save template" button to save your changes. That's it!

    Using the 8 sites listed above, you have a wide range to choose from when creating a site that really represents you. Given the right tools, designing you blog can be a fun hobby to enjoy that can spark your creativity and improve the quality of your writing. With such a large selection, the hardest part of setting up your new theme will be finding which one you like best.