Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Recent posts blogger widget

There is a guide to add recent posts on your blogger sidebar. It is very easy. We will describe two ways to implement recent posts.


Recent posts can be added to blogger (blogspot) with help of Feed gadget. This is method I prefer because it less slow down load time of your blog then a method with Recent Posts widget. Drawback is that you a limited to only five recent posts.


Second method with a Recent Posts gadget is more powerful. Recent Posts gadget show the recent posts with thumbnails and summaries. Drawback of this method is longer load time of your blog.

On this blog you can find more blogger tips like this.


Recent posts with a Feed gadget


  1. Go to Layout

  2. Click on Add Gadget



  3. Choose Feed gadget

    Feed gadget for recent posts

  4. Enter feed url

    • to find your blog feed url click on "Subscribe to this page" icon Subscribe to this page icon and copy & paste feed url

    • or you can try with url of your blog

  5. Enter title, chose how many items will be shown (5 is limit) and chose do you want display Post dates and Post authors

    Setup for Feed gadget

  6. After click on Save you have Recent posts list on your blogger blog with five latest posts



Recent posts gadget


  1. Go to Layout

  2. Click on Add Gadget



  3. In search text box type "Recent posts"

    Recent posts gadget

  4. Choose Recent posts widget with thumbnails

  5. Configure Recent posts gadget

    • choose title

    • determine height

    • blog url

    • number of posts to display

    • summary length...


    Configure Recent posts gadget

  6. click Save and you have Recent posts list with thumbnails on your blog


Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Increase blogger traffic - change title

Title is very important for web traffic. Good title attract more visitors and it is significant part of SEO. To gain more traffic your title should have attractive keywords, should not be too long and important words should come first (keyword prominence).


In this article you will find free guide how to increase blog traffic with title change of each page of your blogger explained step by step. With title change explained in this article my blog have visit growth more than 40%. Let's talk about how blogspot post titles are generated. In blogger post blog title come first followed by post title.


Example 1:

[Blog title]: [Post title]


Useful and interesting web sites: Add javascript in blogspot (blogger) post

Blog title - Useful and interesting web sites

Post title - Add javascript in blogspot (blogger) post


In SEO (Search Engine Optimization) world, title like this is not effective.
Why?
Because keyword prominence rule say : the closer a word is to the front of the analyzed text area, the more relevant or important it is.
In our example keywords in blog title (which are not linked with post) decrease relevancy of keywords of post title.

We will have better SEO effect with title in which post title come first.

Example 2:

[Post title]: [Blog title]

Add javascript in blogspot (blogger) post: Useful and interesting web sites

Blogspot title

In second case search terms connected to post title like "add", "javascript", "blogspot" will have better chance to be in top google results then in first case.

How to change title for each post in blogger


This guide ensures keywords in your post titles are discovered more easily. To do this you will have to change template. Follow this blogspot tutorial to change your title in [POST TITLE: BLOG TITLE] format and achieve better google search result page ranking for your posts:

  • go to Layout --> Edit HTML

    Layout - Edit HTML


  • in Edit Template box find this code:
    <title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>


  • and replace with this code

    <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>
    <title><data:blog.pageName/> :
    <data:blog.title/></title>
    <b:else/>
    <title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
    </b:if>


  • it is good idea to make backup of blogspot template before you click Save Template, new code tell that if visitor load certain post page title should be in [POST TITLE]: [BLOG TITLE] format, else title should be in [BLOG TITLE] format

Change title effect on my blog visits


Visits to my blog after change title is done was increased by more than 40% !!! Here is picture that illustrate increase of my blog traffic.


Comparison of blogspot visits before and after chnage title

Green line display visits before change title is done and blue line is after change title is done.

It is important to say that after you make this change you should wait some time (usually few day or in worse scenario few weeks) while google index your blog pages.

To check if google re-index your pages :
  • go to Google page

  • type site:[BLOG-NAME] (site:interestingwebs.blogspot.com)

  • click search

  • now you can see if your posts are in Post-title format



On the end, my experience with this method is really good, so if your blog traffic significantly grow after you use tips from this article I would ask you to put a link or two to my blog and follow my blog.

If you are interested in my real blogging experience visit: Increase blog adsense revenue real case scenario.