Skip to main content

Attention Blog Owners - Nobody Knows Your Blog

One confusion, which we see in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken regularly, concerns blog owners and their understanding about search engine functionality.
I can't find my blog!
This is frequently more completely expressed as
I can't find my blog, listed in a Search Engine Results Page, when I search by URL (blog title, some other obscure detail ...)!
Equally as mystifying are people who report
I typed in the name of some obscure porn concept, and found my blog listed. Why is my blog listed with porn?

This problem is partially caused by some browser producers, who confuse us by combining the browser address and search windows. There are other reasons for the confusion, too.

When you have a blog with an established audience, and you are able to examine demographic detail found in various visitor logs and meters, you'll observe activity from various sources.

  • Search engines and similar robotic indexing services.
  • People, using newsfeed subscriptions, and various newsfeed clients.
  • People, pasting or typing the URL into the browser address window.
  • People, clicking on links in bloglists (on other peoples blogs), and bookmarks (in their personal browsers).

People using search engines find your blog from searching for content.

When the visitor log, that you are examining, provides you with detail about your search engine traffic sources, you'll notice that most people using search engines find your blog when using search terms that reference blog content. This is because people using search engines do not know about your blog, and do not know (or care about) the blog name, title, or URL.

People who know how to use their browser most effectively, and already know about your blog, will use one of the latter 3 services to find your blog.

People who use search engines do not know about your blog - they want content.

The people who use search engines, for the most part, will be people who do not know your blog, or are looking for material other than - or in addition to - your blog. None of these people will use the blog title or URL, in their search activity.

If you are going to get new Followers, readers, subscribers, and viewers in general, you have to work hard, get the blog indexed, and get it properly publicised. And, it needs to appear in a good position, in a popular search engine results page, for some amount of time.

Use Search Console (pka Webmaster Tools) to measure search indexing results.


If you're using a blog URL search to measure search engine indexing of your blog, use the diagnostics in Google Webmaster Tools, for a more efficient and objective analysis. If you're using a blog URL search to measure visitor perception of your blog, wise up and get to work on your blog.

Comments

Ty-shaun Coles said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nitecruzr said…
Ty-shaun,

Thank you for the feedback. This post has been on my mind for many months. It's good to hear that it's appreciated.
Jayarava said…
I know what you mean, but actually people do search that way. That's why it's a problem.

And when I look at my logs people do indeed search by URL.

A lot of people really do not know how to use their browsers efficiently
I think blogger should provide a search facility of blogs on its landing page as well as on all blog pages.

That will make it easy for readers to search for blogger blogs.

Even blog authors would like to use that facility to find blogs in their area of interest.
I use Google Blog search very frequently. The point is that it has to be available on blogger landing page and it will be better if it is exclusive for Blogger blogs. It is not difficult for Google to create one. The utility of the search facility is important. There is utility for blogger readers as well as authors with a blogger search facility available on blogger landing page as well as on blogspot blogs' pages. Now that reposting possibility is opened on Blogspot blogs, one has to set up features to find relevant content easily.
Nice share thanks my friend.

Popular posts from this blog

Adding A Link To Your Blog Post

Occasionally, you see a very odd, cryptic complaint I just added a link in my blog, but the link vanished! No, it wasn't your imagination.

Embedded Comments And Main Page View

The option to display comments, embedded below the post, was made a blog option relatively recently. This was a long requested feature - and many bloggers added it to their blogs, as soon as the option was presented to us. Some blog owners like this feature so much, that they request it to be visible when the blog is opened, in main page view. I would like all comments, and the comment form, to be shown underneath the relevant post, automatically, for everyone to read without clicking on the number of comments link. And this is not how embedded comments work.

What's The URL Of My Blog?

We see the plea for help, periodically I need the URL of my blog, so I can give it to my friends. Help! Who's buried in Grant's Tomb, after all? No Chuck, be polite. OK, OK. The title of this blog is "The Real Blogger Status", and the title of this post is "What's The URL Of My Blog?".