The Real Blogger Status

For a blog with any history, one of the most cherished features of your blog might be your search engine reputation - the ability of prospective readers to find your blog. Whenever people change blog URLs, that's one of the most anxiously asked questions in BHF: How Do I? . People preparing to move their blog from externally hosted (FTP based) publishing ask this question, too. To satisfy your personal needs for your individual blogs, Blogger offers you three choices when migrating , from externally hosted publishing to Google hosted publishing. To Blog*Spot. To a Google custom domain URL, different from the current domain. To a Google custom domain URL, the same domain host as the current domain.

Many problems with custom domain publishing are transient, and can be fixed by republishing to the domain URL . When encountered by a possibly transient problem, my advice is very basic. Publish the blog back to BlogSpot, then re publish it to the domain URL. And recheck the redirect option. This is good advice, and generally easy enough to execute. One case, when this advice is not easy to execute, is with blogs that were previously hosted externally, and never published to a BlogSpot URL. A blog that was never published to BlogSpot can't be published back to BlogSpot. The FTP Migration effort, completed just recently, retained that option for many blogs. Blogs migrated from an externally hosted non BlogSpot URL, to a Google hosted non BlogSpot URL, won't necessarily have a BlogSpot URL. When this happens, pick any available BlogSpot URL, and change the blog temporarily from custom domain publishing to BlogSpot publishing. You won't necessarily use a BlogSpot nam...

The migration from FTP Publishing started several months ago. Last week, the migration reached it's official end, with the closing of the dedicated Migration Issues Tracker database . ***Note: The Issue Tracker is closed for new submissions. If you are having trouble with FTP migrations, please submit a report in our help forum: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/label?lid=027 1191b4249689a&hl=en So now, all new issues related to FTP Publishing are being handled with other Blogger problems. The closed tracker database was also noted with We will have all logged issues from this tracker resolved by Friday, May 21st 5:00PM PST. >> Top

As May 1 fast approaches, there are still a few FTP bloggers waiting to make the plunge, who ask What happens to my page rank, when I migrate? and How do I retain my traffic, if I move to a new URL? and these are not very simple questions to answer. The best result will be achieved by migrating to the same URL structure, under the custom domain. If you can migrate from your external, FTP published server, to an absolutely identical URL - for all posts - in a Google custom domain, then you can retain page rank, and traffic. If your URL changes, even slightly, then your page rank starts over at 0, because the content has to be re indexed under the new URL . Now, you ask whether the traffic can be automatically redirected, from the old URL to the new URL. If the URL changes, but the traffic can be redirected properly, then you can retain your traffic, and your page rank - though starting at 0 - will build up faster than it did when the blog was started. You'll see moderate total...

If you're currently publishing a blog externally, using FTP, you've probably seen the handwriting on the wall - or maybe, on your dashboard. FTP publishing will no longer be available after May 1, 2010 You currently have blogs that are published using FTP. You must migrate your blogs to a new custom domain URL or a blogspot URL. To learn more, see our dedicated blog and help documentation . Start migration now So, get started. Read the Blogger FTP Info . If you have any problems before, during, or after the migration, add them to the FTP Migration Issues Tracker database, so your problems can be properly diagnosed and resolved. Remember, as I've said before , if you have a problem, and you don't report the problem, then you become part of the problem. So, report the problem, if you have a problem. When you migrate, you have several possibilities for the new URL which will be progressively more complex, yet be offset by a varying effect upon page rank, sear...